Last Sunday we visited our former student Joseph in Bukedia which is between Soroti and Mbale. Sara was asked to speak about organic agriculture, so she explained what it is all about, and some of the advantages of it. She gave ideas for home-made organic pesticides and fertilizers and it sounds like some of the church members will try these ideas in their gardens.
After church we went to Joseph's home with the other pastors, to see his family and have a big lunch. Here is a picture of Joseph's family in 2009 when we visited, and a new picture of his family from this visit. Some of the family members didn't make it into the older picture.
While with the pastors we got on to the topic of how much financial support churches give to pastors in Uganda. Thankfully, in the Bukedia PAG churches, the giving is on the rise and so things are better than they were. But I asked, "what is the average amount pastors receive in Uganda?" I learned that it is true that they are basically volunteers; most pastors get about 8,500 shillings for a month of ministry. That is about $3 or $4. It's enough for a couple bars of soap. They struggle and sacrifice. They have to work hard in their gardens, but balance their time with the great demands of ministry, having to do as much as pastors in the US have to do, from pastoral care, to administration, to preaching. It is hard for them to see their families hungry because of being a pastor. I have heard from other Ugandan pastors elsewhere that they were called fools by their family and community for becoming a pastor or going to Bible school. I encouraged these struggling pastors not to compare themselves to people in the USA, but to follow the examples of Paul and Jesus who were homeless and hungry often. I also told them I would share their story of sacrifice with our friends back home, in the hopes that we all would be inspired by their example and be willing to make great sacrifices in our lives to follow Jesus as well.
Can you find me in the picture below?
Somehow Joseph and I got into talking about spiritual warfare, and he told me a story that is too powerful not to share. He had no problem with me sharing it with all of you.
Some years back he went on a trip to an area in Western Uganda with his bishop and some other pastors. They were teaching at a church conference there for about a week. At one point during the teaching, it became obvious to them that some people there were in need of deliverance from demon possession. (I don't have all the details about how they knew that). So they stopped teaching and had an impromptu deliverance service that lasted the whole day and was extremely exhausting, so much so that Joseph could barely stand or walk afterwards without people helping him. Once they got into the deliverance and exorcisms, many people were delivered and found peace and joy in Christ. The noise attracted the attention of the community, and other people came to the church for help as well. This included a family with a young boy who had been mute for at least six months. They assumed he was possessed by a demon causing him to not be able to speak.
Joseph and the other pastors formed a prayer circle around the boy and they prayed for him, for his deliverance, for him to be able to speak. When they all stopped praying, they noticed the boy was still kneeling and closing his eyes. He didn't realize they had stopped. Then everyone realized that he could not hear anything. Not only was he unable to talk, but now he was deaf! The family was very upset, confused, and left angry.
That evening, Joseph and the other visiting pastors were staying at a guest house. They heard a lot of commotion outside and asked the owner what was going on. They found out that a group of fifteen people from the community were coming to the guesthouse with clubs and machetes. Surrounding the place, they said they were going to kill the pastors because they had bewitched the boy, and did some kind of curse on him to cause him to be unable to hear. The pastors asked for one more chance to pray for the boy. They brought the boy into the guest house, and they prayed for him once again for healing. Joseph asked the boy a question, I forget what the question was, maybe something like, "how are you feeling?" The boy heard, and spoke an answer. He was delivered and healed from this problem! The family and community members put down their weapons and all of them trusted in Jesus and were saved.
We hear stories like this from Africa sometimes and we are naturally skeptical because it is so outside our normal experience. But it might help you to know that even Joseph was shocked by these events, and he said he's never had such an event again in his life. So things like this may not happen every day, but they happen. This was a trial by fire. God had to show up to answer the prayers of his people or they would have died. A beautiful story of God showing his power over evil spirits, and bringing people to salvation.
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