One World One Mission Uganda, Africa April 22, 2012

Raul Garcia III

April 21 – 22, 2012

Uganda, Africa

Romans 12:4-5
“For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.”

       

Okay, we are going to have a little audience participation this morning. When I count to three I want everyone to say your first name. Ready 1-2-3. Now what is your favorite color?  1-2-3. Now this time when I count to three I want you to tell me the name of who died on the cross and rose again. Read 1-2-3. Yes, Jesus. This is what the reading in Romans is talking about. We are all different in many ways but serve the same God. I used this bible verse when I preached in the village of Juba in Uganda. When Kent, Laura and I arrived in Juba for church that Sunday morning they had already been worshipping for two hours and were waiting for us to arrive. I can hear the music they were playing, the drums and hearing them singing so loud. The church is lead by another great Pastor named Peter. Preaching at the church in Juba was one of the highlights of my time in Uganda.

Being in Uganda, Africa was one of the greatest, humblest experiences in my life. I have been on mission trips across this country and I will remember this experience for the rest of my life. Being able to place my hands in the place where Nile River starts. I flew over Africa during the day from Amsterdam to Nairobi, Kenya to Kampala, Uganda. Being able to see from the airplane window the snow capped Swiss Apls, The Red Sea, The Sahara Desert and the beauty Africa had to offer. The greatest beauty that Uganda had to offer was it’s people. The people of Uganda are all so welcoming, open and love you unconditionally. Whenever I came up to a person and shook there hands they always told me, “You are most very welcome.” And they really really mean it. I had the pleasure of travelling to Uganda with Kent and Laura Dirks and Hope 4 Kids and they knew the ropes of being in Uganda. There are so many stories that I still remember in my time in Uganda. Our church is very involved with Feed My Starving Children and being able to see what we do here when we pack the food and seeing it be fed the children of the Karamajong Tribe at Smile Africa was an experience I will never forget. I saw God there in all the children. I remember seeing a little boy who had his food but he was feeding a little girl about 9 months old that was sitting on his lap. This was probably the only this little boy was going to get for the rest of the day. So I asked him, “Is this your little sister.” He told me, “No, she is not my sister, she is my friend.” There were about 200 children that were getting fed, patiently waiting for probably there only meal of the day, singing, praying and not complaining about the food they were getting. So thank you for supporting Feed My Starving Children.

Another story is when some people in our group went to the Tororo hospital to help feed the patients and talk with them. There was a lady who just had a baby a few hours before our group got there. Sheri a woman in our group told this lady that her baby was beautiful. What is your baby’s name? That lady looked at Sheri and said you name her. You name my baby. It took my wife and I nine months to figure out a name for our children. This lady wanted us to name her baby in 9 seconds. I was thinking, Raul would have been an awesome name but she was a girl so that would have been completely wrong. So Sheri named her Ruth. The great matriarch of the old testament. That was a God moment in all our lives. 

I had many many God moments when I went to Africa. You can read them in my blog or you can ask me about Uganda. From preaching in the Tororo district men’s prison, seeing children drink clean water for the first time in their lives, playing soccer with children, passing out school supplies to the children in schools, handing out britches and dresses to children, playing a in soccer match with a Ugandan team, travelling all over the country and seeing all the beautiful people. You don’t have to travel across the world to see God moments. God is with us, inside us and around us. Amen.