Greg the Preacher

So during the Kapchorwa project trip, the entire team was asked for three people to volunteer to preach on Sunday morning. I realized quickly I would be one of the three, simply because the idea did not seem deplorable to me. In other words, I would do it. True to form, only one person volunteered at first, then I said I would do it and then we had to goad one of the other team members into preaching. So I gave a sermon for this rural Uganda Anglican church. It was fun, I’ve never been translated before, and I got the privilege of being translated into Kupsabiny, a language spoken by less then ten thousand people. The idea for the sermon started with the most obvious question. What would a Houston suburb boy have in common with agriculture workers in Uganda? The only thing I could think of was sin. So I started the sermon talking about the differences between people around the world, like how they say hello. Here in Kampala we say “Oliyotiya,” which means “Hi how are you.” In Kapchorwa they say “Chikaste Jesu” which means “Praise Jesus.” I unashamedly claimed Texas and taught them how to say the traditional redneck greeting, “Howdy!” I even got them to yell it really loud, it was like being back at A&M, except everyone was black. Seeing that everyone in the audience was a church goer, I decided to talk about culturally acceptable sin. Everyone knows things like drinking and adultery are sinful. I asked them, “Are those the only sins we need to avoid?” There are many sins that are found at every church, no matter what culture. Gossip, greed, lust, jealousy, impatience and other sins don’t seem as bad, and are therefore considered acceptable in Christian cultures. I was told the best way to get points across to Ugandans was by telling stories, so I told a few stories about people dealing with the sins listed above. People told me afterwards that the sermon went well, but who knows. Anyway, I got a guy to take two very poor pictures of me while I was preachin, here they are: Greg and the Translator Greg and the crowd Oh, and by the way, I was reading through some old journal entries and I came across this post from Nov 18 2005 which is basically the same as my sermon I briefly described above except for a western audience. I had forgotten about this post, but it is well written and explains the ideas I spoke about in the sermon better than I could write them now, so here it is: Rescued from...? It is easy for someone to be critical of their own culture, but this is often an effort to portray themselves as different from their society. It is better for someone to search their own heart for problems and discover they are not alone, that many people in their culture share their problems. Then they share what they find, in a message with conviction as opposed to judgment. Well, I am going to try to do that. So I've been thinking... What do you think of when you hear the words "sinful people"? Do you think of drunks? Liars? Fornicators? Adulterers? Serial Killers? Drug Abusers? Televangelists? Anyone else? When I hear the words sinful people, I tend to think of the low class in our society, that only care for themselves. People who have 6 kids with all different fathers, and the fathers who made them. Parents who teach their children that domestic violence is common, children who won't hesitate to use force to get their way. People with no responsibility, don't care for anyone but themselves and continue to walk the path of suffering their parents paved for them and never walk the way Jesus wants them to. And now I think... What would I be like if I never walked the way Jesus wanted me to? Would I be like these people, or would I be something else? If I never learned a single lesson about Christ, I doubt I would resemble the people that I described above at all. Just by living in suburban culture, I have learned responsibility and decency towards others, and just those two values alone would separate me from the people above. I didn't just learn these values at church, but through my parents and school also. So what if I never went to church? My values, although different, would be similar to the values I hold today, simply because I was raised in suburban culture which promotes good values. A large portion of what I learned at church was rules: Don't use drugs, don’t have sex before marriage, don’t cuss. Those were the main sins that we were taught to steer away from. Nobody thought we would be tempted to get in a gang or beat our girlfriends, those things don't exist in suburban culture (with exceptions of course) so they never taught us not to. So I had a revelation, I asked myself “What did Christ rescue me from?” Drinking and Cussing? Just because I don't commit obvious sins does not mean that I don't sin. All of us have our demons, including those of us who were raised with good suburban values. Our hearts are no less evil than the people we consider scum. It just manifests itself in different ways, possibly more subtle ways. Materialism, obsession, idolatry, greed, a judgmental spirit, the list could be longer. These sins are a little less obvious, and therefore accepted, sometimes promoted, by society. Just because greed is more acceptable in our society than spousal abuse does not make it any less evil. The truth is, our salvation as Christians is not saving sex for marriage, our salvation is a relationship with Jesus. We need to remember that our religion is not a rulebook, but a sacrifice of our hearts. Just because we steer clear of the most visible sins, doesn't mean we are more righteous than anyone else, or righteous at all. In fact, if we never drank, smoked, did drugs, had sex or cussed but had no relationship with Christ, our hearts would be just as evil as someone who did all of the above. Let's face it, we need Christ as much as the most disgusting person we can imagine. So in Christ, I am rescued from myself, from the evil desires of my heart, and the sorrow of my soul. Christ has forgiven me and set me free, and He is continuing to heal me from the pain in my soul that life put there. And only through relationship with him can I live a satisfying life. I am no different than any man, and if I abandoned Christ, I would be just as sinful as anyone else. My actions don’t make me Holy, Christ’s sacrifice did. So don’t take pride in what you don’t do, have humility and remember what you struggle with, remember what you’d be like without Christ, remember how reliant we are on him. And don’t judge the lowest in our society to harshly. And I need to learn these lessons more than anyone reading this.

Culture Shock - Uncensored

The following is a silly story designed for the eMi East Africa website, the culture shock section. It was supposed to inform future interns and volunteers about some things they might find frustrating in Uganda. The final published version is significantly cut, much more tame, and even includes a disclaimer. Lousy editors. But, I decided to preserve this story here. Remember, this is written to someone who is about to go to Uganda to serve at eMi for a period of their life. The story is a collection of true stories people here have experienced put into a narrative about someone who just arrived in Uganda. In other words, it's real. Here it is: Culture Shock You read every millimeter of this website along with the Ugandan culture book, you have an encyclopedic knowledge of Museveni’s presidency; you volunteered for several invisible children screenings at your university, you even sought out 13 Ugandan’s in your town and had dinner with them. You were ready for Uganda, or so you thought. In the dead of night your flight is about to land and you look out the window to see Africa up close for the first time, and you are surprised to see nothing at all. Blackness, along with about two or three cars. Then you land and look out the window and see that the strobe light on the tip of your plane’s wing has attracted a swarm of large insects equal in number to the population of Wyoming. You get off the plane, get your luggage and exit the airport terminal. The first thing to catch your eye is a mass of chickens tied to a small van. Then you learn that this van is how you and 13 other passengers plus luggage are getting to Kampala. You have never been so squished in a car in your life, you wonder if anyone’s legs can fit in these seats and the lady nursing next to you isn’t helping anything. You almost gag when you notice she’s nursing twins. Then there is what’s going on outside the car. Aside from the awkwardness of driving on the left side of the road and no street lights, the driver seems to be in a rush. He is constantly honking at people while passing and swerving into oncoming traffic. At the same time there are Boda Boda’s (small motorcycles) everywhere, who appear to be allowed to drive anywhere there is space for them to fit. One of them was even carrying 13 foam mattresses (yes, you counted). Another had a row of chickens tied to the handle bars, with a rooster hanging near the center. If it tilted it’s head, just a little bit, it’s life would be cut short by the front wheel. The bus finally stops where you see what seems like 300 other buses that are crammed as tightly as possible in a parking lot. High density seems to be a theme in Uganda. While you are carrying your luggage you were instructed to keep shouting “Kiwafu” over and over again to find the bus that takes you to meet the eMi missionaries. You keep shouting it and everyone looks at you as though you are crazy, finally one person looks you and says “Oh CHEEwafu.” You are curious why the website misspelled such an important word. After another crammed taxi ride, you arrive home and are surprised to see that your new neighbor, an 11 year old boy, is completely naked. He doesn’t seem to mind though, he stops using his porch as a slip and slide for a moment and turns toward you and to your horror says “Hi my name is Joseph.” Awkwardly you state your own name and he looks at you curiously and then asks your name again. After repeating your name several times he finally realizes that the word you are speaking must be your name, and repeats it with a confused tone. After your shower at 7 degrees Celsius (that’s Ugandan for very very cold) you lie down in bed at last. Before you are rested the roosters start crowing, and continue to for the remaining four hours of night. Then you wake up and realize you left your razor back home. That’s ok, they will surely have something acceptable at the grocery store. Once you acquire some schillings, you head to the grocery store and ask for a razor, you are told to go to a different grocery store. This occurs at least eight more times before you finally conclude that you will have to email Mom back home and request your first care package. You find an internet cafe and learn that slow internet connection refers to something quite different back home. After 13 minutes of loading, you finally get to the page that allows you to type your message. You type out an email explaining that you are safely in Uganda and requests a razor. You press send. The next page that pops up is, alas, the error page. You click back and then type the entire thing out again, press send and by then your email service has timed out. You have now experienced culture shock. Your preparations are futile. You will experience this while you are in Uganda. The question now is… How will you react?

Risk Management Vs. Luke

Shrewd as Serpents. That is one of many things we Christians are called to be. We are not to be foolish. We are not to throw our lives away wastefully. We are not to wear a T-shirt that with a cartoon representation of Muhammad when we are going to Ahmadinejad’s house for dinner. We are not to hold a King Cobra claiming our lives are in God’s hands and if he wants to strike us down he can do so whether we hold a snake or not, Although if you are doing that, I wouldn’t doubt our maker would take the convenient opportunity to get rid of you. But… We are also called to risk our lives for the gospel. We all know the stories, the Martyrs and the Underground church. We all have a deep respect for martyrs in places like Iran or China, and hold them as the strongest of our faith. We’ve all asked ourselves “Would I deny Christ if I were tortured? Is my faith as weak as Peter’s was that night?” Yet we know in our hearts we will probably not ever be in a situation where the answers to such questions will be tested. My answers are tested in Uganda in a way I didn’t expect. I am a transportation guy. The economics, risks, benefits and disadvantages to different systems of transportation have fascinated me since I wrote a report on air bags in my college technical writing class. So naturally when I observed the needless and foolish risks Ugandan’s take on the road I was both disgusted and terrified. Imagine what the roads would be like if there were no traffic lights, no signs, no stripes and no law enforcement, where if someone is hit by a car, the liability lies on the pedestrian and not the driver, where right of way is determined by the size of your vehicle. It’s madness. Drivers casually swerve into oncoming traffic to pass people. Motorcycles drive anywhere that space exists for them to fit. No one wears a seatbelt. Not only do cars not slow down for pedestrians, they don’t even stop accelerating. If you are hit by a car and survive but cause damage to the car, the driver can take you to court, sue you for the damage you caused to their car, and win. But if the driver hits someone’s goat, they are liable and have to pay a fine. Whenever I am in a car, I am terrified. Although this has a positive effect on my prayer life, my mental health suffers. Adjusting to the transportation system is more difficult for me than any other aspect of Ugandan life. After all, dying in a car accident isn’t martyrdom. It sure would seem like a foolish waste if I died on the streets of Uganda. Or would it? Is living in Uganda and dealing with the transportation system here risking my life for the gospel, or can you only do that with the underground church? Yesterday I read the following verse, and I will end what I have to say here because the verse speaks more powerfully than anything I could write. Needless to say, the words of Jesus changed my perspective. Luke 9:24 "If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it."