I visit Mto Moyoni (Swahili for river in the heart), on the Nile River, just a little ways north of it's source in Lake Victoria. A Dutch lady named Ingrid teaches us for five days. She has been a missionary in Uganda since the 80's, and has stayed through being slandered, robbed at gun point more than once, and shot through the arm.
The bad news is that the enemy has come to steal, kill, and destroy.
The good news is that God's love is stronger than ALL evil.
Five days later I get off the taxi in downtown Kampala. Kampala is big, and overwhelming, and I've avoided it enough that I don't know my way around at all. I'm supposed to meet a friend at a coffee shop. I'm sure I can find it myself, I just need to get to a street that is named on my map. I show my handdrawn map to the conductor as he's busy trying to get more people to load the taxi. Can you point me in the direction of this coffee shop? He squints at the scrap of paper and another man comes to see what is so interesting. Neither of them can tell me exactly where to go but a woman comes over and asks where I'm wanting to go. She starts walking and the conductor says "This one is taking you." What? Okay...
I follow her, trying to catch up while dodging venders and bodas (motorcycle taxis). I introduce myself and find out that her name is Agnes and she is from the north, from Lira, a member of the Langi tribe. She is a widow and her only child has also died, but she cares for several orphans. She is constantly walking out into the middle of the street rather than using the sidewalks. Bodas whir by her and she is totally un-phased and just walks even further into the road. I'm convinced she's an angel. "Were you already coming this way or are you only helping me?" "I'm only going this way for you!"
We reach the area and I'm tempted to tell her thank you and that I can find the shop from there. Maybe she just wanted to help me in order to get some money or something. But I decide to refrain and we ask directions to find the specific coffee shop. One guy sends us the wrong direction and then two ladies send us to "a cafe" which is the complete wrong one on the complete wrong street. Finally we look at the map again and find the right road. The coffee shop is closed for fumigation. We walk a block further and find a small local restaurant with tables on the porch. I find out that my friend can't make it to see me after all.
I buy Agnes and myself a bottle of soda and we plop down. It's getting late, and I expect her to rush off to make her way to the other side of town, where she's hoping to stay the night. Instead she sits and shares with me how God has been so good to her. How her husband was a pastor, and they lived in Tanzania on the shores of Lake Victoria, and how he shared everything he had with everyone who came into their home, even money. "He would want to give someone something and I would just look at him and say, 'My husband, you do what you see is good.'" She continued with a smile... "He was preparing things for me for when he would leave. After he died, everyone in the community came and brought food to my house on a daily basis. A big jug of cooking oil. 10 kilos of rice. 5 kilos of beans. Food just kept coming. People gave me clothes. Even now, people are still giving me things." She opens a brand new handbag and shows me that it is stuffed full of beautiful new dresses. "They said, 'You're our mother. How can we let you go without something?' My husband had shown so much love that everyone wanted to repay it after his death." She went on and told me stories about how God had given her opportunities to minister to people. Not even a trace of bitterness toward Him after losing both her husband and her only child. Only joy, and peace. As we finish our sodas and get ready to leave, she prays for me.
God's love is stronger than all evil.
