A GREAT TURNOUT AND THEN A COMPLETE WASH OUT

The sun was shining and it was a beautiful afternoon as the crusade program began. When we arrived the worship team were leading and the whole crowd was moving and the dust flying. I don’t know when they started that song, but we were there more than twenty minutes and they were still singing the same song and with as much energy as the moment we arrived.

Some of the young guys from our team joined with the dancing in the front. There were some really young boys who were just amazing in the way they moved to the music and sang the songs. Our guys matched in with them for a while, but by the end it was Uganda 1, Australia 0. There was a very large crowd today, much more than yesterday. At the same time a heavy cloud was sitting on top of the mountain to the east of us. I asked a couple of the guys whether it would come down to where we were. The common opinion seemed to be that if it didn’t cover the top of the mountain it would probably stay alone the mountain range. The worship went on and then our guys did their songs and drama. Like last year, the mime dramas go down really well. Everyone claps and cheers and laughs pretty much on cue. The communication level is quite amazing. They are simple themes but do a great job.

Then two things happened. They had trouble with the generators and some lights went out and then the sound for the microphones disappeared. Poor Pastor Peter was stuggling to know what to do next. He called the people to come close to the stage (as if they need encouragement – different to Oz) and began to speak to them without the sound. I thought about the crowds that Wesley and Whitefield used to speak to without sound equipment and yet were able to be clearly heard. Pretty amazing stuff. But Peter’s concern was soon irrelevent because the cloud that was supposed to stay on the mountain had decided to visit the crusade ground. It pelted down and everyone rushed for cover. I reckon within a max. of two minutes the ground was empty – and I’m talking about four thousand people or so. Some were huddled under the few trees around the perimeter but they soon saw that the rain was getting heavier and wasn’t going away. The rest of us were under the tarpaulens covering the speaker stands or under the stage.

When the rain started to taper off we headed for the bus and home - when everyone got back to Patrick and Christine’s house there was a great time of prayer and worship that went on for quite some time, just calling on God to not let heaven be denied on account of the weather.

Earlier in the day the other members of the team went back to the very large primary school with bags containing over 2000 sweets, enough to give one to every student they were going to be spending time with. The guys on our team have done a great job connecting with the schools, staff members and kids. There hasn’t been the same opportunity to preach as there was last year because the time frame seems to make it difficult and there has seemed to be more interaction with the head teachers and the students have done musical items for the team to listen to. All of that is good, but the approach is different.