What are we seeking first? Well friends it has been a little while since we have given you an update on life here. We have settled back into Ugandan life quite well – this does not mean that we are without many a frustrating moment when confronted with how corrupt and evil our country has become. We pray that God will have mercy on us and that people will still turn to Him. What is most frustrating is the state of the church – but having said that we know that God is ultimately the one who is saving and transforming individuals to become part of His Body and that He is still at work despite the alarming trends we see here in the church. What is very upsetting is that greed and corruption have now become a deep part of many churches and church leadership – especially in the urban churches here. Jane recently showed me a flyer of a Christian women’s crusade coming to the area. She was interested in attending and had hope that it would provide her some help and guidance as a mother, wife and woman of God. I looked at the theme: “Dealing with the Grasshopper Spirit...Numbers 33:13”. I told Jane I was concerned that it was just “the usual “. She attended on Tuesday when a Nigerian Pastor was preaching. When she related parts of his message I was not surprised. He said things like – “Why do we (as Africans) stick to poor people. We need to be with rich people. Befriend a poor person – you will die poor. Befriend a rich person – you will die rich. ” Jane felt so bad about what He was saying that she prayed in her heart that by some miracle she would get time to talk with the pastor and confront him on his message. A miracle occurred! While Jane and her friends were waiting outside after to get a boda-boda (motorbike for hire) the pastor pulled up near them in his car and asked if they needed a lift. Jane pounced on the opportunity (much to the chagrin of her companions) and kindly asked the pastor that why we never hear about sin and repentance in relation to God’s blessing on our lives; why do we not talk about how witchcraft and our ancestral practices keep us bound in wickedness and poverty? He did not give her a solid answer – only that he felt that not all the sins of the nation would hold a Christian bound in poverty. What we see is that many people who call themselves Christians are the very ones tied up in the national practices of theft, witchcraft, and corruption. We know that many people, in the name of Christ, are making orphanages, churches and Christian schools their business—a way to attract funding from the west to provide their wants and needs. The nicest cars in Uganda are driven by the “biggest” pastors here in Uganda. I believe God does not mind us prospering – in fact, I believe he desires it. It is one of the reasons God has sent us here – to help to see Ugandans come out of their poverty! But God always starts at the same place. Repentance. We must stop from doing things our way and start doing things his way. This is not a one-time choice. This is a daily choice. It is one of the most difficult things. We must seek first the kingdom of God. Then “all these things” will be added to us. I believe that God wants to change us, the Sperlings, to more and more give up our selfish habits and our own way of doing things. As God changes us we believe He will use us to change others. Right now we are praying for men and women to disciple in the work we do and just generally in the Christian walk. Of course it is not us who disciples, it is our Lord through the Holy Spirit. We desire to be used by God to facilitate the men and women and children of Uganda to hear God’s word and follow Him. Please pray that God will lead us to the men and women He wants us to mentor and disciple. |
Saturday, January 16, 2010
What are we seeking first?
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
eight years
Yesterday Jane and I celebrated eight years of marraige. It has been eight years of God's faithfulness -- with Jane going through 4 C-sections and a major illness after Kenny's birth. Along with trips back and forth between Canada and Uganda and the deaths in Jane's family, it has not been a very easy eight years but God has been faithful to us and has kept us faithful to Him. We praise Him for that! We celebrated by first going out to a local restaurant for Ugandan food and then we met up with our friends, Francis and Adrienne who are still honeymooning here in Jinja -- they were celebrating 10 days of marriage! We enjoyed a romantic candlelit evening at Gately on the Nile. We had lots of laughs and exchanged stories about how some of the local tribes send relatives (such as an Aunt) to make sure things go well on the honeymoon. |
Saturday, December 26, 2009
FGW seminar
Here are some pictures taken during the practical part of the seminar on Tuesday when we put in our "Well Watered Garden". The seminar was put on for our church (Deliverance Church Walukuba) so that they can be envisioned about the work we will be doing in the rural churches here in Uganda through Deliverance Church. The pictures of the soil in the glass illustrate conventional farming soil and FGW soil after 2 crops (10 months) of using FGW practices (from my garden at home). The FGW soil is the one with clear water as it holds together well because of all the various roots and organic matter that give it structure. The turbid one represents how easily regular soil slumps and is washed away by rainwater. FGW makes a difference. Blessings Chris |
FGW seminar
Here are some pictures taken during the practical part of the seminar on Tuesday when we put in our "Well Watered Garden". The seminar was put on for our church (Deliverance Church Walukuba) so that they can be envisioned about the work we will be doing in the rural churches here in Uganda through Deliverance Church Blessings Chris |
Friday, December 18, 2009
Christmas Dinner at the Prison
| The women were literally jumping with excitement as the guard let us into their small courtyard. Our whole team received warm, vigorous hugs as we entered. Although the courtyard walls are drab yellow with the expected barbed wire running high above where any convict could reach, the bright afternoon sun reflected off the walls and lit up the small courtyard -- adding emphasis to the joyful faces of the simply but brightly dressed prisoners. The Condemned Women wear a red-checked jumper similar to the primary school girls here in Uganda. The women were very clean; their dark shiny skin offset by their simple, bright "school-girl" uniforms as well as their multi-coloured "Bidco" sandals (cheap plastic sandals nick-named for one of the cooking oil product company that makes them.) We had come late.Our small delegation of four other women, including Jane were in Jinja town , had been waiting most of the afternoon for a leak in my radiator to be fixed. We had spent the morning rounding up the remaining shopping items including half a sack of charcoal that we had obtained down near the Lake. It had rained earlier in the morning- making our shoes and clothes sticky with the Jinja clay but now, also making for a very clear and clean sky for the late afternoon sun to shine through. After we had enjoyed our traditional Christmas dinner of Matooke (cooking banana), Irish potatoes, rice, meat, cabbage and ground-nuts accompanied by glass-bottle sodas, we had a brief formal time of sharing with each other. Charity, the buoyant, self-appointed representative leader of the nine death-row prisoners gave a brief speech describing how anxious they were when the appointed day for their Christmas dinner had come but their was not the usual food and charcoal brought the day before for the prisoners to prepare their meal. She described how she earnestly cried out to God -- yearning to have their Christmas Party, with the tasty food and fellowship that they long for. Then she told of the joy they all felt when they saw us, through their barred window around mid-day with all of the food and sodas they had hoped for. We had returned now, late in the afternoon, having given the women enough time to prepare the meal and thankfully, enough time for my mechanic to find and repair a major leak on my radiator. Charity finished her spontaneous speech by thanking us earnestly and said that it was the inmates prayer that our families would have a blessed Christmas and that our generosity and ministry would spread in ministry to others as well. This had now been their Christmas, she said-- they were now wishing us to have a joyous day with our families next week on the 25th. I felt that we were the ones being blessed. The women were so thankful for something so small; yet their joy was contagious. The women enjoy our fellowship so much and their joy is evident for the duration of our time there. Yes, not all of them share the same Joy -- some have not yet accepted Christ as their Lord and Saviour, some -- even the Christians still feel some sorrow, regret and condemnation for what they have done. Others are living -- even by the admission of prison staff -- as wrongly accused and convicted criminals. The work of this small team of women (and the group of men in the men's sections) is to bring the Gospel, biblical teaching and fellowship to these inmates; the teams in turn are blessed with wonderful fellowship, and the joy of leading people who can really see God's grace for what it is. Please continue to pray for these women in Jinja Main prison. They have been given a chance for their sentences to be reduced from death to a lesser sentence so they are slowly filing through the courts in turn -- in fact four of them were not there as they had been taken to court for their hearings. Please remember these women as they struggle with their life of confinement in prison along with all the predictable but easily forgettable troubles like poor health, sleeping on hard floors, a monotonous and not-too-healthy diet, and separation from friends, family and society in general. Pray also that they will truly repent and find their forgiveness, life and hope in Christ. |
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Jinja Prison
Tese pics aren't the best as I was slyly taking pics with my phone to at least give you a small idea of the prison where Jane ministers from time to time. We had the joy of having Christmas dinner with the Condemned Women's Section who are only 9 women. A number of them are Christians and we have very joyful fellowship with them. We are not allowed cameras in the prison so I only have a few shots of the outsite. The women are very dear and were so thankful for the meal which they called "their Christmas". Boy do we have alot to learn from them!!! |
Saturday, December 12, 2009
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