Sunday Morning in Kampala

A good view of the crowd inside the lecture hall.

Part of the overflow that listened to the service from the balcony.

This group rocked the house.

These four guys could really sing.

Thomas Obunde introduces our team.

Pastor Kennedy Kirui introduced me.

I preached on When You Need to Know, You’ll Know from Proverbs 3:5-6.

With Pastor Kirui after the service.

 Dear Prayer Partners,

“I never thought I’d meet him in person.”

That’s what the pastor said a few minutes after 9 AM on a Sunday morning several weeks ago. An hour earlier our team left the campground at Word of Life Uganda on our way to the worship service at United Faith Chapel at Kampala International University. Thomas Obunde, the director of Word of Life Uganda, had told me that it was almost entirely a church for university students. When Kennedy Kirui graduated from the university, he began a Bible study that started with a handful of students. Soon that handful grew to over 600 students. Today they draw 1000-1500 students every Sunday to a worship service that meets on an upper floor of a classroom building on the university campus.

There were no elevators so we did exactly what the students do each week. We climbed the stairs to the top floor where we entered a vast lecture hall. Looking in, we saw that the service had already started. And there stretching before us was a large room overflowing with students who had come to worship the Lord.

The university was founded by a Muslim man who not only allows the Christians to meet on campus, he is glad to have them there.

The service had already been going strong for 20 minutes when we arrived. Being who we were and where we were, and since we came in near the front of the lecture hall, there was no way to be inconspicuous. But we did our best, sliding into desks with foldable surfaces for taking lecture notes.

The church itself is almost entirely student-led. One student made the announcements. Two different student groups sang for us. Then the pastor got up to introduce Ray. It went something like this:

For many years I have been reading his books. I go to his website almost every day to find out what is going on. I read his sermons often. But I never dreamed I would meet him in person. And I never dreamed he would preach at our church.

Ray said it was perhaps the finest introduction he has ever received, made better because it was totally unexpected. We had no idea that Pastor Kirui in Uganda knew anything about Keep Believing Ministries.

Now that we’re home, we are back at work on various projects, planning future ministry trips, and Ray is nearing the end of the revision work on An Anchor for the Soul. Our trip reminded us that through the Internet, we have a worldwide “congregation” that reaches 219 countries. We know there are many pastors like Kennedy Kirui who use our material. Most of those pastors we’ll never meet until we get to heaven. And that’s why we’re grateful that the Lord showed us the impact of this ministry several weeks ago, on the top floor of a classroom building, in a crowded lecture hall, on a warm Sunday morning at Kampala International University.

The pastor said he never expected to meet us in person. We didn’t know he knew who we were. It’s a great big “God-thing” for sure.

Thank you for praying for us while we were in Africa. The Lord answered your prayers in a big way.

God bless you!

Ray and Marlene