Katakwi Church Visit

About five years ago, when we lived in Mbale, we visited the Pentecostal church in Katakwi town.  Just last month, we visited there again!  It was ushers Sunday, so the ushers led all of the singing and were appreciated during the service (the ushers were also the ones to prepare lunch for us so they were quite busy!). 

Even after living in Uganda for more than two years and visiting lots of churches, there are still firsts.  This time, what was new was that when we were invited to the front of the church to introduce ourselves, the ushers first escorted us to the back of the church (down the middle aisle), then marched back up to the front with us!  It was definitely interesting.  We wish we could have shared a video of it with you so you could be entertained, but since we were both marching, that's not possible.  You'll just have to imagine it yourselves :)

We did have someone take a picture of both of us when we were introducing ourselves.  The church was extremely appreciative of our limited Ateso.

By the way, this is what we looked like in the same place five years ago:

Anthony preached about the danger of the Health and Wealth Gospel that says if you follow Jesus, you will be rich and healthy and that if you are not, it must be because you sinned.  We heard lots of appreciative compliments about the message after the service.

While we ate lunch, Anthony made a friend, who was very fascinated by his arm hairs.

Anthony knows this little girl's father, Calvin, from some of the trainings he has done in Katakwi.  So after lunch, we went to visit Calvin's uncle who owns a monkey.

Clearly it is a very good-tempered monkey and puts up with a lot from the neighborhood kids who always come over to play with it.  Apparently Calvin's uncle also has a baboon, but he keeps that one in the village.