The schedule from here on out looks like this:
Today, starting at 1 PM, meet with Hassan & also possibly Juliet. President Museveni is being inaugurated today in Kampala to a 4th term in office.
Tomorrow, Friday, also meet with Hassan, not yet scheduled. Wedding rehearsal in the evening.
Saturday, noon starts the long wedding ceremony of Tony Hassan Wabutwa to Natabo Juliet at MBale Presbyterian Church. Likely give the Toshiba laptop to Jerad Odhiambo, or if not on Sunday.
Sunday, teach at a church, likely the Mbale Presbyterian Church. Once I hand off the laptop to Jerad, my only electronic contact will be by cell phone call.
Head for Kampala, near the Entebbe airport, where we will stay overnight, as my flight leaves around 9 AM from Entebbe on Monday.
I will be staying at the IBIS Heathrow Hotel during my 24 hour layover in London
On the 17th – flying home!
This morning has had a couple of interesting contacts:
I talked with Morris Ogenga at some length this morning, in which he was the most verbal and animated I have ever seen him. We were watching Al Jezzera television this morning, and Morris and I got on the topic of the Arabs and Israel. He said, with great emphasis and unusual enthusiasm:
Israel is the one to watch in God’s plan.
Israel has been placed by God on purpose in the mddile of a bunch of Arab countries.
The Arabs and Muslims, following Ishmael, are the wild donkey from Genesis, at odds with and fighting everyone, so that prophecy will be fulfilled.
God did this in order to show His sovereignty and care for Israel, and that Israel will only be saved, and the Arab nations defeated only by the miraculous hand of God.
We carried out this as a back and forth discussion, but I have included his statements because it shows where he stands and his unusual vigor and enthusiaism on this rather surprised me.
After that I spoke with with Jerad Odhiambo at length. He wanted to tell me about a ministry with children (5-17 years old) he is starting in the villages surrounding Mbale. His intent is to have all the children come to meetings on Saturdays and Sundays. He gave me a 3-4 pages writeup on what he was proposing that I will bring home with me, and talked me through it. What he is proposing has some similarities to Child Evangelism Fellowship, Uganda style. We spent the rest of the time singing songs and looking at resource ideas.
Jerad will have to apply to the government of Uganda in order to be able to carry out his proposed ministry. The main reason for this is to be sure that what he is proposing is not subversive.
Yesterday Jerad brought his mom over to introduce her to me. She is from Kenya, and this was the first time that he had seen her in about 10 years. She does not speak English, so our interactions were all through Jerad as the translator – all we did was shake hands briefly. She looked in shock, appearing expressionless, which at first caused me to wonder if she didn’t want to meet me, but was just complying with Jerad’s request. This morning I found out why she had appeared and behaved as she did: I was the first muzungu she had ever shaken hands with in her life, and she was just overwhelmed by the experience. Jerad said that she was later on rejoicing and excited at shaking my hand!
From Nancy: thank you all for your prayers on Vern’s behalf. Things seem to be going better than expected and I am excited to see where this all leads!
Tags: The Last few days
