It is Friday, October 7, and I am preparing for the trip to Kathmandu, Nepal. I fly out of Seattle on Sunday and I am praying for a safe and healthy trip. I will be busy with teaching and meetings the whole time I am there. I am looking forward to what the Lord has in store!
Author: David Grisanti
On The Way Home
What a time of ministry in Uganda! From the 2 Sunday services at CC Kampala shortly after landing in Uganda, to the wonderful conference with pastors and wives, to the Sunday service in Naluko, it was a blessed and memorable time. It had been over 2 years since my last international ministry trip, so it was especially meaningful and I felt a presence of the Lord in all I did, including the teaching, praying with couples, conversations with pastors and our team, and more. However, it was all tempered by the absence of Debbie with me. There was definitely a void and a degree of emptiness.
So, I am writing this from the airport in Doha in Qatar. I will board in a few hours for the 15+ hour flight to Seattle. It’ll be great to be home with Debbie and the rest of the family. While I was in Uganda, I received numerous invitations for ministry in other churches and countries. I will have to sort all of that out. But first order of ministry business is the development of my curriculum.
I also want to say that I worked with a great team from Anchored Relief: Pastor Gary Kusunoki and his wife Carol, Pastor Andrew Drey and his wife Sarah, and James Vaca. There are a great team and a lot of fun as well.
Many thanks for the prayers and love. I have to say that I think I actually saw maybe 2 mosquitos! That is always a concern, as some of them carry malaria, but it was all good.
Blessings to you all,
David
Partying and Worshipping in Naluko!
Well, not what you think. I’ll explain. The leaders of the team I am with have adoptive children here in Naluko. So, yesterday it was time for a birthday celebration for 4 of them. We drove the 5 minutes or so to the home the pastor of CC Naluko (his wife had been one of my students at the School of Ministry at Soroti, Uganda in 2018). When we arrived there was a large bonfire in the courtyard and around 20 people seated around it. After a while, dinner was brought out for everyone, fried chicken, fries, and pizza. It was all delicious! Then after a while, everyone went into the small home for a birthday celebration. There must have been close to 30 of us crammed into the living room. When the kids came in, everyone yelled “SURPRISE” and sang. It was so much fun. Then they cut 3 cakes and handed out pieces of cake to everyone. It all ended around 10:15 PM. I commented to the team that I’ll write about my wild time of partying late into the night!
After a good night’s sleep, I got up at 6:15 and prepared to preach this morning. We arrived at the church, open air on all sides, at about 8:45. Soon began a joyous and energetic time of worship. All the ladies wore their very colorful Sunday best. After a while, I was introduced and invited up to preach. I would say that there were close to 200 in attendance, amazing for this small village. I had a great time and I thought that the message was well-received. I taught from Matthew 7:12, “Do unto others”, the Golden Rule. I worked with a very good translator who made it so easy.
The remainder of the afternoon consisted of lunch and resting/getting ready to head back to Entebbe tomorrow (Monday). It is just gorgeous here and the people have been so gracious.
Thanks for the prayers. I’ll write more again before I head for home.
David