A Blog by Josh Agerton

TIA: Eyes Seeing

Posted on 18. May, 2009 by Josh Agerton in Formation, Uganda

We spent the morning out in the community visiting folks in Buloba. We broke up into teams with church members and just went for it. The door-to-door thing fits great in this culture. People love it. So we went into many people’s homes and just heard their stories. Also had a few opportunities to share Christ. I was so proud of our team. Some were pretty nervous about doing this but they all really poured out their hearts and loved on these folks. Amanda ended up introducing her sponsored child, Edward, and his mom to Christ. There were many other great stories of loving folks as Christ and planting seeds in people’s hearts that the church will follow up with.

Then in the afternoon we transformed a classroom into “The Buloba Community Church Vision Center.” Patrick (our Ugandan host) and I were the receptionists. Amanda, Pastor Isaac, David (translator) and Lauren were the eye examiners. Andi, Catherine and Morgan were the folks who filled prescriptions (got the glasses out of the right bag and handed them to people). Amos (translator) and Jordan worked the optical care center (telling folks how to wash and not scratch them). It was so neat to see their faces light up when they put on the glasses. There were some very sophisticated Africans walking out of there. You could tell it made them feel very special. We ended up giving out 41 pairs of reading glasses, and we have plenty more. So that’s what we will mainly be doing for the next 2 days.

Our team is really having a great time together. It has been an interesting lesson for me in building community. Our conversations have gone from distant and cordial to talking about experiences using the outhouse… all over the ears of our translator friends who think we are some crazy Americans. But we have become great friends with these folks, especially David and Amos who have been our hosts on the many trips before (if you’ve been on a trip to Uganda you know how much we all love these guys.)
So on the way home today our conversation turned towards my great farmers tan. That lead to the topic of “Red-necks” which is very hard to explain to a Ugandan. That led to Amos listening to “A Country Boy Can Survive” by Hank Williams, Jr. on my iPod. Then I had to explain about half of that song to him. Anyway, we are all loving being together and sharing our cultures. Tonight we are going to watch “The Last King of Scotland”…the story about the Ugandan Dictator, Amin. I saw this last time I was here. Sure it will be eye opening for our team. It’s very different to watch that movie in the city and with the people where it took place.

Our hearts are being knit with these people in Buloba. We are all falling in love with them and they with us. It will be very hard to say goodbye on Friday.

Tags: Africa, Christ, community, Glasses, tia