Testimonies From the Jinja Class in Uganda

Dear friends,
        John is one of the students in the Jinja class.  He was raised a Catholic in the village and knows very little of the Bible.   Towards the beginning of our term, I taught the story of Cain and Abel. Afterward John asked, "How did God know that Cain killed Abel?"  His question illustrates his basic lack of understanding that God knows and sees all.
    John has been attending the class now for the past several months and is learning a great deal.  The students' assignment each week is to share in their communities the Bible story they have learned in class.  Last Thursday in class, John shared this testimony:
    One evening, as he came home from work, he found one of his neighbor's kids crying and bleeding from the nose.  (John stays in a small
rented room in tight quarters with many others who are also renting.)  They told him that a certain neighbor woman had beaten the child.  The woman had a habit of treating children badly. She herself had not been able to have a child for the past 8 years.  John asked his wife to invite her to their place as he wanted to talk to her.  It just so happens that our story for that week was the story of Hannah.  John began to share how Hannah was barren and suffered at the hands of her co-wife.  Yet, instead of retaliating or becoming angry, Hannah responded as a godly woman and brought her pain to the Lord in prayer.  After hearing how the Lord answered Hannah's prayer and gave her children, the woman was really impacted.  It is common here for a woman in Hannah's situation to get revenge by harming the co-wife's children. (Polygamy is commonly practiced here in Uganda.) The woman was challenged by Hannah's godly response to her situation and how God answered her prayer.  She thanked John again and again for sharing the story with her.
    God is doing a great work in another student's life.  I have shared about Godfrey (pictured left with Nate)  several times before.  He shared this testimony in class yesterday (Thursday):
    Wednesday night he was awakened after midnight by the sound of a woman crying.  It was one of his neighbors crying for her daughter (around 18 years old).  At first, Godfrey thought the daughter had died, but soon discovered that the girl had just gone mad (not speaking, drooling from the mouth, and wanting to run out into the night).  She had been fine that day and went to sleep that night acting normal.  By this time all the neighbors around the place were awake and everyone knew that the girl had been "bewitched" or possessed by a demon.  The common answer to witchcraft here is to use "anti-witchcraft" to cancel out the curse.  Godfrey said his neighbors, even those professing to be Christians,  all started bringing out their witchcraft charms in an effort to free the girl. (It is common here to see "Christians" resort to using witchcraft when they are in a difficult situation.)
    After observing for a while, Godfrey suggested that they pray and ask God to heal the girl.  The people mocked him, saying he did not know what he was talking about.  Godfrey got one of his neighbors who was a Christian and the two of them began to pray.  The demon, who had been silent from the beginning, began to speak through the girl.  Godfrey and his
neighbor asked him why he had come and he replied that he had been sent by the girl's step-mom in the village who was jealous because she was "going far in her education"  Godfrey told the demon that he would have to leave in the Name of Jesus.  The demon told the people around, "I am leaving for now because there are people here who can make me leave, but I will be back at any time."  The girl cried out loudly and was back to her normal self again.  At two o'clock in the morning, Godfrey shared with his neighbors the Word of God, urging them to repent of their witchcraft and believe in Jesus.
    Our mission in Uganda is fairly simple: We teach people the Word of God who in turn teach it to others.  The Word of the Lord does not return empty, but accomplishes the work for which God sent it.
    Please keep us in your prayers. They are truly a lifeline to us!
With gratitude,

Nate Jore and family