Farewell Celebration, Village Ministry, Nine Wives and an 89 yr. Old Polygamist

Lindsay, Ben, Charles, Lillian, Yvonne, Lataaya, and Moses

Our last night with the team was a celebration at Café Roma our favorite restaurant in Kampala. The following morning they departed for London. We had a very productive trip and saw many exciting new opportunities for future ministry work.

Charles, Ben and I arrived in Kisumu without any difficulties Monday July 24th. It was a fun trip and “Rhino” our old car behaved itself and even got extra good gas mileage. Praise the Lord! On our way we stopped in Jinja to visit Ben’s sister Doreen who has had some difficulties with an auntie who is a sorcerer and heavy into witchcraft. Doreen is a strong believer and is learning to stand firm while the auntie continually puts weird things outside her door, makes discouraging comments and constantly says she is going to “witch” her. I’ve never seen such things out in the open. We prayed and encouraged Doreen and Ben hopes to be able to move her to Kampala soon to get her away from the mean aunties.

Ben, Margaret, Doreen, and Charles in Jinja

On Tuesday after taking Ben and Charles to the taxi to return to Uganda, I headed out to the village with Perez to teach the women. It was a short drive out there and the driving is much easier than in Kampala. I adjusted very easily to the taxi drivers, bicyclers and boda bodas. At the village we were met by a young pastor, Pastor Peter and a group of ladies. Since many in the congregation are not literate I had to adjust some of the things I planned but things went well. Even though the meeting was for women the pastor stayed and Perez’s father in law an 89 yr. old polygamist stayed to listen. I think he was curious about what I was teaching the women! Most of the people in the village have a mixture of Catholicism and traditional cultural belief systems. The new church plant from Deliverance Church is growing and people are getting discipled. The topics covered in the training included our identity in Christ, salvation, grace, the Word of God being trustworthy and inerrant, our testimonies as a witness of Jesus in our lives and spiritual warfare especially in communication. During the week we had some wonderful discussions about spiritual warfare…how to recognize it and defend ourselves in the name of Jesus. It was encouraging when the pastor told us he was noticing some changes in perspectives.


Mzee pictured in the center.

Even the Mzee (the 89 yr. old polygamist) said he was beginning to understand things in the Bible and that it helped to have cultural examples. At one point he came up to me and said, “You know I have Jesus in my heart but I am a polygamist like David and Solomon.” My response was, “as a born-again believer what do you think about this now. I said I hoped Mark and I could discuss this some more with him.” The next day I felt the Lord strongly wanted me to teach about relationships. Since the young Pastor Peter is getting married in a few weeks it was the perfect opportunity to discuss Biblical marriage. I have to admit it took courage to discuss God’s plan and how David and Solomon didn’t follow the plan and had much chaos and difficulty as a result of many unbelieving wives. At the end I think they understood that God wants us to be happy and unified in our relationships and all these marriages to many wives causes much confusion, envy, resentment, and anger. Most of all unbelieving wives turn the husbands away from God. Mzee (title of respect for wise one) listened and at the end I asked him if he had been offended by anything I said. “I told him I wanted to be respectful but at the same time speak the word of God in love.” He said he was glad to know these things and wanted me to return to teach more. God truly blessed me with the new friendship with this old man. As we talked he asked what Mark and I were doing in Uganda and I told him part of what we do is build homes for orphans. His reply was, “I will donate some of my land for a home for orphans it you want to build one here.” Praise God another open door. Step by step we just keep moving along and who knows maybe in a year or so this village will be transformed and the Mzee will join us in opening another home for orphans. Showing up is a great adventure and I thank all of you for your participation. All of these things would not be possible without your prayers and support.