April 12, 2018
Our second pastors conference began today. The host church is lead by Pastor Paul. A few days before we arrived pastor Paul had purchased all of the food for the conference. They are feeding all of the attendees 3 meals a day. The church was broken into and the food was stolen. As usual, God provides! Out of the money that was given to sponsor the pastors conferences, there was just enough remaining to purchase the food again.
The attendance at this conference is better than Bugiri. Of course, this region was not impacted by the flooding that happened 4 hours to the east. The worship is very different than what we have seen so far. In Torroro, the only instrument that is used for worship is a drum. The singing included so many different vocal parts that I couldn’t even single them all out. It was like a large orchestra of voices. Different tones and harmonies coming from every corner of the building. I’ve never heard singing more beautiful. All of the songs were in their native language, but Pastor Butch translated them for me. It was powerful. He also stepped in many times to lead songs. He’s a true worship leader.
I taught 5 times today. I think they would have stayed their all night if I could have kept going. Some of the topics for sessions were the same as the Bugiri conference, but God lead me in a different direction for a couple or the sessions. The sessions today focused on the burden of a pastor. It seemed the Lord really wanted all of us to reflect on the incredible responsibility that has been placed upon us as shepherds. At the same time, I am so grateful that God encouraged us as we looked at this great responsibility from the perspective of a sanctified vessel, called for a special purpose.
Today was the same as the last two days. They just keep feeding us more than we can eat! How humbling it is to see a people who live a subsistence lifestyle being so generous to us. Can you imagine if the church in America had this kind of a heart? Wow…