Namorupus Outreach Report

Often events do not turn out at all as we plan because the Lord has planned something even better. That was the feeling we had as we hiked back down the mountain late Tuesday afternoon.

The week did not begin on such a positive note, however. We arrived in Namorupus on Monday morning to find very few people. We were told that the pastor had gone to Namalu for the day. We wondered what had happened. He had seemed so eager to welcome us and had promised to invite many to come out for the event. What had happened? Anyway, we spent a bit of time doing some teaching to the few men, women and children who were there. They thanked us and promised to inform the pastor that we had been there and that, as we had told him, we were planning to return the next day as well. We were also told, however, that we should come earlier on Tuesday because the ministry would have to be quick since the pastor had plans to be away in the afternoon. A bit puzzled and discouraged, we hiked back down the mountain. We could not help but wonder if his warm welcome had been the typical Karimojong practice of hiding true feelings while being polite rather than a true expression of genuine interest in our ministry. Nonetheless, we kept our promise. Tuesday morning we began hiking up the hill around 6:20am, even earlier than the day before.

When we reached the church building, we were met by a man whom we had never before seen. He embraced us with a hug as he warmly welcomed us. To our great surprise, he informed us that he was the pastor, Lomer Joseph. It turned out that the pastor whom we had met the week before was his associate and was pastor of a different church which had been planted by Joseph’s church in another part of Namorupus. We wondered if that other pastor had waited in vain for us to arrive in his place on Monday morning. Joseph assured us that we need not worry and that he would inform him of the misunderstanding.

What followed was a wonderful day of fellowship and ministry. It was not as much an outreach to unbelievers as an opportunity to meet and strengthen brothers and to consider how the Lord might be giving them and us opportunity for future ministry. Pastor Joseph had canceled his Tuesday plans and had arranged for half a dozen young men whom he seems to be training for ministry, to come and sit under our teaching and to consider whether we were bringing good Biblical teaching that could be useful to them. Rather than us teaching through our materials ourselves, we were happy to sit and participate as he taught through our main lesson on the gospel. As he read through our booklet, we were very impressed by his teaching ability. What thrilled us the most was the way that he had the men opening up and examining every Scripture text that we cited, ‘to see if these things were so’ (Acts 17:11). By the end of the day, Pastor Joseph seemed to be extremely pleased with our materials and very eager to make use of them in spreading God’s word throughout the area. And he was welcoming us to partner with him in the work. He also seemed very interested as we invited him and some of his men to come to our Saturday meeting where we study the Scriptures with men whom we are training as village Bible study leaders.

By early afternoon we were thinking that we should soon begin the hike home. Pastor Joseph again surprised us by informing us that we could not yet go because our food was being prepared. The wait turned out to be another couple of hours. It was worth it. Finally, there on top of the mountains under the tree on his compound we enjoyed some of the tastiest rice and posho (cooked ground maize) with chicken stew that we had ever had! (It seemed so anyway since by then we were famished.)

We had left our home at 6am and we did not return until past 5pm. (When we were with Pastor Joseph we had decided that it would not work to return there any more days this week.) We were exhausted but we were rejoicing in what the Lord had done. We are thankful for the way that Christ seems to be working there on the mountain in Namorupus and for the fellowship we had enjoyed with a new friend and brother. And we are excited about the possibility of future ministry which the Lord might have for us in that place.