He spent many hours with Hassan and not quite as many with Juliet, as well, finishing up the pre-marriage counseling with them. I was able to call Juliet before the wedding and speak with her also. Although she didn’t say very much, Vern said when he saw her after the phone call, she was just sparkling. Honest, I didn’t say anything noteworthy as I would see it. Apparently, she did, though.

Vern stayed with Morris and Aidah Ogenga this trip. Morris is the pastor there and head of the presbytery. They took such wonderful care of him, looking especially to his special food requirements (he has food allergies). Morris and Vern were able to spend a fair amount of time together and get to know one another. This was very good.

Aidah is a busy woman! She has a bridal shop that she runs. Because this is a very poor country, she rents wedding dresses, brides maids dresses and flower girl dresses. She also has the accessories they need for their special day. This provides much needed income for them – Vern says there is a RIVER of people through their home, and they feed and house many of them.

Their home is well protected, so Vern was safe relatively comfortable (no air conditioning!)

The wedding started on Uganda time – about an hour late. It was scheduled for noon, but Vern and Morris and Aidah didn’t even leave their home until after 12:15. Then the wedding ceremony took about 2+ hours – including teaching by Morris, the ceremony by Vern, the signing of the marriage certificate, witnessed by the entire congregation and a receiving line during which monetary gifts are given to the bride and groom. We suspect, but don’t know for sure, that this pays for their honeymoon.

Then they all walked over to the reception area at a nearby hotel. While the bride and groom do feed each other cake, there is not a giant tiered cake like we have. Rather, they have many small cakes, which are presented to specific groups and then other for serving. Some examples are: A cake for the bride’s parents. one for the grooms parents, one for the church they were married in, and so forth.

There is much entertainment – singing and dancing. And the bride, groom and wedding party at some point change into a second set of clothing, which is all coordinated.

Earlier in the week, he taught 2 times at the church, then Monday through Wednesday he taught again at CBIT, the seminary. Several people came up to him who had been at his classes 2 years ago and recounted in great detail (correctly!) the things he had taught them. This was such a reminder that this is an oral culture. What is said is remembered and taken seriously. The written word has much less impact, as most are illiterate anyway.

Sunday Morris & Aidah and their son Glen took Vern to Entebbe. They all stayed overnight at a hotel and then Vern left Monday for London. Vern was given some hot sauce to put on his food at the restaurant they ate at and he amazed the Ogengas by using a fair amount of it. He said it was fairly mild stuff, but their diet is so bland they thought he was burning himself up!

In London he stayed at the Ibis Hotel in a room that was so small he was quite surprised. But it was a bed and he was able to get there and back to the airport easily. They even had internet access, which was helpful – though a bit awkward in set up.

this space is about 5 feet by 7 feet - that's his whole apartment!

Hassan and Juliet

The wedding cakes

Yesterday was the first time on the several flights to Uganda that I have gotten to fly over biblical sites in clear daylight: near Cyrene in North Africa, the island of Crete, Corinth and the Corinthian peninsula, and Dalmatia / Illiricum.

I was really excited to see these places even from 35000 feet, and the last couple of places were under some cloudcover, but a few of the passengers seemed rather puzzled at my intense interest.

Then he sent this photo that he took from the plane of The one visible snow capped peak on the island of Crete – where Paul sent Titus to appoint elders.

Friday:

Well today (Friday) was pretty full:

I talked with Morris over breakfast about the things that I had taught at CBIT over the last week (Mon-Wed), and also the possibilities for placing a church building in Shisinyo village. He said that they could build a church there, and even place Hassan there if he likes, but that they would insist on buying the land, because the cultural and legal background on land that is given in Uganda is like with Abraham in the cave of Machpela. The giver can take it back. I haven’t had a chance to follow up with Hassan on that conversation.

I packed in the last premarital counseling session with Hassan (finances, life stages) while he was printing out programs for the wedding. He also told me that he had been offered a pastor position in one of the villages, but he turned it down because he was just now getting married. He said that he was offered the position without going to CBIT because he had been known to the leaders of the Presbytery for a long time, and because he had been trained at Holly Hills. I told Hassan that Holly Hills could continue to be a part of his training.

We had a wedding rehearsal this afternoon and into the evening that was not quite like any wedding rehearsal I’ve ever been involved with. and it started on African time (about two hours late). One of the three choirs that will be in the wedding was practicing. We went fairly quickly through the ceremony with Hassan & Juliet, and a few others, but most of the wedding party was not there, and we only practiced the English part, because the Luganda translator was not there. But if it is any indication, the rehearsal & travel time was about six hours.

Saturday:
After about 7 1/2 hours of the most extraordinary music, preaching, prayers, ceremony, certificate signing, and reception, Hassan is married to Juliet! Details & photos later! I’ve got to pack!

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!

But still I’ll do the wedding on Saturday. Heaven is the English translation of the name of her village.

I’ve taught at CBIT from 8:30 to 1 PM on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, teaching mostly on the identification truths on Monday and Tuesday, and mostly on Spiritual Gifts today. I finished with an hour and half of Q&A on anything they wanted to ask about. There will be no more CBIT teaching for the time I am here, but:

There were some students who are still there from when I taught two years ago. What amazed me is that they remembered in detail what I taught them two years ago. One CBIT student from January of two years ago, Justus, who is not at CBIT now, heard that I was in town. So he looked me up and talked in detail about what I had taught them about elders, thanking me for it, saying they use it alot. I met up with one guy this afternoon, Dennis, who was at CBIT two years ago, and has been a pastor in a village for the last two years. He also told me in detail what I had taught him two years ago about marriage out of Ephesians 5:21-33. Dennis told me he’s getting married to a lady named Angie, after Hassan gets married. Dennis also wanted me to come preach at his village church this Sunday, but I wasn’t sure if that would work out. At the end of class today one of the newer students at CBIT asked if I had brought any MP3 players with the New Testament in Luganda and Swahili – I had to tell him no, not this time, at which he looked very sad. Vincent, one of the elders, came to greet me as I was leaving CBIT this afternoon.

Hassan and I met with Isa late this afternoon (at the Wimpy Hotel!). His wife, Logose, was at the hospital with their two week old son, who has malaria. The little guy is getting better. What Isa and Hassan had to share with me was that when Hassan began teaching the Bible consistly at Shisinyo Village, it caused a church split. The ones who split off wanted Charismatic ‘Word of Faith’ teaching. So Hassan is teaching the ones who wanted to remain with biblical teaching, and those include the older former Muslim man who responded so well to my explanantion of the identification truths in January two years ago. He would like me to come see him, but I don’t know if I will have time or be available for that before I leave. Shisinyo is a village with only a trail leading to it, and it takes a bit to get into it.

Tonight Morris took Aidah, his son Tim and his wife, and me to Mt Elgon Hotel for dinner. On the way we dropped Hassan off at the ‘bus station’. He was headed to a village for some reason – perhaps honeymoon arrangments? I saw a few familiar faces among the staff at Mt Elgon Hotel, and a couple of them remembered me from when I stayed there before.

The wedding Saturday will begin by Morris preaching on marriage. Then I’ll sing Hassan’s processional with three verses of “To God Be The Glory”. A choral group will then sing Juliet’s processional in Luganda. Then a very long ceremony will begin, led by me, with Kurt Katzorke’s wedding ceremony sandwiched in the middle of it. Not only is the ceremony long, but everything will also alternate between me speaking in English, and (I think) Boaz translating into Luganda. I’m thinking I’ll have bags of ice cubes in my inside coat pockets for the long afternoon ceremony.

I’ve spent a fair amount of time with Hassan the last two days (since the last major email), and some with Hassan and Juliet together. I understand that you talked with Juliet, and she really liked that quite a bit. I discovered this week that Juliet is one of more than 30 siblings in her household!

Well, I have been staying at Morris & Aidah Oganga’s house, and their help has been taking very good care of me (James and Scovia). I’ve been waiting to use the Internet connection that was supposed to be handed off to me, but is instead headed to Colorado Springs with another fellow who took it with him by mistake.

While I’ve seen Jared (more later) and Isa (now a father of a 2 week old), most of my time has been spent with Hassan, and only today also with Juliet., in counseling. (Nancy’s note:  This is the pre-marriage counseling with them.)

On Sunday AM I taught from John 19:25-30 at the Mbale church for the first service, then from Romans 6:1-14 for the second service – good response, especially. It did make the Luganda translators nervous when I broke out into song in each service (two different translators). How Deep the Father’s Love for the first service, and I Was There When They Crucified My Lord. Hassan was at these services, and unknown to me, Juliet was present also (she sure is quiet). I talked with Boaz Mungao briefly.

At CBIT on Monday I taught from 8:30-1:00 on the identification truths (Romans 6:1-11 & Ephesians 2:1-13), and included some of the content from the early part of what God is Doing in the Life of the Believer. VERY well received by the students (and Hassan was there, too, as he hopes to be tomorrow). At the end of the time, some of the students were asking for a handout on the teaching, which may be hard to pull off this week, under the circumstances. I’ll be teaching at CBIT Tuesady and Wednesday as well.

Jared’s feedback on the MP3 players that HHBC sent over two years ago: Jared says that he is learning better how to go about distributiung them, just this last week 8-9 pastors, hearing that I was coming into town, told him to tell us ‘thank you’ for the MP3 players with Luganda, Swahili and English. Their requests from here forward are for AAA rechargeable batteries and solar chargers, and also, a way to play these files out loud for larger groups or for older folks who can’t handle MP3 players.

On another topic with Jerad, when I was over here two years ago, Jerad was interested in his music, but now he is expressing more of an a interest in teaching. I’ll talk to him more to see where that goes.

Last time he was there his Blackberry worked well for the internet, but the new phone has 4G and apparently that isn’t compatible with their systems.

It will probably be about 3 days before I can hear from him again, whether by phone or email – one reason being we have no idea what the international rates are, and don’t want to spend a ton of money unwittingly.

Everything seems quite calm for now – that’s a relief! Please do continue to pray for him and for the ministry he will be carrying out at the seminary (CBIT) and for the wedding to go smoothly on the 14 (our 13th, pretty much). Remember in some wedding ceremonies the question is asked “If anyone has reason that this man and woman should not be joined together, let him speak now or forever hold his peace.”? Well, they take that seriously and people are known to stand up and object! Pray that will not be so for Hassan and Juliet.

Whew! Finally, I get to come up for air. Eli has kept me very, very busy! Good and worthwhile times, but busy. My plane to Uganda doesn’t leave until just after 4 PM today, and I can spend most of that time until about 1 PM ‘catching up’.

After I arrived in Prague on Monday evening, Eli and her friend Martina took me by public transit to the home of Billy & Adrianne. He, an AIA missionary, is from the Atlanta, GA area, and she is from Tulsa, OK. They have three kids: an 8 year old girl, a 6 year old boy, and a 3 year old boy. They have been very gracious hosts, especially since Eli has had me very busy – hardly home until this morning. At first Billy could joke with the kids that I was a mystery man, since the kids didn’t get to actually see me until the last 24 hours. Both Billy & Adrianne seem pretty consistent about spending time in the word of God. Billy says that Czech is an Atheist Belt, like the US has a Bible Belt. He says that many in Czech view belief in God as similar to UFO abduction fanaticism – fringe freakiness.

I was very glad that you passed along how to get the Blackberry to work in Czech. I assume that I will need to do something similar in Uganda. I’ve been using the laptop (Toshiba) and the Blackberry quite a bit on this trip. (Nancy’s note:  at first his phone didn’t work -he just needed to tell is where he was!)

On Tuesday I went to class with Eli, answering questions mostly about Uganda, and what I have done / will do there. These were English classes, in which the conversations were to be in English (which is good for me, since I did not speak Czech). Eli’s co-teacher in these classes is a Christian. Though it is a public school, I was allowed freedom to speak about the Lord, and the Bible in some degree. For lunch, Eli and two of her fellow Christian teachers took me to lunch, in which we had quite a deep conversation. One of them is a single lady (Icha – sp?) who expressed repeated interest in studying with us at Holly Hills, though it would have to be mostly from a distance, since free time and funds would limit her ability to travel back and forth to the US a great deal. The other, David, is suffering greatly from a marriage that has fallen apart, with two boys who stay with their highly educated but spiritually disinterested mother, so I counseled with him, mostly using two single ladies (Eli & Icha) as interpreters. His heart is aching, and the pain is compounded by the concurrent marriage breakup of his own (Vineyard) pastor and his wife. He is realizing that the Vineyard background is not helpful. We talked substantially about biblical counseling and what the Bible says about marriage, and about grace. To the extent that time and translation allowed, we talked about David’s marriage problems and what the Bible said about them. I’ll have to write later about what I have seen of Czech pastors (oh, my!).

Tuesday evening I spoke at a newly formed Christian group called ‘Connections’, consisting of high school to young adult ages. Several of those attending were Eli’s Christian friends from her school and even their students. Topic: Evolution & the Bible. I used some Powerpoint slides gleaned from earlier HHBC presentations on that topic. Very good response from the group (about 15-20), and some from that night made sure that that they came the next night. About a half dozen of them stuck around for quite some time to ask questions. Eli translated for the presentation, since the understanding of English in the group varies – especially my English . This meeting was held fairly close to Billy & Adrianna’s home.

Wednesday AM I got up about 3:30 AM to get the Uganda schedule reinstated and to communicate with the Ugandans about it. FYI: There have been no new reports of riots, etc. in Uganda since last week, and there have been other Christian workers coming into Uganda in the last week.

Wednesday was more intense than Tuesday in Eli’s classes, as Eli and I spent the whole day teaching together on Church History and Bible Interpretation in her literature classes. We used the slide set from the Holly Hills Church History elective. Both of us were tired from the day – pretty intense. I skipped lunch – too busy with classes, students, questions, etc. Some of the students were those I had seen the day before, and at the Tuesday evening gathering – and I would see them Wednesday evening as well. In the middle of the afternoon I called Hassan quickly to make sure that arrangments for my arrival were on course. When there was a time to ask questions of me in one of Eli’s classes, most of the questions were about atheism (Here’s one: how many atheists were there in the early American colonies?) and my own belief in God, since I am a pastor.

Wednesday evening we gathered at Eli’s home, where she lives with two other roommates. At first Eli had me meet with a young man, age 21, Martin (accent on the ‘i’), who is a first year theological student at the state school, the Charles University, and a bit later his friend and fellow first year student, Victor, joined us. As I talked to them both, it became apparent that neither one of them had any idea how off the track their theological program at the secular Charles University was. It also became apparent that neither one of them had room in their schedules to accommodate any involvement with Holly Hills. As they talked about their degree programs, readings, ongoing and anticipated ministry involvement and future hopes after theological school, I struggled to suppress my deep disappointment. Shortly others began to arrive, and by 7 PM we began, though others continued to arrive as well. Eli says that the meeting typically has 0-2 ladies present aside from her, and but this time there were about 20 present, including 5-6 guys (usually there are no guys present). Using a Powerpoint slide set I had assembled from prior studies in Isaiah and Revelation, I talked about God and time, covering God’s living in the eternal present (…before Abraham was born, I AM; …from everlasting to everlasting…), using that to explain God’s knoweldge of the future, God’s ability to apply spiritual transactions from other times to the time of Chrst’s death, and back. From there we talked about the basic identification truths, and moved forward in time to the Rapture, Tribulation, Millennial Kingdom, and the New Heavens and Earth. After that we broke out into a Q&A session, which continued past 9 PM, then the group broke up, with several more continuing to ask questions until almost 11 PM, again meeting with David, whom I had talked with the day before. I copied many HHBC files onto Eli’s roommate’s flash drives – whole folders full of files, especially since we were running out of time for their many questions on what the Bible says about marriage and a Christian’s sexuality (including gift of singleness and gift of marriage), loss of salvation, what about those who haven’t heard, what is grace, what do the identification truths mean, etc.?). Several said that the pastors in Czech are too few and poorly equipped to minister – they are given a deeply secularized heavily theological and theoretical training. Several asked if I would please come back – there is nobody in Czech who can minister biblically.

Eli and I traveled by the public transit system, getting back to Billy and Adrianne’s at nearly midnight. We talked about the meetings with the individuals and the groups. I told Eli that her two roommates were ‘gems’. One is getting married in August, and the other is hoping to be engaged before long, both to Christian guys. I told her that the two theological school students were in a program that was worse than a waste of time – very bad. When she asked me if I told the theological students that, I told her,”No, since I have found that telling theological students such things is usually met with great disbelief, refusal and resistance”. I have since wondered and prayed about whether I should try to talk to them about it. At this point I’m still praying about what the next step might / ought to be in ministry in the Czech Republic. Though the needs are huge, at this point I don’t see an equivalent to a Hassan, someone that we could bring to Holly Hills for a time to train productively with us. At least that is the situation right now.

So this morning I am considering the time I’ve had in Czech, and preparing for the time in Uganda. Planned for Uganda:

As much time with Hassan as his schedule and mine will allow. He is realizing that neither his church nor his culture have prepared him adequately for the marriage he is about to enter – and the Ugandan culture makes it even more complicated.
Teaching at two church services (still working on the topics / passages), and teaching the identificaiton truths on Mon-Fri mornings at the seminary (CBIT).
Final counseling with Hassan & Juliet, rehersal on Friday evening, then the wedding on Saturday the 14th.
Passing along items to various people in Uganda, including Hassan, Jared, and Logose.

In the past four days I’ve gotten about as much sleep, and about as much coffee (none yesterday), as I usually get in three or four days.

Please pray for his safety especially while in Uganda and pray for me to trust the Lord, because I find this a bit scary!

As for his time in Prague, he said that he has been very busy teaching the believers there. They are starved for good teaching, since he loves to do that, I’m sure he’s having a great time!

He said that he has seen Katka (Kaes’ foreign exchange student last year) a few times as well.

Thanks for praying!