Sunday was another incredible day in Uganda! If you have not been on a trip with Show Mercy, I highly recommend doing so. Our team of 25 divided up into 6 smaller teams. We then headed out to visit and minister in 6 small village churches. The rain came down so hard on the metal roofs in some of the churches that you couldn’t even hear the person speaking. They had to stop the preaching and go back into worship until the rain subsided. These small, thatch sided churches, were no stop for the driving rain that moved the small congregation to the other side of the church. Wow, you don’t experience that too often in the America church. The different services each lasted over 3 1/2 hours but some of the team testified that it seemed like only a short amount of time. God was good to us all.

One team then went to visit a "hospital" in the town of Lugazi. We had no appointment so I decided to go in the office and ask the hospital administrators if it would be ok for us to go and pray for the patients. Because it was Sunday, nobody was available to ask. I came back to the van to give the disapointing news to Barb, otherwise known as "Mary Jane", a team leader for the Santiam team. She smiled and said, "Well, I guess there is no one around to tell us no then." Hmm, didn’t think about it that way. We entered the hospital and began praying for the children in the pediatric ward. One after another, we prayed and experienced children with burning temperatures due to malaria, turn from hot to cool under our hands! I had seen this before, but was so blown away by God’s goodness and the dramatic changes that we saw instantly. I mean, honestly, they were hot at one moment, and cool at the next!

We continued working out way through the hospital praying for anyone who would let us. At one time, Katie, one of the students, began to sing Amazing Grace over a patient. It was wonderful. A hush fell in the room as everyone became quiet and all eyes were focused on this stranger singing so beautifully.

While we were at the hospital, the other teams traveled to visit and minister in a prison. The students would tell you that this was probably the one thing they were not looking forward to doing. When they arrived on Africa time, two hours late, the prisoners were released to sit on the porch while the team prepared to minister a drama set to music. Some of the men didn’t even own a pair of pants or shirt! You have heard the expression that someone only owned the shirt on there back. Well, some of these men were wrapped in a sheet or towel only while they waited to see what this group of strangers had to offer them. After the drama, someone shared the message of the Gospel and almost every person in the prison gave their lives to Jesus! 

To summarize, God showed up today in so many powerful ways for everyone on the team. Some of the testimonies were that they had never experienced God like they did on this day. Another team member said that she had never experienced God’s heart for the lost like she did at the prison. Everyone had some role to play today and we all realized that we all have something to offer because of Jesus inside of us.  We experienced God’s healing, salvation, love, heart for the poor, and heart for us. I think it would be safe to say that no one will be the same after today!