Mt. Zion

Over the last month or so, I’ve begun to develop a relationship with a local church, Mt. Zion Presbyterian. The church meets in the “inner city” of Nyahuka, our little trading center. Living out here, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, makes it hard to believe that there is such a thing as urban ministry. But, when I visited a few weeks ago on Sunday, I realized it does exist, even in Nyahuka!

The church is located two blocks back from the market and main road. Cutting through an alleyway, the path winds around between people’s compounds and suddenly, a “church” pops up. It isn’t a permanent structure but rather several large sticks propping up some tarps. According to our standards of real estate, this property gets a D- on location. It is surrounded by bars and the scent of urine is heavy in the air. Children with runny noses playing with bottle caps, razor blades, or some other piece of trash hang around the doorway and stare into the church. Drunk men wander in and out. The church’s worship drums compete with blaring stereos.

A local bar

It isn’t a pleasant location. But the work being done here is amazing. This is a fellowship that began with Ugandan effort and is sustained with Ugandan effort. The pastor chose this undesirable place for a church, serving as a missionary to his own people. And the church is having an impact on this community among the bars and brothels. Two prostitutes have come to know Christ as well as a woman that used to sell beer to alcoholics.  And two previous alcoholics are now key leaders in the church. Mt. Zion has partnered with other churches in the presbytery to start a seminary to train Ugandans in the Word. They’ve started a women’s savings and loan association, which is a major step in financial development. Women meet weekly to put money into savings and present business plans in the hopes of receiving a loan to be paid back in 30 days.

They’ve also started a primary school—teaching children aged 3 to 7. I have become friends with the woman running the school and have enjoyed stopping by on a few occasions. The “school” also is not a permanent structure but a shelter made of reeds and twine. About 20 kids attend school there. Annette, my friend, showed me the few materials they had for teaching the children—not exactly what most pre-school teachers have to work with. But the kids are learning to count and write and we even managed to sing a rendition of “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes”.

I’m looking forward to attending church there, hopefully more often. As someone who has always been passionate about urban ministry, I figured God just had a sense of humor in sending me to the remote jungle reaches of Uganda. But even here, he has shown me opportunities in the “inner city”. Each step I take in becoming more involved in the church is also coming with a lot of prayer (in part due to reading “When Helping Hurts”). These ministries and the church itself began entirely with Ugandan motivation. I don’t want to be the mzungu that enters in and takes over or even inherit roles of leadership simply because of my skin color. As I go to visit Annette, I don’t plan on bringing 25 coloring books and packets of crayons for the kids. It’d be fun but not very helpful in the long run. As I make plans to start a youth bible study, I want to partner with a Ugandan youth leader. Pray for me as I seek out how I can help in this kingdom work without being paternalistic or creating dependency. And pray for more fruit to grow in these new disciples!