Saturday, March 17, 2007

LifeLight in Kampala Uganda

you’re probably wondering about the bibles…I gave the bibles that you sent along to David, Maerg & Selam.  They are refugees from Eritrea, Africa.  They have been waiting in Kampala, Uganda for just over 2 years to come to Canada.  David & Maerg are brother and sister and Selam is their niece.  David & Maerg's older sister, Freiwini, attends our church.

They are very sincere christian people.  We were very fortunate to spend 2 meals with them.  They came to our hotel for one meal and then they invited us over to their place for a traditional Ethiopian meal.  It was amazing.  Before the meal started they came around to each of us with a basin & pitcher to wash our hands.  Then they served us Injera which is a kind of bread which they use to dip into a chicken/egg stew.  It was very tasty!!  After that they served us coffee.  They actually roasted the coffee beans right in front of us, ground them up and then made coffee which they served in small cups.  We had the traditional 3 "rounds" which kept us up most of the night!!

Maerg & Selam spoke to us a little bit about their escape to Uganda.  They had been captured in Eritrea and were being held in a truck box.  They were only allowed to get out of the box to go to the bathroom in the woods.  That's how both of them escaped.  They travelled through the desert in Somalia to Uganda.They dressed in muslim head coverings so that they wouldn't be discovered. 

They say that life in Kampala is still very difficult.  Because they are refugees, they are not allowed to work.  They depend completely on Freiwini (their sister in our church) to send them money for their food, clothing and shelter.  They have very very little.  Their faith in God and the fellowship they have with other christians in their church give them hope.  They told us about a revival meeting that their church held in a little village in the courtryside just outside of Kampala.  They preached the way to salvation to them and they said that just over 100 people came to know Jesus.  The villagers were very poor and so the church people gave them the clothing that they could spare.  This was just amazing to me.  These people who have so very little themselves still found something that they could give to those who had even less.  

They were very thrilled to get the bibles.  They were going to bring them to their church and then give them out to people that they were sharing the gospel with.  It's amazing how God brought you to my house just a few days before I was to leave for Africa.  I believe that this was part of God's plan to get those bibles into Africa.  We have an amazing God!

God bless you Uncle Pete & Aunt Caroline as you continue to distribute bibles with  Lifelight Ministries.  

Christa  

 

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