We spent 4 nights at Osanidde Orphanage in tents under a gazebo because the cabins that were supposed to house us were infested with bats. Go figure. It wasn’t bad at all though because of the air coming of the lake it is nice and cool at night. Our days were spent away from the orphanage fulfilling other obligations. We arrived on Saturday and that evening we met with the pastors of the surrounding churches to talk about unity in the body of Christ. The next morning we broke off into twos to speak in the many churches around the island. Jonathan and I went to Pastor Joash’s church, which was completely a God thing because Jonathan and Pastor Joash formed a lifelong friendship. We both were able to give a word to the congregation and for our first Sunday service it was really nice. Monday and Tuesday were spent going out to the other islands close to Bussi.
Monday we visited the island of Kakyange. We had the opportunity to ministry to a church body there which included singing, dramas and then I spoke on waiting on the promises of God and then Brent also gave a small sermon. It was a crazy experience. While I was speaking there was all of this noise coming from the mosque that was next to the church as well and a storm that came up and blew the doors so they had to be locked to keep them shut. Only by the grace of God that I wasn’t completely distracted by these events, but my team was praying for me the whole time. And to their and my astonishment, I hadn’t noticed all of the commotion that was going on at all. I just thought that it had gotten a bit windy, but I didn’t realize that there was a storm outside or that the mosque was blaring their music so loud. For the brief moment that I was up speaking it was utter chaos outside, but God kept me focused and the congregation was able to get the message that God wanted me to share.
Tuesday we went out to the island of Kitufuu where we spoke in another church. Again we sang and did another drama. Bethany gave her testimony and Dortje spoke about the Father’s unconditional love. Afterward we had lunch, which was a huge bowl of their native food which is pretty much a 4 lb. bowl of starch and then they gave each of us a boiled fish. There was SO MUCH food! I tried my best to eat it, but after having that meal so often it was hard to eat it in such large portions. The taste wasn’t bad… minus the fish, but they are like mountains of food! Jonathan lucked out and had a little kid on his lap who helped him out with his food. After lunch Matthew spoke about baptism and then we all went down to the shore were we had a baptism service. This drew a crowd so we took advantage of the situation and Brent did a quick impromptu sermon while we had the people’s attention.
Wednesday was a travel day. We left Busse Island for the last time and headed to the island of Lambu where we would spend the last part of our time in Uganda. With us came Pastor Joash, Uncle Jonathan, and Uncle Michael from Osanidde. It took a day’s journey to get there starting with a 3 hour ferry ride. Pastor Joash and the Uncles were men with missions. On the 3 hour ferry ride I think about 5 people made the decision to accept Christ as their Savior after talking to our group. Then we drove about 2 hours to the site where we set up tent for the night. On the way, Pastor Joash was talking to the driver of our vehicle and he received salvation. That night we had a great dinner of rice and gee nut sauce (gee nuts are peanuts). Then we had a time of praise and worship and everyone hit the hay. That morning we woke up to a down pour. We had stayed within walking distance from the dock of the next ferry we were to take. We prayed and prayed that we wouldn’t have to walk with our stuff in the pouring rain, thank God that it slowed to a sprinkle just in time. After another short ferry ride we arrived at our destination Lambu Island.
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