Day-4: @Rakwaro Church

Joan Academy @Rakwaro

06:30

I woke up and had my personal quiet time, then I called Pablo and Abel to join me. We sang and prayed together before our friends Max, Peter and Paul came to help us get started for the day (fix us some hot water for bath, straighten our cloths etc)

08:45 -

We had a warm breakfast of fresh cow milk and sachet Nescafe with some sandwich made of hydrogenated oil,(not my best option but good) I realized that today I will not have some avocado with it because we have ran out of stock.

9:30-

We were supposed to have the vehicle ready to take us to Rakwaro but it is now late-I was told that the had gone to fix the generator at Sondu for film projection tonight at Rakwaro

We set out on foot towards Rakwaro and called the bus driver to meet us on the way. We sang some spiritual war songs, exulting God that He is the most high God, That He is the God of war and of peace, That He is the King of all Kings.

As we went I reflected on the words that the Lord has put in my mouth for this erring church that had broken away from the main body of the Church, following a leader whom we had all loved and trusted but who for some reason had allowed the enemy to deceive her leading her to draw a large portion of believers away with her.

This has been the biggest burden on my heart since March this year and many people around the world have been praying for what God will do in this church and somehow I find it imminent that today will be D-Day

We were finally met by the bus and for the next half hour to 45 minutes we bounced toward Rakwaro on the earth road that the good Lord had watered to dampen the dust that normally would be some problem when we drive on it.

We were met by a group of Toddlers and Kids excitedly chanting “Welcome, our visitors, we will never never forget you” and there was something in their spirit that seem to reflect the fact that they meant what they were singing.

They took us to Joan daycare and Kindergarten and I was amazed by the level of progress they have made with all the challenges and obstacles that they have had to scale since January when they started the school.

Nursery Class Room

It was last year after we saw the large number of orphans and in attended children that the Lord put it in our hearts to charge them with the task of starting a daycare center and voiler! They made it happen and with the scarcest of resources.

The school Patron Mr Samuel Odongo, a dedicated man of excellent disposition, introduced the staff and committee members and reenacted the moments we lived last year when we visited their community and the impact it had on all of them. How this had motivated them to put all hands on deck to get the project going. The school was named after my wife Joan.

The Kids gave us a performance and I was particularly touched by one open letter to AIDS, in which the little girl queried AIDS “who are your and what is your color?” you take away our parents and leave us orphans, AIDS please leave us alone”

Feeding the Kids

I started the exposition on Eph 6 and used the life story of Alexander, son of Philip of Macedon to illustrate our spiritual warfare, how a small group of men were able to subdue the vast armies of Darius of Persia. That what Alexander lacked in stature he gain in statue, his code of discipline and singleness of purpose was unrivaled-that while the Persian armies were arrayed in elegant and flamboyant attires, Alexander formed a formidable phalanx that in his time was the most dreaded weapon of warfare, impermeable to all kind of martial attack.

This is made up of a thousand able bodied men stand in files of 16 rows,

The men who constituted this Phalanx must all be fit and strong to bear their shield and the long spear that would point forward to stop any charge that would come against them.

I encouraged them to put aside all forms of idle thinking to become focused on the objective, not to be driven by gain or grains but to look on to the Lord for the glory of His kingdom, to conduct some spiritual exercise that would make us all fit to hear the shield of faith and stop all the firerry darts the enemy will shoot at us.

As I was still speaking and the power of God came on all the people some busted into tears and others cried openly and their was a small commotion at the time that I had o stop for the pains to ooze out. We prayed for about half hour and they were all crying out to the Lord – I could not make out what they said because they cried in Luo but what does it matter, the Lord knows.

We prayed some prayer of reconciliation and deliverance from sin, hate and anger to be filled with the spirit of of peace, love and unity.

After the solemn moments we went up to where they have prepared lunch for our team and for all the people in attendance, I counted about 200 including the children.

Our medical team had gone to their station to commence treatment immediately-I went to take a look and inspect them.

Medical Aid Workers

I am impressed by the high level of order and organization here-They had listed all the patients to b seen and seated them accordingly so this made them to work very efficiently and no one complained. This shows that a lot of lessons have been learnt from last year when it was chaotic here and people complained.

We treated 30 malaria cases, some gastrointestinal, Cough and others on the whole 57 cases.

We gave out drugs to mothers to de-worm the children, 40 units on the whole.

It give me lots of satisfaction to see the glee with which the kids are stuffing their faces and to think that this is the best of what they might have ever had in their lives, not some insipid awful mix but real well made food for a change-This is my joy!! I know that they need more than one meal, but am sure tomorrow they will be in our next meeting for yet another good meal. Someday God willing they wont have to chase plates of food no more! Food will come to them

19:45

The power generator was not ready on time so we had to leave Rakwaro for Bodi where we eventually projected the Passion of Christ-First of its Kind in this village; it was on a 4x4 Meter screen that we made out of whit sheets last year. The projector has such excellent luminance and contrast that the film just stood out in the pitch dark for all to see.

22:20

We had to stop the movie because it was threatening to rain, so we dismantled the PA system and other electronics.

We had our dinner and retired for the day