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Monday, November 24, 2008

Through the river and through the woods...

Sunday morning Skip and I (Scott) mounted our trusty steed (Honda 200 XL) and hit the dusty trail.  Ten kilometers of weaving between mud holes and even fording a small stream.  To do that we shared the one pair of boots that I wore -- first Skip traversed the stream and then threw the boots back across the stream so I could use them to push the motorcycle through!
We trekked to Bundikyora New Life Church, the last stop in Skip's Sunday Sermon Series.  The small mud-walled, tin-roofed building held a capacity crowd who came to swivel and sing, twist and shout in praise of God.  At one point in the service the entire sanctuary was one big cloud of dust from all of the  gyrations and jumping.  Skip (who has written a book entitled Worship) said he had never experienced more joyous worship.
Skip preached from Matthew 4 on The Temptations of Jesus.  He tied in the Temptations of Eve from Genesis 3 and helped people to see that the temptations were basically the same...the lust of the eyes (we want what we see) and pride (we want to control our own lives, to be our own gods).   Finally, he exhorted us to see that Jesus is the only One who has ever successfully resisted temptation and we need to receive his success as our own by faith.
Afterwards we were seated in a small dank mud house where we ate a lunch of heaping plates of rice and beef.  We were left by our hosts to eat alone, surrounded by dog-eared  posters entitled  "Queen Elizabeth's visit to Uganda",  "Manchester United Football 2009" and "The last days of Saddam Hussein".  After a post-lunch debrief with the church leaders of all the challenges before them in leading and growing their small body of believers we headed home.  
As Skip dismounted the motorcycle upon arrival he said, "Now that we're home, I can admit that that ride was the scariest part of my Ugandan adventure so far..."

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