Aida and Waterbirths

1-4-08

Man….. I am too fat to sleep in this tent…OUCH! Time to get in shape again. As usual, morning worship was amazing. I could sing with the Africans for ever! During a morning exercise I met Aida from Jinja. She is SO outgoing, sweet and funny. In fact, she was the one yesterday who said all 8 of her siblings had died. She shared with me some pains in her marriage and how some close missionary friends of her had recently been in a deadly car accident. “But” she said, “I still have faith”. She is an incredible woman. I pray we can meet again some day, and she can tell me what this amazing faith has done! Here is my friend:

During the sermon that followed, Matt had everyone who was willing walk to the stage front and proclaim as loud as they can “I will stand firm for God!” I found it quite moving. Matt has done an amazing job here. Matt then preached about courage in God. Afterwards, an amazing thing happened. A beautiful girl named Brenda walked onto the stage and asked fro the mic. She was obviously very nervous and shy. She said “I love to sing for God. Every time I want to come before you and song a song fro him, but fear always keeps me back. But, because of today’s lesson, I will no longer be afraid! I now want to sing a song for you”. She then proceeded to sing the MOST GORGEOUS song! Her voice was beautiful. As the song continued her confidence grew, and she ended so strong. There were no dry eyes there (at least not amongst us buzungu). Meet Brenda:

Shortly after, we witnessed something even more powerful. This day, the Kingdom of heaven grew by 15 new souls! But, they were not like the baptisms we are used to seeing. These kids were literally TERRIFIED of water. They cannot swim. They’ve heard stories about spirits in water, and the lake is full of deadly snakes. Reasons to be afraid! So, this step was BIGGER than most baptisms I have ever witnessed. They were shaking, and many crying. They clung to Jeff as if life depended on it! To overcome THAT great a fear for something you believe in….to put on Christ! Man..it was life changing.

There was more that happened today: John-O and I displayed some “Frisbee magic” and Matt had his “what is junk” experience :)! And, the night ended with a VERY cool event. But, I want to share that with you in a separate piece..because these 2 stories I just shared changed my soul…and as such, I think they deserve a special place alone. So my 3 readers…..more will come soon!