Kalerwe Celebration Point

Will anyone show up today? By the time we got to church it was starting to rain and most were coming by walking or on boda-bodas (motorcycles).

This is another of the churches that is lucky to have a covered building. By the time church was going we had a fairly good group.



We were met by smiling faces of the some of the children. Everyone was happy to be at church to worship the Lord.










Jan getting her first drumming lesson from Medina. She works for us and is the worship leader for this church. She comes across town to help with this church. I have always wanted to learn to drum but there's a lot more to it than I would have imagined. But it makes for great worship!




Lynn was asked to preach a couple of days ahead of time. He insists that he is a "teacher", not a preacher, but he did a great job. Lynn told them that since he was a teacher he wanted them to listen very closely because he was going to give them a test at the end. They all participated and then they started asking him questions --some of them not easy to answer. It was a good service.
It is interesting to speak using an interpreter. His interpreter was the pastor of the church.

A Walk On Tank Hill

Lynn and I live on Tank Hill in Muyenga which is a part of Kampala. Saturday we decided to walk around the neighborhood and greet everyone we could with our Luganda greetings. Just about a block away
from our house we could see the city across the way. Kampala is laid out on 10 hills.



Practically every home that is not in the slums is a part of a compound
and is surrounded by a high wall. On the wall is usually either broken glass as you can see in this picture or razor barbed wire sometimes with an electric wire going down the middle.




We headed up the next hill to Muyenga Baptist Church. We had not seen it yet and it is within walking distance. On the the way was a sign saying that there was a dangerous cliff ahead. It was scarey but this picture doesn't do it justice because you can see the straight-down view that we saw.



We found the Muyenga church and were surprised to see
that it was a completed building. What was funny was that
there was a cow inside. We didn't know if it had just found
its way in and couldn't get out or if it had been placed in there on purpose. Either way the cow was mooing and sounded like he
wanted out.

On the way home two girls joined up with us - Enna and Tracey.
They were very friendly and wanted to come home with us. They
had just gotten out of school for the day (Saturday). We asked
if they spoke Luganda in school and they said no that if they were
caught speaking any language beside English they would be caned.
There are several languages spoken here and the teacher doesn't
anyone to cheat.


Lynn is beside our gate. It is a big double gate that a car can come
through and within that gate is a smaller gate that people who have
a key can come in. It reminds me of the "eye of the needle"

Logobo Celebration

Lynn and I went to Logobo, one of our many “Celebration points” (house churches) yesterday. We were greeted as we came in and seated on a special bench in the front of the church. For the next hour or so we listened to and participated in praise and worship. Some was it was in English but most of this service was in Luganda.

Every group (from children to Moms of children) sang today in honor of the guests. Every song was accompanied by drums and most also had dancing and/or clapping. It was joyous!

Andrew Berry (our supervisor) preached a good sermon on Love with the pastor translating into Luganda. Afterwards, the pastor asked Lynn to come up and take 5 minutes to encourage the people. It was unexpected but Lynn did encourage them. Later they told us that often the “missionary” will be asked to preach on the spot so we should always have one in our pocket. Christina and I had been asked to teach the children but that was forgotten in the process and that was ok with me, not knowing what to expect. It was a very good service. It is so amazing that when we worship the Lord it doesn’t matter where we are or what language is spoken or who is there. It is still Worship!!

The building is being paid for and built by the people themselves as they can. This week, 12 new sheets of metal were put on the roof. It is their church and they are so proud of it.

Language Study

Lynn and I started language last week with one of the pastors of a house church, Dearn Katende. He has never taught Luganda before but believes that he knows what we need to be able to minister to people.

Last week we learned a lot of vocabulary. Today we started making sentences. He taught us how to introduce ourselves at church. We always start with Mukama Yebazibwe (Praise the Lord!) because that lets the people know that we are Christians. I don’t know if this is just for his church or for all of them. We found out how to say who we are, where we are from, that we have 3 children, where we live now. And then he said that he would call on me to pray Sunday, so now I know how to say “Katusabe” (Let’s pray), but I will get to pray in English. Thank heavens for that!


We also hired a lady, Medina, to work for us a few days a week. She will tend our flowers and yard, and work inside one day. She worked for the people who lived here before us. But this is all new to me. I don’t know what to have her to do inside—I’m so used to doing it by myself. Hopefully, I will get it all figured out. Medina is a Christian, has 3 children, no husband, and no job. She seems to be a hard worker so I am glad to help out.