Building on the Rock

July 2012

I just finished watching An Unconventional War, a movie made by Sentinel Group, the story of the two decades of war in northern Uganda. A bizarre, predatory cult calling itself the Lord’s Resistance Army violated universal human boundaries that, among other things, forbid the destruction of one’s own tribal group. The LRA abducted an estimated 30,000 children in those years, turning them into sex slaves and killing machines. About 85% of Uganda’s northern populace was displaced into Internally Displaced People’s camps. An Unconventional War graphically portrays how once the Acholi tribe recognized and repented of ancestral sins of idolatry, witchcraft and others, God began to move and dramatically freed the area from the tyranny and destruction of the diabolic LRA.

I have watched this movie many times, but I always weep. There is so much to be learned from the manner in which God has led so many African victims of horrors beyond comprehension into lives of forgiveness and reconciliation between victims and perpetrators. It’s beyond anything I could even comprehend when I first began to hear of what God was doing in these devastated people.

The Luweero area of central Uganda where I live is also a victim of war, as recently as 1980 to 1986 when an estimated one million people (50% of the population) were slaughtered in a brutal civil war. Contrary to northern Uganda, the Luweero area did not have a spiritual turning to God. Instead they continued with their traditional ways and the darkness of witchcraft while much of the rest of the nation turned to God, stopping a 20-year civil war. The name Luweero actually means “place of destruction,” and it has suffered greatly in the past 100 years in fulfillment of that name.

But as Isaiah prophesied to the Jews centuries ago, Jesus is coming to the people of Uganda, even in the Luweero area.

The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned. You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as men rejoice when dividing the plunder … you have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor. (Isaiah 9: 2-4)

In 2002-2003 our church New Life Centre Church sponsored an orphan project we called New Life Kids Club. During that time we had a Saturday meeting with orphans in the area, helping them with studies, teaching them hygiene, Bible, and many other things, feeding them a meal, and helping with school fees as we were able.

Out of that ministry we were able to sponsor a few kids in high school, and even on to university or trade school. One of those boys was Setti, now in his mid-20s. Setti accepted Jesus through our Kids Club, became a professional carpenter, and a singer. He recently traveled to South Africa to minister, but he had to return because of a chronic intestinal problem. He had surgery but last week he died. Setti is one of several orphans who got saved and later went on to be with Jesus. One of our treasures in heaven. (Luke 12: 32-34)

From these episodes we became determined to not let the lack of money be an obstacle. We must trust God to help us build a safe and solid church building. We had learned a strong object lesson: we had become as the foolish man who built his [church] on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that [church], and it fell with a great crash. (Matthew 7: 24-27) The pastor stepped out in faith, hired a builder, and began the foundation work for the [church] to be built upon the rock. The builder was so excited, thinking the pastor was a rich man, but all he could do at that point was to have the foundation trench dug!

Spiritually also we are building a strong church. People love to worship, sing and dance in church, a bright spot in weeks filled with hard work and toil. Then they sleep during the sermon. But as we feed our people the Word of God, their hunger is being fed, and they no longer sleep. Our spiritual house is being built upon the Rock as well.

One Sunday Pastor David Kasule was preaching and God convicted him that he was limiting what He wanted to do. So under God’s prompting, he spoke out that there were people present who were in dire need of a million shillings (about $400, or more than a year’s wages in rural Uganda). Two people came forward for prayer. Two days later, one of them stopped by the pastor’s house and left an envelope with his tithe of 100,000 shillings, his tithe on a million shillings God had provided him! He was a government prison ward who had not been paid for 3 years.

A lady who belonged to a cult-type church in Luweero came to New Life Centre Church one day, looking to get a prophetic word from pastor David. Such people often seek a type of fortune telling from pastors this way. She had borrowed 400,000 shillings and invested it in worldly music. She wanted God’s blessings on a Christmas concert she was going to do, hoping to get her investment back. The pastor said no, but told her to come back in one week for an answer.

The following Sunday the pastor told the church “God is going to provide for your Christmas.” The traditional Christmas needs here are new clothes and having a meal with meat, both a considerable hardship for most people.

Before the lady’s scheduled appointment that week with the pastor, the father of her grandchild showed up after living some years in South Africa. He had done well there, and was hoping to find his child, and she was the only one who could tell him where the child was. After he found the child and its mother, he came back and gave this lady 100,000 shillings in gratitude. She remembered the pastor’s words on Sunday, and she went and bought clothing for Christmas.

This man provided for his child and her mother, then gave this lady the opportunity to move to South Africa for a better life. He got her a passport, visa, and said he’ll care of her needs there for a month while she looks for work. She’s just waiting for her plane ticket now. She has seen that God’s provision was better than her own plans!

A young woman who has recently begun attending New Life Centre Church has been having strange health problems. Both AIDS and leprosy have been suspected, but all tests have been negative. She has 2 small children and has been struggling through pain to raise them. God is touching her life. Her leg pain is now gone, she is bringing other relatives to church with her, and she manifests hope and joy. She shares how God has ministered to her through I Corinthians 10:13: No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you car bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

Another woman come to church, bringing several of her older children. Her husband is deeply into traditional religion, worships at the local demon shrine, and was extremely hostile to her going to church. He insisted on her and the children going to the shrine with him, and cut her totally off from any provisions from him. She was living out of their garden only, but had no salt, no cooking oil, no kerosene for light for the house. Nothing. Our pastor bought her small amounts of cooking oil, matches, and kerosene, which she began to sell to make some money. Much prayer was going up for the husband in the meantime. His hard heart was touched by her survival efforts as God softened him. He instructed her to go take out a loan at a microfinance company and he’d give her an additional 600,000 shillings so she could start her own small business! Later he told her if she wants to be saved, he’ll let her, and he no longer makes the family attend the shrines with him.

The demonic spirits from the shrine had “chosen” their small 7 year old daughter and she’d had to quit school, suffering from severe headaches. God has since set her free and she’s back in school, pain free.

This lady is one of a number of people that we pick up from a remote village for church services. They have no other way to come, and there are no good churches in their area. They and all the others want to see our church built, and they worry about fuel for my ancient Land Cruiser to pick them up. They cannot afford any of these things, so they give sweet potato leaves, garden foods, their “2 small copper coins,” and … the Land Cruiser keeps running, and our church is being built! And the Light is shining in a dark place!

Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. (Luke 6: 38)

God is multiplying their generosity!

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