Worshipping Our Lord

Good morning! It is early morning on Jan 3 and this will be a day spent in Kabale at our hotel - the Cephas Inn. We will be meeting with the ACT Muko board this morning and lunch and then meet with the ACT staff this afternoon to plan our activities the rest of the week. It is important to organize events because it can be very chaotic without specific planning of who will do what.

Yesterday was our first day in Muko. It was such a wonderful greeting when we arrived. The staff was ready and waiting and some of the orphans were there to greet us as well. We got to see the new room with desks and shelves built for Tito, the Mobilization and Agriculture Officer and Alexander, the Muko Empowerment Program Manager. They are very, very excited about their space!

The team split up to attend four different churches. Dale attended Muko Martyr's church, Sue attended the Pentecostal church with Charles, Ashley and Holly attended Muko Church of Uganda (Anglican) and Bill went with Christopher, our driver, up to Ikamiro Church of Uganda. We experienced wonderful, praised-filled worship with lots of singing and drumming. I think Ashley and Holly experienced the longest service - a bit over three hours.

We met again in the Muko marketplace and had lunch with our partners in one of the Muko Martyr's classrooms. We then proceeded to two tents outside to hold the interfaith worship service again organized by ACT. We estimate there were 300 people there. God blessed us with a perfect day with sunshine and 75. Many church choirs sang and performed. The highlight for us was the drama by the Muko HOPE orphans! There were about 10 of the orphans who performed a skit. They were amazing little actors. They seem to have so much more confidence since they have been attending better schools. We videotaped the whole skit and are very eager to share that with the sponsors at the presentation.

I had prepared a sermon for the service but it went for so long that I simply prayed for the work of ACT in Muko and Michigan. We finished at 6:00pm. After some sorting of things in the office for the week, we returned to Kabale and had dinner by 8:30pm.

It is becoming very apparent that the people in Muko of different faiths are grateful for the interfaith services and the coming together by faith that has never happened in Uganda. What a good outcome of the work of ACT. The pastors/priests seem to be close companions in our work together and shared their parts in the service as well. I remember just a year ago when David Pierce was introducing them to each other and promoting coming together for God's Kingdom and our work in Muko. They are all very, very engaged on the ACT Muko board.

Our daily devotions have become an important part of our journey. I hope each of you have been blessed by the devotions as well as you go about your day. God bless you all.