I have now been back in the Tera Firma of London for a week, which has given me time to reflect on the recent trip to Uganda and Rwanda.
Uganda is beautiful country where the people are so warm and welcoming. I had the priviledge of visitng one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen in Lake Buyonni (see above picture).
However my overiding memory of the trip will be priviledge of witnessing how God is moving in that country. We met many people who had come to faith in Jesus from a muslim background and we could really identify the way that the church in Uganda is really equiping itslef in its outreach to Muslims. In Uganda there is lots of Arab money being pumped into the country, with people being given financial incentives to convert to Islam or other incentives like free schooling and university education for their children. However the church there is determine to stand up and boldly proclaim the truth of the gospel and is seeing many Muslims coming to Christ.
Whilst we were out there we had the honour of spending some time with a man could Youseff who had an amazing testamony of how he converted from Islam. Youseff was the eldest son of a very rich family in Uganda and was trained by the best Islamic scholars in the country and was even paid to go Saudi to study there. However Jesus called him and he answered the call and as a result was disowned by his family and went from being the heir of a rich family and the a bright young intellect to living on the streets. Youseff truely lost everything for the sake of the gospel and knowing Christ. No 15 years on he is laeding an amazing ministry which has seen hundreds of people from Muslim backgrounds come to faith in Jesus. He is a fine example of many people we met there who in the face of such hardship and persecution are truely living out the gospel.
Another amazing guy we met was the old Bishop of Soroti who when we met him and was a really humble, gracious and wise man of God. However this was a man who during the brutal years of Idi Amin and the civil war in the 80's had stood up to the injustice and use to hide people that Amin was trying to kill regularly risking his own life for the sake of the gospel.
The day we spent in Rwanda was a very moving experience and the visit to the Genocide museum was an unforgetable experience. It was quite challenging walking the streets of Kigali the capital where within my lifetime nearly a million people died in a 100 days. We all felt a real sense of heaviness hanging over the country and it was clear from conversations we had with Christians there that the country is still deeply troubled by the events of 1994.

Without doubt the trip to Uganda was an unforgetable experience. As a result we should have at least two people coming over to work as volunteers (PUMPS) next year, which is so exciting. It was a priviledge to be able to serve the church there and meet, encourage and be encouraged by so many amzing people. I hope I will be able to spend more time there and I hope the friendships that I made in that beautiful country will carry on. Most of all it is a priviledge to be part of what God is doing across this world.