Our first mission field day was Sunday in the inner city of Kampala, and I was so nervous! I was charged with helping lead the women's ministry class and I was to talk to the women about taking care of our spiritual and physical bodies. To be honest it was really my first time ever leading any type of ministry efforts for adults, so I just kept having the feeling that I wasn't prepared. Many of the people on the mission team have done this a dozen times and come from a different church environment than I do, so I was anxious about what they would think of my lesson too.
However, let me go back to the beginning of Sunday....we went to church at Grace Fellowhip Church where Pastor Nelson is the minister. To give you a visual, imagine heaps of trash, raw sewage, animals, and debris everywhere - not to mention dirt (Uganda is a very dusty place...) and in the middle of it are four posts, with no walls, and a tin roof - that is Grace Fellowship Church. They welcomed us in and were so excited to have us in their worship service. It was typical black folks church too - long... But it was so special. The children danced for us and as soon as I can edit the video I will post it on the blog so all can see. The dancers were all girls except for one little boy who stole the show! I thought the day before that he must have been a girl when I saw them practicing at the school, because in most of the klans here little girls are chosen to be tribal dancers. However, he was selected to be a part of the group and he is actually the leader although he is the youngest - I am assuming it is because he is male. Anyway, at the end they pulled me out of my seat and put a rooster feather wrap around me and I danced with them (and the whole church laughed...).
They sang several songs, danced some more, sang, danced some more...and then one of our team members, Brother Wayne, preached. The whole time I couldn't help but look around at the environment I was in - it was poverty at a tragic level. Children with no clothes on, no lights, no running water and it was all in a very urban, polluted setting. I was intrigued though because I don't think I ever really thought about the urban "inner city" part of Uganda that I would see. This was still in the city where there are stores and shops, but the area we were in was where the poorest of the poor lived. And as I think of that, what amazed me is that from what I could see, the majority of the people in the church still got up and paid their tithes. All of them praised God and thanked Him for all His blessings. They are so passionate when they pray and they take the act of prayer very seriously. They get on their knees, stretch their hands, and the church spends about the first thirty minutes of service getting the people ready to pray, to ensure that everyone's heart and minds are where they need to be.
After the service we had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on the bus and waited until the church ate their lunch to start our ministry classes (Four Corners provided the church with lunch and gave everyone bags of rice, flour and beans to take home). To give you an idea of what we are doing each day - the team is all divided into groups and we have a men's and women's ministry class, a children's carnival, a medical team, and prayer/evangelism walkers.
My women's ministry class was packed! There were about 100 women and they were ready to learn. My other teammates, Christy and Angie went first and talked to the women about letting God lead their marriages and how to share Jesus Christ with their children. And then I was up...I could sense that they were not understanding why this Black woman was with all these White people, so I decided to break the ice so they would feel comfortable with me. I told them a little about myself and my family and I told them that I was the first person in my family to come "home." They just laughed and clapped and stood up and said welcome to me. I knew we were on the same playing field then. I told them how sometimes we dress up in African attire at our church and we do dances just like them - they thought that was so funny...
God really showed up while I was teaching, because while I was prepared, there were questions and topics they wanted to discuss that I never dreamed that would talk to me about. My initial impression of African women was that they would most likely be more reserved and would not be open to talking about their bodies and health too candidly, but was I ever wrong! My lesson was framed around 1 Corinthians 7:24: Do you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body."
We talked about general hygiene (bathing, brushing your teeth, washing your clothes, etc.) but the women were also very interested in natural family planning, we taught them how to conduct breast exams, and how to be more in control of their bodies by being educated about them. We also talked about the dangers of germs and bacteria and how they can avoid some simple illnesses by being more sanitary. And of course we talked about hair and skin - they wanted to know what kind of moisturizer I used and if my hair was real! Throughout the lesson though I always tried to tie it back in to how we must clean and maintain our physical bodies daily, just as we must do the same with our spiritual bodies. That just as we wash away dirt from our bodies, God washes away sin.
At the end of the class each woman got a toothbrush, toothpaste, and a tube of hand sanitizer. You would have thought I had just wrote each of them a check for a $1,000.00. They were just that thankful. Before I left they gave me a beautiful paper wrapped green and purple necklace and bracelet. (And of course I cried....)
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