Uganda 2004/2005 Missions Trip

30 December 2004 - 11 January 2005

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Below is a summary of my trip Worship Missions trip to Uganda. It is very long but there is so much to share of the goodness and faithfulness of God. It was life changing and challenged me to continue with the vision that God has given me to use music to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth.

I actually kept a journal and am thinking of making it into a mini-book with photos.

Uganda was definitely in God's will for our lives. We experienced awesome times of Worship and saw the favor of God on our lives every day. We are going back in December 2005 and I will be teaching on Worship and ministering in the churches.

Well, to start off, my wife and I arrived safely at Entebbe airport on Thursday night, 30 December 2004. However, there was no one to pick us up.... Our lift (unbeknown to us) was stuck in a traffic jam. After waiting for more than 30 minutes, we thought that it was a joke and maybe we had to get back onto the plane and go home. I finally managed to change some dollars into the local currency and made a call. Our hosts assured us that they were on their way. Almost the whole worship team arrived to pick us up. Our first adventure was the drive to Kampala - almost 1.5 hours later and many dusty hilly roads, we arrived at our host’s house.

We had a good night's rest and then the next day, met with some of the worship team members to go over some of the songs. They informed me that their pastor was trying to get us tickets to a New Years Eve all night service. They picked us up and told me that I would be singing at the service. I thought it was in a church, but after another hour & a bit's driving we neared a big stadium (Mandela Stadium - National Soccer Stadium) and the pastor told us that we were going there.

I could not believe that God had favored me to be able to minister to such a large crowd of people. We were barred from entering the stadium, but God opened the gates (after much persuasion from my hosting pastor) and we entered the stadium.

To cut a long story short, we managed to get into the stadium as VIP guests and got seats on the podium as guests of honor. By 9pm there were well over 60,000 people in the stadium, including the soccer field, which was packed with people. I could not believe that I was going to lead Worship in the stadium in front of 60,000+ people. I still cannot believe God's favor on our lives; here I was, of no earthly reputation being given such a high honor to be used for God's Glory! That service made the whole trip worthwhile. I heard the next day that there were about 100,000 people in the stadium! Can you visualize 100,000 people doing a Mexican wave? For about 20 minutes before the New Year we all began to praise God and pray while one of the pastors blew the shofar horn. This gave me a glimpse of Heaven as we Worshipped our Great God.

I was privileged to minister at various churches in Kampala and met up with a team from YWAM. We had a very profound moment at one of the services. We could sense a spirit of competition, as there were many performing artists in the service. One of the guys from YWAM (Benjie, from Ghana) picked this up and said we should continue to Worship and we sang "Heart of Worship" and "Amazing Grace". Wow, what an awesome presence of God while we Worshipped.

We also ministered at an open-air crusade in Mbale, about 15km from the Kenyan border (having to drive more than 3 hours in a minibus taxi to get there).

We experienced some challenges (the food, traveling) and missed some of the home comforts, however it was worth the sacrifice. I even lost 5kg by eating healthy food!

God also equipped me to start teaching more on Worship before I ministered in song. I feel compelled to continue sharing on the Glory of God and reverencing God in our times of Worship.

I will not forget the last Sunday night in Kampala. God layed on our hearts (my wife and I) to wash the pastors and elders feet as a sign of our humility to serve them. It had a profound impact on them (this had never happened to them before) and the pastor prayed a powerful prayer over our lives.

I realised that we (the church) must stop 'playing games' and get serious with God and reverence Him! I am thankful to God for using me for His glory and covet your prayers as I pursue His plans for my life. We also decided to sow an unusual seed into the Church, for their building project. The pastor sms'd me to tell me that they managed to build onto the church so our seed is already bearing fruit!

I will be focusing on Worship Training and some special music projects this year, the first of which is in April 2005, a Gospel Musical in collaboration with Origin Scotland and Origin South Africa, who perform annually in events in the UK and South Africa. http://www.inexile.net/2/

I am also partnering with CCFM (a local Christian radio station) regarding monthly worship workshops and inter-church Worship services.

I am also trusting God to open more Worship Training / Teaching opportunities for 2005.

Please continue to pray for me as I pursue God's plan for my life. I am trusting God for a new laptop and projector that I can use in the ministry as I teach on Worship and teach new songs to the churches that I visit. God has shown Himself faithful on this trip to Uganda and He provided the finances for us to go and I believe that He will do so again in the future.

Please also pray for Uganda as they will have elections next year and need a Christian president. The current president's wife is a Christian and has been the driving force behind the exploding Christian community and has been influential in stemming the aids epidemic.