Becoming World Conscious: October 2006

Safely Home

We're back! Thanks for praying and sharing with us. Blessings! Pastor Kevin.

The Gift

This is Erika. You never really kow how God is going to work in your life. I have been pretty discouraged. I believe that God gives all of His children a gift. I know that God gave me the gift of design. I have be struggling with how it be using my gift for the Lord. I have been asking God to just show me how to use the gift He has given me. This week I was able to use my gift by helping decorate the stage for the BBC. I have looked back at the things that I have helped designed and there have been numerous occasions that God has opened the door for me to use my gifts for Him. My prayer for anyone who is reading this, is that you may find out what gift God has given you and then ask how to use it. He will answer. You may not see it as it's happening but you will look back and discover that you were answering His call.

BBC Day

Hi it's JD again, BBC was an awesome experience it was one of those things that I would suggest for anyone to experience. There was so many people in one place and we ended up leaving about 11:00pm and on the way out there was still so many people still filing in the stadium.

This day started out at 7:00am helping Erika out with the decorating of the stage then I went to garden city mall and then finally at about 6:00pm we went out on a trip to Namboole. The trip there was about as long as if we were going to San Francisco. Well I'm mumbling about nothing right now so I better go off to bed. Good night,
J.D.

Grand opening of orphanage homes

Day 4
Hi this is Jay.
All of us attended the grand opening of Christian Life Church orphanage homes (60 homes). It was pretty exciting except not all the homes were completed (Lugandan's time, usually late). We found two homes FCC funded. They were almost done (some minor work left).
I sat next to two children, 9 years and 11 years old and talked for while. They were so special and innocent... It was very hard to leave the orphanage.
On my way back to the hotel, I saw a little boy (about 10 year old) walking with his bare feet and reading the Bible. An unbelievable scene.. It will be hard to erase this picture from my heart.
Thanks for praying!

Prayer request

This is Pastor Kevin. Please pray for the team. Weariness has set in. All of us have battled some form of illness. We are still jet lagged and not sleeping enough. Ahead we have four very long days: all-day / night prayer at the Stadium, all day touring on Saturday, Sunday begins with church in the morning and ends with a flight out of Entebbe at 10pm (we will not arrive in SF until 32 hrs later). This is the final push and though the team is excited, we need your prayers for strength and safety and joy. Thanks for praying!

The long day

Well today was another long day I had all intentions of helping with the decorating of the stadium or the decorating of seeta (the orphanage). God has introduced Erika and I to patience. I think the one thing that I got out of today was the fact that I was just standing around not really doing much of anything but people were still coming up to me and we would just talk to each other about all different things but every person I talked to would just show me their faith in the lord and open my eyes to so many things that the lord could do here and all the opportunities that they need.

JD

Meeting God's people

The past couple of days have been a lot of waiting. I have come here to help with the design of the Seeta Homes and the platform that they are going to use every sunday.

While we were waiting for basically nothing really to happen, I met this local woman who lives right next door to the orphan homes.

She told me that 5 years ago she was watching over her two cows on the land that we were standing. A young boy was sleeping in the field next to her. He woke up and told her he saw a vision. He saw many people in the sky, mostly children. That was 5 years ago. As I was standing there I looked around and saw 72 children 6 house moms, and church that surrounds this place. The vision of that kid in the field came true. This woman has seen God at work in first person.

It is truely amazing how this people who have nothing see God work everyday. If we just let go of some of the things that are holding us back from seeing God, we would be able to see the same things in America as they do here.

GOD IS GOOD!!!

Tomorrow is the big event. It starts at 9:00 in the morning and goes until 9:00am on Saturday. It's going to be incredible.

Erika

Business Leaders Summit

Day 3
Hi, this is Jay..

Pastor Kevin and I attended the business conference today. Pastor Kevin talked about business partnership and I shared my testimony. We also heard two other incredible testimonies.

Lugandans make very little money or no money. More than 50% of population do not have a job and the average income is less than $100 per month. Professionals (CPA, engineer) make about $1,000 per month. They don't even know where to start.... They are so poor (beyond my imagination).

The bright side is that most of young adults (early 20's) are highly educated and eager to work. I pray that God will use them to turn this country around.

Thanks for your prayers.

Street Evangelism

This is Pastor Kevin. Today was another amazing day. I had the privilege of going street witnessing with Pastor Anthony (he's on the left in the above photo). He is the Evangelism Pastor to the Luzira district. In Luzira is the largest prison in all of Uganda and the neighborhoods are filled with the very poor. The people live in simple clay brick homes, with a heavy cloth for a front door, and no running water. They share a community bathroom which has 5 toilets and a water spicket. Yes, it is as bad and dirty and smelly as it sounds. BUT... this is where Pastor Anthony works. Within half an hour, we had prayed with five people to receive Jesus as Savior, prayed for a woman to be healed of malaria, and delivered a man from demonic influence. This was followed by a crusade in the neighborhood and I was given the opportunity to deliver one of the messages (with only three minutes notice by the way!). It was quite a day.

Candlestick Park in Uganda

This is Pastor Kevin. When Pastor Jackson told us their church was going to use the stadium in Kampala, it sounded pretty big. Well, it's one thing to hear about it, it is quite another to actually go there and see it. As you can see form the pic, Esther (our faithful guide), Erika and JD are swallowed up by the enormity of the stadium. It is a full soccer field, with 400 meter track, box seats and "luxury boxes" and seats for 60,000 plus people. It is absolutely huge!

The stadium is so big that Pastor Anthony (one of the Evangelism Pastors at Christian life) challenged Erika to a 50 meter race. If you want to see that video of that race either all you'll have to do is pay me more money than Erika is offering to keep the video off the web. We'll be there all day on Friday and Sunday morning for worship. it should be even cooler.

Worship comes from within

Everyday God amazes me with new things. Tonight we were asked to worship and pray with a group of people my age. It was so invigorating to see people my age love God so much. Rick would be astounded by the spirit and passion these people have. They worshipped with no reservation. We were all in this tiny room and the Spirit of the Lord was so present. What really amazed me is that they were singing songs that we sing at our church. Two groups of believers living worlds away are singing to the same God. Singing the same songs to the same God. It just reminds that we are all the body of Christ. No matter where we live or our life circumstances we need to serve and praise the Lord with all of our hearts and souls.

Tomorrow is going to be a great day. Keep you updated.
Erika

orphanage bus ride

Hi this is JD,

Sorry I fell a sleep early last night and I didn't get a chance to do this until now.

So yesterday we drove to the orphanage to visit the children there and it was so much fun. I got a chance to play soccer with them. Also seeing their faces light up when we handed out soccer balls and candy. I think that it was one of those adventures that was one of the highlights of the week.

Now I have to tell you about my adventure in the front seat of this bus on the way out to the orphanage. There were times when we were so close to pedestrians on the side of the street if they would have turned sideways we would have ran over there feet. Also at times our driver would come within inches of the car in front of us and the car beside us and then when all of this is happenning there is a scooter driving in front of us. Well there will be alot more adventures with the taxi's and the buses.

Thank you for keeping us in your prayers
J.D.

University Students

This is Jay.
See-bee Otey (Good afternoon in Lugandan)
Wow, what a night! Last night, I thought what can beat the orphanage experience? Lord has done it again, we spent an evening with university students (cell group) and it was absolutely amazing. 17 of us were in the 300sf room and praising/ worship God. We praised, prayed, and shared testimony for about two hours. I got to tell you this, these African students are so instrumentally talented. The instrument they used was their hand clapping. Everyone was in sync except FCC folks.

All of us received so much blessings via these students. They treated us like family. It was an unforgettable experience.

Day 4 of our adventure

Hi this is Erika.

Today was an amazing day. We were taken by Pastor Jackson and some of the church people to the orphanage in Seeta. seeta is a small area just outside of Kampala. We drove in the crazy Ugandan traffic for about 45 minutes. You can ask Jd all about how close a car can get to another without touching.

When we arrived at the place were these homes were built we got to look around. Then we were able to go and meet the children. These children were sooooo sweet. We had some candy and balls to give out. They were swarming us. To think that a piece of candy gave them that much joy.

Jd play a little soccer with some of the older kids. After a spending a very short time with the kids, we needed to leave. Pastor Jackson asked the kids to sing us a song. There about 60 kids all standing there. They sang their hearts out. They sang a song thanking God for all He has and done and they will praise forever.

We then broke into our groups. Jay and Pastor Kevin will blog about their exciting day.

I met with Pastor Jackson and he was telling me what his vision for the stadium was. He wants Jd and I to help him design a stage platform and the lighting for the stage. I just knew that God blessed us with our talents to help his Kingdom.

More to come as this wonderful adventure proceeds.
posted by Erika at 1:16 PM

Pastor Jackson Senyonga

This is Pastor Kevin. I finally get to use my computer and blog after getting flamed by Jay!!! Here is the photo of the gang with Pastor Jackson in front of his church in Kampala. They have been truly gracious to us. They even assigned "Esther" to guide us each day. She is very sweet and polite but can be quite the bull dog when it comes to protecting us (she graduated with a law degree from the best university in the country). There are other people we have me who have made our experience beyond expectations. Marjon (the daughter of the owners of Salang Pass in Fremont) was our gude in Dubai. She told us how she was in Lebanon recently and just escaped unhurt during the Israel / Hezbollah war. There were bombs exploding and rockets screaming less than two miles from where she was staying. I think of Master Edward. He is the cook for the orphanage we visited. There is also Margaret and Emmanual. They're a young couple serving in the church. He recently was elected the deputy mayor of his township! There is so much more to tell you about our journey so far. Looking forward to what we will see the Lord do in our midst.

Visiting Orphanage

Hi It is Jay again..

Today's highlight has to be the Orphanage. Children were anywhere between 2 to 10 years old. Kids knew their parents are gone but their spirit was up, singing, welcoming us, playing soccer, and etc. Thinking that one of them could be my child, it made me very sad. I can never forget their smiling faces. Love of Jesus is truly amazing!

We plan to go back to Orphanage on Thursday, celebrating grand opening of 60 homes. Can't wait...

I will let JD to explain today's driving experience since he was sitting next to driver today.

God bless,
Jay

Arriving in Uganda

Hi this is Jay.
After 40+ hours of flying and waiting at the airport, we are finally here in Uganda. Thank God for bring us here safely! Athought it is quite different from Dubai, one of the richest city in the world, people are extremely nice here. As I expected, the country is poor and needs help.

What a driving experience! (from airport to hotel); driving left hand side, two lane road and cars passing, no street lights, people wearing dark clothes and crossing street, cars with very poor headlights (I could not see anything).... and Pastor Kevin keep asking questions to Immanuel (our host) while he is driving/passing cars.... but we survived.

We have a busy day tomorrow, meeting Pastor Jackson and visiting orphants.

Please continue to pray for us!
In Him,

Jay