If you dwell on the symptom, you never discover the disease.

It seems that at the end of a term, or when students complete a level in school, they all get a marker and are told to go crazy writing on the back wall of the classroom.  This must be the African equivalent of the curious "yearbook" tradition.  I think some of them get confused because "Never faget Agaba" (Algebra?) was written on one of the rafters in the P5 classroom today and all sorts of memories of middle school yearbooks started crawling about:

You rock, Don't change!

Never forget class of 2006!

KATS, stay sweet!

HAGS, lylas don't change!

There are some other more embarassing ones......which I won't mention.

But here, I'm not an awkward tween with a sharpie wanting other tweens to sign my yearbook.  I'm the Musungu with the red pen and I have the power---but I choose to use my power for good and not evil---I will use my power for giggles!  It's not hard either...all I have to do is raise one eyebrow or dance a little bit and then.........there is a very dramatic roar and fit of laughter.

When you do something funny here---or dramatic or impressive all of the kids roar in laughter and like a wave, the sound returns after a pause with a loud, whooo-oo-ooo!!!  It's like a laugh, a pause and a howl.  It makes you feel like they're cheering you on or starting a song for you.  (which is not uncommon here)

When you have so little, I think you really know, in a deep wisdom sort of way, what really matters.  It's not the Ugandans who are worried about the fact that they experience poverty....it's me.  I think it's because they know something I don't know.  They know that the Lord provides for them.  They know that their crops grow because the Lord sends rain.  They know that they have food and clothing and clean water because God is good.  When all the things around you lead you to such a huge truth so quickly, it's no wonder that after that, nothing else matters.  Because God is the point.  God is all there is and he is the center of all things.  Nothing else matters anymore.

So when you come to a small church on a remote mountain, and you are invited to the Vicar's house to have lunch and this huge, wonderful meal is laid out so carefully on the table, you start thinking really hard.  The plates are very new looking and the food looks like the best they have and there's a very clean lace cloth draped over all the dishes and they have forks and knives for us (Ugandans eat with their hands, quite neatly and impressively I might add) and not only that, but the wives of the clergy men have been working all day long to make this meal.  You know this because they come in after the meal and kneel before you to welcome you with a whisper and a smile.  

They have killed a goat.  They have saved the best.  They have bent over backwards......And they are joyful, and they are meek, and they are humble.  And they have inherited the earth.  They welcome visitors and show extravagant hospitality because they are so honored to be visited.  They aren't interested in contemplating the gap between you and them.  They're interested in showing you honor and bridging that gap.  They want to know if you love the Lord.  They want to know if you have joy.  And they are deeply and tenderly concerned when you do not.  

I keep thinking of the parable told by Jesus about the field with the great treasure in it.  When you find that treasure in the field, you go and sell all you have because whatever you had before seems like nothing after you find that treasure.  The treasure is the kingdom of God.  The treasure is God himself, in all his mystery and endlessness....and the Ugandans have found Him here.  

They know something that wealth obscures....everyone has nothing, not just people in poverty. When you see who God is, righteous, unrelenting, gracious, sovereign....... whatever you have, whether its much or little, is meaningless. We become convinced, amongst our comforts, that they somehow keep us from God, or that our comforts somehow separate us from our souls. 

But comforts and wealth and worldly goods don't do that.  

Earthly wealth and goods are nothing.  If we are kept from the Lord, or from each other, it is because there is not love in our hearts.  It is because we insist on ourselves.  It is because we are full of doubt toward God.  It is because we see the injustice and we think it's our job to abate it.  We see how much we have and we try to earn God's favor by denying ourselves in the midst of our comfort. It is because we won't accept that grace is enough for us....and not just a scandalous legend.  It is because we do not trust......even when God seems to not be so good.

 So that's why they will slaughter the goat and fix the best and take out all the stops because they know that if a visitor comes from so far away to worship the Lord with them, it's because the King of the Kingdom has sent them.  And He is the only one who matters anyhow.  They're not even really honoring you.  They're honoring God.  And to say that you are unworthy of a visitor's welcome only reveals that you do not know who the Guest of Honor is.  

Think about it:  Do you feel like God is asking something more of you because you have so much wealth?  What do you think he's asking?  Is he asking you to give away your wealth?  Maybe it's easier to let your heart be bothered about questions of money or justice or greed because the question that cuts through all that may cost you more.  

Are you afraid of me?  Do you doubt my goodness?  Do you really trust me?  Do you even want to trust me?  Do you really believe that I am in absolute control here?....or do you think you might still have a little control over how much I love you?

It's a lot easier to answer the questions about wealth and giving after you answer these questions because none of it belongs to you after that.  

Jesus said that if your right eye causes you to sin, you should gouge it out.  Think about it.  Is it really your right eye that causes you to sin?  Or is it your heart?

"For I desire mercy and not sacrifice,

And the knowledge of God more 

than burnt offerings."

Hosea 6:6

God wants you to know Him more than he wants you to give anything up.  The funny thing is, once you know Him, you'd give anything up.  And He knows that.  

Well anyway, I am officially spoiled because Lisa and I have the chance to keep a modem for her laptop until tomorrow morning...which means we will be spending the entire night uploading photos.  (which is why this is the longest, deepest post in the world)

And so.....for your viewing pleasure:

In a secondary school yard in Bwera.

This is the room I stayed in at the Agape house in Kasese while we visited churches for the first two weeks.  Note the super-enchanting mosquito netting. (PS, I still don't have malaria)

A meal served for us at the vicarage at St Stephen's parish.  G-nut sauce, sugar cane, irish potatoes, matoke, cabbage, pumpkin, goat....the works.

This is how Ugandans eat sugar cane.  It's because they grew up toddling around with it hanging out of their mouths and by the time they're grown, they have teeth like bears.

Children hiding from me at the Cathedral.

Beautiful Ugandan girls posing for the Musungu with the fancy camera.

This is what joy is.

So if I had to say what I missed the most today it would be:

Liturgy, incense, hymns and all of the joyous souls at St Peter's Anglican Church, sticking their necks out for the truth they have found, simply because it is worth everything they've got and more.  

Keep it up friends!

Lindsey