Our First Sunday in Uganda – Luzira City Church

As Dave noted in the last post, we arrived Saturday afternoon at the home of Pastor Alex and Faith Mutagubya.  Pastor Alex is a dynamic person with a heart for souls in Uganda.  I needed a bathroom break about 4 am Sunday morning.  As I stumbled toward the bathroom, I realized that Alex was kneeling at a dining chair, praying.  And I mean, PRAYING.  I can’t really describe it, and I didn’t linger to observe, but it almost seemed that he was vibrating, he was praying so intently.  I don’t think he even realized my presence.  As I laid back down in bed, another heavy storm passed through.  Lots of rain, enough to start coming into the garage turned guest room where I was sleeping. 

In the morning we had a simple breakfast of eggs, sausage and bread.  Only the bread seemed somewhat familiar.   Due to the rain storm, it was very humid, but we got into our Sunday best, including neckties, and headed out with Alex for a pre-worship tour of the surrounding areas.  Peter took us to some middle- and upper-class areas.  He explained that after starting in a slum-area church, he realized that if the church was every to approach self-sustaining status, he would need some more affluent members.  And they needed Jesus too!

As you can see by the pictures, our auto tour was a study in contrasts.  Pastor Alex showed us areas where the houses were worth over $1M dollars (not shillings), and usually paid for in cash.  Uganda is primarily a cash-based society – only a small percentage of homes are financed.  We even drove past the new presidential home, currently under construction.  Apparently the design of this residence is somewhat based on the White House.  (We didn’t get any pictures – guards and a wall around the site made this difficult.)  We passed an area that would look at home in Oregon – a strip mall and some nice looking apartments.  We also passed a herd of cows meandering down the middle of the road.  Check out those horns!  We went through an industrial area and a fishing port on Lake Victoria.  (The smell is quite powerful – a blend of rotten fish and burning garbage, with maybe some wood smoke mixed in.)  We ended our tour getting our of the van and walking through some of the worst slums in the areas.  I didn’t get any real good pictures of this.  I was uncomfortable being a “tourist” in a slum area – we were obvious  enough, two tall, older Mzungus (white guys), following a short, young African pastor in a pin-striped suit.  The conditions were appalling.  I saw a chicken nesting a a pile of garbage.  Open trenches for sewage.  Dirty children, barely clothed, but still smiling.  They wanted to touch us, shake our hands.  At one point, a child came up to me and spoke a few words in Lugandan.  The only one I could make out was “biscuit”.  He was looking for something to eat. 

We got back to the car, our feet muddy from the walk.  That’s another thing – in Uganda, red clay is everywhere.  When it’s dry, the dust can be suffocating.  But after a heavy rain like this morning, everything was a big mud bog.  Pastor Alex said we should use our hand sanitizer, after touching those children.  (---)

We headed back to the van and made the short trip back to the Luzira City Church.  We arrived about 20 minutes before service was to start.  A well-dressed woman took the stage, and began to lead a powerful prayer service.  She had the cadence of a Southern black preacher, but she prayed in Lugandan.  And this was not your typical “every head bowed, every eye closed” pastoral prayer.  She paced back and forth on the stage, exhorting the thirty or so of us in the seats to, well, PRAY! For me, she was indeed speaking in tongues.  Some others also walked around, hands lifted.  Others sat or knelt.  Many prayed out loud as well.  This went on for probably 15 minutes, right up to the time the worship band started warming up.

Worship was fantastic!  Faith Mutagubya, the pastor’s wife, led the first half of the worship. Most of the songs were sung in Lugandan, complete with dual screen projected words (thanks in part to the cables and splitter we brought with us from the states.)  In her home, Faith is a gentle, quiet mother who doted on her two daughters.  But when she got on the stage, she was transformed!  Singing, dancing, clapping, hands raised, she led us through many songs of praise.  Some had some English, but most did not.  Yet Dave said he was greatly moved by the Spirit during this part of the worship.  No matter the language, when God is praised, we enter into His presence.  We did that today!  About half way through the hour-long worship session, Faith and the praise band were joined by Ron, a 20-year old who is staying with the Mutagubyas.  He played acoustic guitar and led a set of choruses that would be heard in hundreds of contemporary services across America and elsewhere.  He has a voice that rivals some of the best Christian artists.  And a heart for the Lord.

The service moved into announcements.  You know how announcements go in America.  “A Women’s Conference coming up…Movie Night for the Kids…Bible Studies on Thursday…see the bulletin for the rest…”.  Not so in Luzira.  Two young Africans took the stage.  The man started off in English, describing reasons why people struggle with money.  He stopped after each sentence, and the young lady would translate in Lugandan.  He spoke again that “maybe you want to be rich”…she repeated in the native tongue.  This went on for several minutes, maybe five.  Then they moved to several other topics, following the same pattern.

Finally, Pastor Alex got up.  He wasn’t scheduled to preach today.  The administrative pastor would be giving a sermon in a minute.  But Alex felt led to pray in three specific areas: 1) Women with unsaved husbands, 2) Families with unsaved members, and 3) People needing jobs.  He directed the congregation to gather in groups of four.  We joined hands and proceeded to pray as the Pastor led.  This was followed by an introductions of Dave and I (Lloyd) as honored guests.  He had prepared us for this, and asked each of us to give a word of greetings.  Dave spoke first, and offered a Lugandan greeting.  He spoke of his love for Uganda and Pastor Alex, following his trip last year.  I offered greetings from Salem, Oregon in the name of Christ.  We were warmly welcomed and headed back to our seats.  Pastor Dave then stepped up and delivered a message on inviting others to church, with an emphasis on courtesy.  It was the final sermon of a series that I believe is helping this new congregation grow. 

Following the service, Dave and I had a great time interacting with a group of young children.  They love to have their pictures taken and then look at them on your camera.  A group of three young men decided to teach me Lugandan.  I learned that Masumba means Pastor; Amoso means eye; Eneendo means nose and Nene eneendo means big nose!  It was a blast but eventually we had to head  back to the Pastor"’s house.  We were joined by Pastor Dave and another man who was the Pastor’s uncle.  We enjoyed a another traditional African meal.  All I can tell you is that there was a lot of starch and a little meat.  The men set around and discussed issues of the economy and corruption in our respective countries.  Come Lord Jesus come!

Around three, Dave and I were driven back to Pastor Peter’s house to rest up for another busy day tomorrow – heading out to the village to visit two Child Development Centers.  We are happy to have a cool night to sleep!  God bless Uganda and God bless you for your prayers for us.