Day 6: St. Noa pray for us

Today was a powerful Sunday that combined with previous experiences made me look inward and examine my way of living, thinking and acting. What do I value, how important are material objects to me, how often do I place myself before others, how much do I love Jesus Christ and fulfill his commandments? We visited St. Mary’s Catholic Church and elementary school where about 100 men, women and children attended mass for the first time in five weeks. Not because they have other priorities but because they live in a remote part of the world that a priest visits only on occasion. This outpost is constructing a new church because the old one is falling down. The tin roof threatened to fall down on us during mass. The school has five teachers for 200 students including 64 kindergartners who have classes in this dangerous church that doesn’t have a chalkboard. The three classrooms are the size of a small American bedroom with dirt floors and a black slate chalkboard.

This trading center is next to a giant tea farm where some of the parishioners work. The workers pick tea leaves and throw them in a basket on their back. At the end of the day their basket is weighed to determine their wages which are probably very low. The farm has a factory for making the tea and living quarters for the families. Yesterday I thought the mud houses were depressing. Today I view them as a blessing that I could find a way to raise my family in. Yesterday's widow had a plot of land with a garden to grow food to trade and provide for her family. They had their private home and kitchen with their own chickens and kittens. It was a home! The families that live on the tea farm have a motel style room without the bathroom. Just a small room for their entire family. Their bathroom is shared as a community without running water. There is little hope in this section of Uganda. Without a good education these children will not be able to have their own garden or read the bible and reflect upon their savior's love for them. Without regular masses they won’t hear about how God sent his only son to save them from their sins and this world. So today when I was blessed by God to speak to people on the other side of the world through a translator I had only one message to send. That Jesus Loves them and he wants them to do two things; love each other and pray to Him and to ask his mother the Virgin Mary to pray for them and the world. As I settle in and prepare for a pilgrimage with possibly over a million Ugandan Christians my mind wanders to these thoughts: God loves them just as much as he loves me. Do I love him as much as they love him? Do I love Jesus enough to come out of my home when a group of people with spears call out, “Where are the Christians?” St Noa and all of the Ugandan martyrs pray for us!