The Adjumani District | Uganda Trip #11
Today’s thoughts will come from yesterday (Thursday, Jan 4). At 9 am, Mike Evans and a few local guys headed to a town called Kitgum (a 45-minute drive), while Stu Dix and I headed to the Adjumani district (one hour and 45 minutes), an area currently hosting 440,000 displaced people in 18 settlements (or neighborhoods). When we think of a refugee, we think of a person passing through on their way to a preferred place. The average length of stay for a refugee is close to 20 years! Churches are needed in this environment. Is it possible that a Gospel-Inspired Life can be experienced in this setting? Our pastors say “yes”!
A number of the pastors we are working with serve in Adjumani. We met with three such men – Joseph, Francis, and Godfrey – for lunch and to visit their churches. Joseph is Ugandan and has lived in the Adjumani district his entire life. Francis and Godfrey are both South Sudanese and fled to Uganda in the last decade. Francis and Godfrey have planted churches among the displaced of Adjumani, with most of their parishioners being South Sudanese people who have fled their homeland due to war and persecution. They hope to return home someday but aren’t confident it will be any time soon.
I was reminded of where I was throughout the day. First of all, lunch took over an hour to get to our tables. This gave us time to talk about life and ministry. It was strange as this group was not as talkative as I’m used to. They all have excellent English. I’m sorry to report some of them are as wrapped up with their phones as Americans. Secondly, when we were leaving the restaurant, one guy asked us to stay put as he ran a five-minute errand that became 45 minutes. We then visited the sights of each of their churches. The people meet weekly in facilities that are far from complete (see picture of Godfrey in his church), but they belong to God and each other and are finding that sufficient. Stu said a prayer for each pastor and church and we headed home.
It was a long day, with a lot of time in the car. We got home at 7:45 pm. The first 1/3 of the road back home was as good as any in our area–I may have caught a nap. The other 2/3-not so much. There were a few potholes that were six feet wide by three feet across and two feet deep-would put ours to shame. They do not blame the thaw/heat cycle for their potholes.
The temps are in the low 90s and the a/c unit in the car did a nice job of cooling us off. It is cooling off to the 60s at night, making things quite comfortable. The forecast is looking better as well, the forecasted highs of 105 for next week are down to 101–I feel cooler already!
