On December 12, 2009, our Yesu Akwagala Churches in Uganda Africa, held a 14 couple mass wedding.
Traditionally in the months of November and December are big wedding months in Uganda. It is when the national schools are out for their longest break of the year. Most Ugandans have finished school. Ugandans also like to start a new year in a new way and what more appropriate than to have your wedding.
In our church organization here in Uganda we promote marriage as a institution that God has blessed and shows his favor through. As with many cultures a common way to wed is to just take up a wife and live together. In the church we teach that marriage is best as done before God and witnesses. The Ugandan Government has over the last couple of years made emphasis on couple to have a documented wedding for spouses to receive benefits from the other spouse. Uganda Christian Outreach Ministries is one of the few Pentecostal churches that is registered and allowed to wed couples in Uganda. Uganda does not have any recognized Common Law Marriage rules in country.
Many of our 14 couples are couples that have lived together and have desired to be wed in a church. Due to lack of funds they have not been able to do so. Doing the mass wedding we were able to allow a couple to be wed for about $200 each where it would normally cost $1000 or more. This is more than most Ugandans can afford. Most of the couple wed this day where blessed by the church in they help towards the wedding.
This was a great day.
We have started our Holiday Season here. We had a great Thanksgiving with all the Missionaries currently in Uganda. We had turkey, apple crumble, pumpkin pie, and many more wonderful foods. We are now looking towards Christmas.
Well we have been here for almost 9 years now. We have enjoyed every minute. We have done a lot and experienced a lot of what God had and still has for us. We look forward to new things and new experiences here. We know that God is a faithful God.
Well don’t know if many people are still reading this blog. Brenda and I are both on Facebook. Brenda is better than I at it. If you haven’t already done so please leave your mark on this sites Wall. It is found to the right of this post. We would love read what you have.
Well we have been busy the last few months. We have a number of teams and individuals and have enjoyed them all. We just took 2 weeks off (kind of) and celebrated Scott and Dave’s birthdays.
David is off to Masaka to clear the land to build a house for his new project Doors of Hope. It helps by building homes for those that can’t. We are building a 12 bed orphan home in a village called Makoomi. Dave’s youth group from Maple Valley are coming this next month to get the house built.
We are also preparing for a number of teams and activities all the way to November. We do keep busy here.
I have installed an application called BlogJet. It runs on Windows. Trying to see if it can help keep things up to date.
“Computers are incredibly fast, accurate and stupid; humans are incredibly slow, inaccurate and brilliant; together they are powerful beyond imagination.” — Albert Einstein
Well we have completed a week of ministry. We spent time at schools, churches, and our orphanage in Masaka. The team is now heading back to Kampala and then off to Murchison Falls for Safari. While the team was here in Masaka we treated over 300 people and tested 125 people for HIV. We only had 2 people come up positive.
Well we are starting a new week here in Uganda. What we have planned is the usual. We have a team of 8 coming in from California. We will be spending time in Masaka visiting schools and prisons.
The team is bringing us some needed clothes for Bethany. She has sprung up very quickly and has already out grown most of her clothes.
Brenda went ahead of me to prepare the Masaka guesthouse. We have had termites eat part of the ceiling and it appears the cat has been in the house a bit. So we are having to clean it up and make sure everything is in place.
