When we arrived Saturday morning, people were just finishing their meager breakfast and were cleaning up the ground where they slept the night before. Their circumstances seemed closer to the situation into which Jesus ministered than anywhere else we have been. So much disease and sorrow and poverty. Yet the crowd of ten thousand listened attentively and opened their hearts to the power of the Gospel to set them free and give them hope. Ralph Martin, Peter Herbeck, Father Tom Forrest and I spoke on the work of the Holy Spirit, the grace of the Jubilee, the Father, our relationship to Him and His love for us. Many people received the truth of Jesus Christ and were ministered to that day. By evening there was new hope and joy. On Sunday, the conference was devoted to the installation of Bishop Paul K. Bakyenga as the first Archbishop of Mbarara. (The Archbishop had previously joined us for lunch on Saturday and spent a good hour with us.) He spoke to us of the work of the Holy Spirit and of the revival among his people since 1995. Though this growing revival is spoken of in charismatic circles, it was the first acknowledgment we heard among the hierarchy that God was sovereignly reaching out to his people in a new springtime (rainy season) to the Ugandans.

Let me insert a little footnote on revival in Uganda. Father Earnest Sievers, the National Coordinator for the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, summarized it this way.- "For nearly five years we had made every possible effort to reach out to the people of Uganda in evangelizing ministry but, realistically evaluated, the net result had been quite minimal. Humbled by the experience we felt drawn to turn again to the Holy Spirit in a national leaders' retreat with the theme "Called to be holy. We wanted to submit ourselves once again to the sanctifying work of the Spirit so that touched by His power we would be better equipped ... And then on the last day of the retreat with

275 national leaders present, the Spirit fell on us."

That same Holy Spirit has continued to fall, and to transform lives by the thousands since those leaders submitted themselves to the work of holiness. The Mass of Installation on Sunday was our first opportunity to see the faith of the people expressed through the Liturgy . It was truly inspiring and fanned the flame of our own faith!

Monday we took a four hour bus ride to Kampala and to the Emmaus Centre for Charismatic renewal, an additional hour's bus ride from Kampala. For the next four days the team was divided between a lay Leaders' Conference for 160 men and women in Kampala and for 175 priests and sisters at the Emmaus Centre, headed by a German priest, Fr. Ernest Sievers, who has labored for 26 years in Africa, raising up young lay leaders in the power of the Spirit. As we conducted these retreats, we saw that their reception of the truth and power of the Gospel brought immediate fruit. Let me share a significant example. A religious sister in her 60's was abducted by the rebel forces several months ago while she served in the bush. She was tortured and beaten over every inch of her body for three weeks and sexually molested. Just before her captors were going to begin to chop her body into pieces beginning with fingers and toes, the chief intervened and released her. She spent three months in the hospital. When she was released from the hospital, her religious sisters shunned her because she had been raped. From someone at the hospital she heard about the retreat at Emmaus Centre and came alone. When she heard the Gospel preached on forgiveness, she forgave her torturers and her sisters. Some of her sisters had heard the same message at the retreat and responded. By the last day of the rally this poor sister was welcomed back among her sisters and many were at the closing Mass. What a clear triumph of the Gospel over the forces of evil and the dictates of the culture! People were healed physically in many and powerful ways but even more did we witness courageous and powerful responses to the demands and promised freedom of God's word.

As last year in Ghana, these conferences for lay leaders and for priests and sisters can help to multiply the fruit so far beyond even the rallies. When these laborers in the vineyard are given deeper teaching, ministry, and new hope, they become a powerful force for the nation.

As the week drew to a close we had to prepare ourselves for the second large rally of the trip. Friday night we started out with 4,000 people, again on the hillsides but this time on the grounds where the first martyrs of Uganda met their deaths on June 3, 1886. What an inspiring site for the conference. We felt the prayers of those first 22 martyrs (ages 14-35)! By now we had a much better idea how to address these people, many of whom walked or traveled days to come to the conference. They slept and ate on the hillside for three days through rain and cold and blazing sun. The only provision for them as the conference administrator said was "the million star hotel."

All our talks were done through translation into the main tribal language. Only 50% understand and can read and write English; another 30% can do some basic reading and writing in their own tribal language and the other 20% are illiterate. But God supplied. His word alone has infinite power and it touched their hearts and changed them right before our eyes beginning with the Liturgy celebrated by Cardinal Emmanuel Wamala.

We spoke on freedom from evil spirits and people threw their fetishes and charms from the witch doctors right at the foot of the altar. These were then taken and burned!

The first commandment is starkly clear in that environment. One woman who renounced the practices of traditional religion came up to me afterwards to ask me what she should do. "My husband died of AIDS, our only child died shortly after. I am alone and have AIDS as well. What do I do now?" My response: "Live a life worthy of the kingdom now. God will give you power to live such a life so that you may be with Him for all eternity where there will be no more mourning or pain or death anymore." She heard me and experienced peace. That day we also spoke on the power of the Jubilee and proclaimed the docility God was asking for and the power He would give to make disciples of all who sincerely gave their lives to Him. Preaching on the Father's love especially brought deliverance to many who had experienced only fear and authoritarianism in relationship to their own fathers.

On Saturday 6,000 people were in attendance and many were healed. As part of the conference, Father John Baptist Bashobora, a diocesan priest from Mbarara, celebrated a healing Mass. Some of us felt there was a special anointing on the youth and had spent our time there interceding for them. On that Saturday, during the conference a number of young children, especially boys (ages 8- 10), spontaneously drew closer to the stage and over several hours we saw the Lord visit these children. Gifts of prayer, worship, love for the Lord and commitment to Him were happening, again spontaneously. A priest whom we prayed with during the conference and who was being given a special anointing for youth in Uganda spoke to those children and will follow up with them. None of us were left untouched by the sickness, disease, poverty and abandonment experienced by so many, especially the young. But God the Father did not fail them. He came directly and ministered to them. Please keep the youth of Uganda in your prayers.

On Sunday at the close of the conference, 8,000 people were present. The bishop of the diocese called and asked if he could come and celebrate the closing Mass. (All the bishops had been committed to several installations of new bishops which coincided with our visit so that when he was first invited had said he couldn't come.) However, I think as the bishops met at other events that week and heard that their people really were being fed, that numbers were increasing hour by hour, and that miracles were happening, they made sure they came to see. I believe they too were built up in faith and several have asked us to return.

After the conferences were over and we were resting at the hotel, one by one maids and hotel carpenters and administrators came to us, asking for prayer and help. Some came like Nicodemus. On our last day there, we celebrated Mass together in the evening instead of the morning so that they could join us if they wished. Eleven did. At the conclusion of the Mass, one young desk clerk exhorted us to remember and pray to the Ugandan martyrs who were giving them strength to love and serve God. We were inspired.

Words fall to convey the privilege and the blessing of serving on these short term missions. God is coming to His poor, as He always does, but with particular power in these Jubilee preparation days. He truly comes to bring Good news to the poor, recovery of sight to the blind, and freedom to the captives. What an honor to be the hands and feet of Christ among His people, especially in this season of grace. (From Renewal Ministries, September 1999)

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