Jesus Doesn't Care about Numbers

     So this past week a medical team came to work with us here in Uganda. The team was great. They spent two days in Kampala seeing people, and then came up to Gulu for their last three days of ministry to see people. It was great having them here and I loved watching the way that they served Jesus through their short time here. But there was one thing that they did that got under my skin- at the end of the day they would talk about what was done and everything, but the thing they would focus on was numbers. “_____ people were saved, _____ people were seen by the doctors and given medicine, and _____ people were seen at the eye clinic.” Even though I didn’t really like that, I am still confident that this team’s hearts were in the right place. But I feel like this team, as well as many other people out there need to know one thing- Jesus doesn’t care about numbers.

     At the beginning of this week I began to really dive into one of the parables of Jesus called “The Parable of the Lost Sheep” (Luke 15:1-7). It stresses that if one sheep runs away from a group of one hundred a good shepherd (John 10) would leave the ninety-nine that are safe in the open country to pursue the one that is lost. I feel like most of us would just say, “Oh well, I still have ninety-nine. That isn’t too bad.” But Jesus does the opposite. He goes after the one.

     I have also been meditating on “The Cost of Being a Disciple” (Luke 14:25-35). I realized that in this passage, Jesus says a lot of things that would make people not want to follow him: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters- yes, even his own life- he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple…. In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26, 27, 33).

     It is the same case in John 6. In the beginning of the chapter Jesus feeds the five thousand. The next day Jesus and His disciples went somewhere else, but the crowd from the day before followed them because they ate the bread until they were full (v. 26). And in verse 35 Jesus began to teach them: “Then Jesus declared, ‘I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.’” He then elaborates on that statement. Then right after he gets done teaching them it says, “On hearing it many of his disciples said, ‘This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?’ From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him” (John 6:60, 66). Jesus taught things that made people stop following Him! He told them THE TRUTH! *gasp*

     I feel like so often people just preach “Hey, Jesus loves you and came to die for you so that you could live in heaven”, and that is all true. But they forget to tell them what Jesus says in Matthew 16:24-25: “Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.  For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.’”

     Jesus doesn’t care about numbers, He cares about genuine followers. So instead of preaching the stuff that will make the crowd bigger and bigger, why don’t we try preaching the radical message that Jesus did- the message that made some people stop following him? After all, we are called to Christ-likeness, aren’t we?

Like a Child

     There is a team coming over here in one week from the States, and they are going to do a medical clinic up here in Gulu. So over the past few days we have been trying to prepare for this by talking to the LC's (the leader of the community) and pre-registering people. Yesterday Jamie, Willy, and I went out to do this in the village around the house. We started off by getting permission from the LC in Bardege to do the clinic. After we got done with that Willy went to go get Richard, one of our friends from the village that would help us out by translating for us, and then Jamie and I went to Grace's house to get her pre-registered. Well while we were there, there were five children that were following us. While Jamie was getting Grace registered, I began to play with the children. I know none of their names (except for little Obama, of course) and none of them know mine because none of them speak any English. What we did was one of them would hold on to my left hand and another would hold on to my right, and they would begin running in circles chasing each other while I was in the center spinning circles. What I did was I would start spinning so fast that I would lift the children up into the air while I was spinning in circles. They loved doing that. We did it for a long time because once Willy got Richard, they went to talk to the LC. I got little breaks, but in what felt like seconds they were wanting to do it again. It didn't take long for me to get tired, so after a pretty good while I was just in the middle of the kids chasing each other while I was holding their hands. We continued to play for what seemed like a couple of hours. Eventually we had to move on and keep registering people, so we had to leave those kids behind to keep going.

 

     What I realized today was that those kids taught me a very important lesson. Matthew 18:1-5 says, "At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, 'Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?' He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: 'Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.'" Yesterday while I was playing with those kids, I became one. As I thought about that throughout today, I began to think about what becoming a kid meant. What I came up with was living without worry, because someone else was in control and they knew what was best. Living "life to the full" (John 10:10). Having fun! Jesus wants us to be like children because children listen to their Father and trust Him. Become like children- trust the Father, listen to Him. Know that He is in control and do not worry. Live life to the full.

Me and the 5 children



My First Month Living in Uganda

     For those of you that were expecting this post a lot earlier than one month in, sorry to disappoint. There has been a lot happening and quite honestly I have had to digest a lot of the things that I have seen and just think about it in light of Scripture.

     I guess it was about a week or two in that I first went out by myself. That morning I decided to go down to the rock quarry- a place where people work busting rocks all day long out in the hot sun. On the way there a guy was walking behind me so I slowed down so that I could meet him. I can't remember his name because at the time I didn't know that they say their last name first, then their first name, and the last name was so difficult to remember that I forgot it very quickly. Anyways, we went down to the rock quarry together and just talked. He wasn't the most fluent English speaker, but I got plenty of things out of that conversation. He is 16 years old and he usually goes down to the rock quarry to work because he can't afford school fees. From what I could gather, he seemed like a pretty cool guy. On the way back to the house I began to ask him about his family. He said that he had a brother, but he was killed by someone- I couldn't understand what he was saying until later in the conversation. I then proceeded to ask about his mother and father. He said they were both killed, and this time I clearly understood what he was saying. All of them were killed by the LRA (Lord's Resistance Army a.k.a. Joseph Kony's Army). It made me so sad to hear this, but I know that God has put him in this situation for a reason and that He is in control.

     Maybe a week later, Willy and I were walking through the village and we stumbled upon what looked like a big meeting. I asked Willy if he knew what it was, and he said no, but we will find out. So we went up to someone and of course asked "How are you?". Big mistake. Little did we know that what we had stumbled upon was a funeral, and when you are at a funeral it is EXTREMELY inappropriate to ask how anyone is doing because everyone is mourning. It was sad to just stumble upon that, but it was very humbling as well because God was once again showing me that He is in control. But this time it wasn't control over people's situations in life, it was control over what we ran in to out in the field.

     Just last week the FCM board was here and Willy and I were taking some of the people on the trip through the village. We ended up at the rock quarry and I went and sat next to a guy named Caesar. He is 20 years old. I then asked if he was married, and he said no, that he was a student. I was wondering what a student was doing down at the rock quarry in the middle of the day instead of in school. He explained to me that he was at the rock quarry working because he couldn't afford school fees, so he took a year off to get some money to go to school. This made me realize how fortunate I am. I got a great education paid for by the government- the sad thing is that all I did was complain about it.

What I have learned through these experiences:
     I have said this already, but what I am learning is that God is in control of EVERYTHING. The verse that comes to mind is, of course, Jeremiah 29:11. That is a lot of people's favorite verse, but for some reason I don't think that many people read the text around that verse. What most people don't realize about that verse is that at the time, the Israelites are living as exiles in Babylon. In their mind, God has abandoned them. They have no hope. Then Jeremiah sends this letter from Jerusalem, and in that letter it has Jeremiah 29:11. Now put yourself in the Israelites shoes. What would you be saying after reading this letter? I would think that Jeremiah is crazy, but that isn't the point. The point is that this letter was given to the Israelites when they were at their lowest. They had no reason to believe that God had a plan for them. And somehow when these people seem like they are at their lowest, they know that God has a plan. You remember that guy Caesar? I asked him what he wanted to do when he got out of school. He told me that he prays to God everyday that some job would come his way- he doesn't care what job, just some job. He trusts that once he is done with school that God will provide a job for him, even though he can't even go to school right now because he can't afford it. That my friends, is genuine faith.

     I am also learning is to be thankful for everything I have. 1 Thessalonians 5:18 says, "Give thanks in all circumstances..." The people here are thankful for what they have, and some of them have next to nothing. But I have everything you could ask for- a great family, amazing friends, a roof over my head, food everyday, etc. And sometimes, you know what I do? Complain about it. Just like my education. I have it and it didn't cost me anything, but all I did while getting it was complain about it. But now, seeing that other people are longing to go to school but can't afford it I really appreciate that I got to go to school. But it isn't just school that we take for granted and the Ugandans greatly appreciate. There are multiple things. So appreciate everything that you have.

     That isn't all that I have experienced or learned by any means, but these are just a few of the things. I hope to post again before another month flies by.

Camp Hand