Uganda Mission Trip
Introduction
Grace and peace unto you from Our Father and His precious Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Our Lord is ever willing to breathe upon us His Spirit of wisdom in order to have our lips speak into hearts that are ready and opened to understanding. We were in the heart of our Father before the foundation of the world. This thought should encourage our hearts that He is a faithful guide to all of us who have allowed Him to help in all that He has called us to do.
I received a call from brother Malcolm Reedy after he received a blessing from Pastor Adrian to prepare and go for Gospel meetings in Jinja-Uganda. He had visited this country back in the year 2019 for orphanage and Bible work. I arrived in Jinja on the 27th July 2023 and was well received by Elder Christopher.
The venue of meetings was held in the Source Garden Hotel-Jinja which is near River Nile.
Culture
I was amazed in my first morning in Uganda where I saw two small children of around 7-12yrs old going round the village selling foodstuffs. This is their norm to help their parents get some money to keep them in school. In my country Kenya, I have never seen this. They could be robbed, or the authorities would not not allow it – in Kenya, children cannot roam around in school uniforms; this is seen as loitering and you can be arrested.
Something else that was very fascinating to me is that women do not talk to men when they are standing. They all kind of ‘bow’ or ‘kneel’ down when addressing their husbands. It was a great shock to and I thought the husbands were forcing their wives to do this; that it was a symbol of men oppressing their wives. I was told that isn’t the case; it’s their culture. In Kenya, I don’t know whether such can ever happen. People only kneel when praying, or begging someone to offer them something, or when forcefully harassed by police or conmen etc.
I happened to ask one lady, "Do you feel this is okay with you kneeling for everyone? Don’t you get tired?" All she could say is that they are used to it, but not all would do it at times because they have a different upbringing. Many are happy respecting their husbands through kneeling and use a soft voice when addressing them. I thought of Scripture that says, ‘’Ye wives, submit to your husbands,” ‘’submit yourself to God, resist the devil and he will fell from you.’’ What kind of submission is our Father speaking about? Wholly surrendering of our will to His will, by allowing Him to take the place in our lives. That will indicate that we trust Him and do not rely upon our own understanding {Prov 3:5-6}. What a joy to rely upon the One wo knows us by our names, has searched us and known us, knows our downsitting and uprising, understands our thoughts etc. {Psalms 139:1-24}.
Some more info about this:
4 Shocking Facts About Ugandan Women
Youtube: | KNEEL TO SERVE | Mteyo’s charming manners drive men crazy in Kiambu
Younger Generations Ask: What Does It Mean to Kneel?
Kneeling in Buganda: The Art of [Forced] Humility
In this article the author is a western educated Ugandan women, and she shares the difficulties of her experience of kneeling. She also shares some observations and asks others what they think about it. It is fascinating, especially the end of the article where she questions a female lawyer about it and notes how different people can act from one moment to the next – demurely on their knees, to then standing and becoming a different person.
For us at Father of Love, we recognize that headship and submission is a complex and multilayered relational concept. We believe we learn submission from the Son’s submission to His Father, and headship from how the Father is the Son’s head. This is one of our most important ideas, the ‘Divine Pattern’. Through the Divine Pattern we come to peace on this issue:
https://fatheroflove.info/book/view/the-divine-pattern-of-life
https://maranathamedia.com/category/view/divine-pattern-original-articles
Mission of the Trip
The main theme of discussions and studies we had were based on the following:
- The belief that Jesus is truly the begotten son of the Father and not God the Son (who is an unbegotten being playing a role but not actually having received or learned anything from God the Father), (See book My Beloved)
- The principle that God is truly like Jesus on earth and is not violent and condemning in nature & (see What is God Like? section of books)
- Our Father and His Son have set times for us to gather and be blessed by the Spirit of God: meaning Sabbath, new moon and Feast times. (When do we gather to worship?)
We had a precious moment when we met together and got to know each other by name. As we exchanged words, one could tell from the experiences shared how life is/has been and what is in the mind of a person on what is happening to the world. The Spirit of the Lord led me to start with a lesson in relation to the troubles we are all experiencing.
What is it that can lead a Christian to say, “That’s it! I have had enough! It’s all too hard and I just don’t care anymore! Where is God when I’m suffering?”
Why does God allow us to reach a breaking point? This happens so that we can discover our unbelief (through pride or fear). That is the pride that we can do things ourselves, or fear that God has abandoned us.
We are all filled with unbelief by nature, and when we reach the breaking point as Christians, God is able to reveal to us that we don’t fully trust Him, that our faith needs strengthening. It is only hardships that can produce this experience.
When we reach the breaking point, we reach the limits of our trust in God and we need to realize a greater need for faith for dependence on Him. When we reach to this point, we will either acknowledge our unbelief and confess our sin or harden our hearts against Him. When God finds no breaking point, then unbelief has been destroyed and our relationship is restored. This is the move from the old covenant into the new covenant. (See A.T. Jones' book Studies on Galatians for more details)
Beloved Peter says,
1Pet 4:12 Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: 13 But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be g
lad also with exceeding joy.
We were ten in number, and we could experience the joy of the Lord in our hearts through the studies. We opened the Sabbath with a communion service, where we spent the time in prayers and looking at the significance of the Sabbath. Many of us partake of the flesh and blood of Christ, but they do not live as they profess. This is seen as an insult to Jehovah. He is the breathe of Life, and man shall not live by bread alone. We all depend on God through Christ as our sustainer of life. He is the Source of every good thing that we have.
Everyone was free and open to weigh out his views on a particular subject presented – how he understands it. This would ensure that no one was left out in our discussions or that this be seen as a dictatorship program. It also helped us to know and challenge our faculties to what we are thinking about God and our understanding of Him as we open the Scriptures.
The absolute assurance is that salvation is absolutely certain for those who will receive it. Nothing is lacking on the provider’s side of salvation. Having heard and believed the words of God through His Son, we need to grow in Him. We need the spirit of wisdom and revelation so that we may have greater knowledge of God. When we first come to Christ, we don’t have a knowledge of the deep things of the Bible. We need continual sanctification where we can learn with time to understand ‘’I AM THAT I AM’’ in reference to His Identity and Character, where prayer is essential for understanding.
Everyone was happy and joyful to have this amazing experience. They responded in a way that would make you think like we have been studying for months! This was just 3 days. It was evident in the meetings that when we put self aside, put all our theories away, and embrace a teachable and loving spirit of Christ Jesus, we will come into His precious Light. God gives us an eye-salve to see our real condition of sinfulness, to understand and have faith that we will become changed in to the same likeness to what we believe and behold. Whatever judgment we judge God, is the same we receive in return. {Matthew 7:1}.
The basics of the First Angels message laid out the foundation for us to understand the second and the third Angels message. ‘’Line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little’’ principle helped us to see what the word of God testifies. I shared the books with them after we finished our lessons for them to study further.
Later on, on Sunday afternoon, we toured around in an ‘’agricultural show’’ as part of seeing what people grow and how they grow it. It was such a blessed experience we all had together.
I rejoice that this precious truth has advanced in Uganda. May we pray for these precious souls. Amen!
More info on the festivals here:
https://fatheroflove.info/book_theme/view/when-do-we-gather-to-worship-him
https://lastmessageofmercy.com/category/view/questions-concerning-feast-days-and-sabbaths
Download free PDFs of our books here:
https://fatheroflove.info/books
