Saturday was Sarah Muhima’s give-away (similar to an introduction; it can count as a cultural marriage, as the family is giving her away to her fiancé’s family, but they will be wed properly in church this coming Saturday), and like all good African events, was lovely, and took a little while. I’ll post pictures soon.
I asked Mark Muhima to come with me and be my Yoda so that I wouldn’t get lost getting to the venue, and more importantly, getting home. If he’d not been with me, I’d STILL be driving around Kampala. Since I had one of the bride’s family with me, we got there early, left late, and I had to take him home – all of which points to getting back home late, which was fine.
Until I saw the text, at 10:00 pm, asking me to join the team at UCU for church, both services, to assist with distributing communion. Despite being less than amused at the prospect, I agreed.
When I arrived at the vestry, I realized that the second service was confirmation, which meant that there was no way it would end in two hours (it ended up being about two and a half – not bad!). I guess at this point you could call me the reluctant (and self-centered) priest.
The first service was fine; the chaplain asked me to celebrate, which is always a joy. Then at the second service, there were just over 20 confirmands – not bad for a university chapel!
And then, God opened my eyes to show me what I would have missed had I declined to serve. One of the confirmands was Mugisha Timothy, the young man who has been so sick. To say that I was ecstatic to see him there would be an understatement! Had he been in school, it’s likely that he would have been confirmed there. But since he’s not been in school for some time, here he was. Then I remembered that at the hospital, his mother mentioned that he would be confirmed soon. I was thrilled that 1. he was out of the hospital, and 2. he was strong enough to walk up to the stage, kneel, and stand up (sans rail).
If that wasn’t enough, at the end of the service, he came up at the end of the service for the bishop to pray for him. The bishop started by telling the congregation that Mugisha’s life hasn’t been easy, and that understatement made the tears flow. As the bishop prayed for him, I was asking God to either heal him or take him home. The Vice Chancellor was sitting next to me, and hearing him agree with the bishops prayers only made the tears come faster and harder, and my demands for God to take care of Mugisha to become more fervent.
And to think that I had been inwardly whiny about serving that morning. Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.
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