Freedom in Worship

I know I’m a little behind, but this is the first chance I’ve had to write about our Sunday in Mbale. It was a great day! We got up bright and early to head over to the early service which starts at 8am. We got there just as the worship time was getting ready to start. Let me just say, the people at Pearl Haven (Pastor Wilber’s church) know how to sing and praise the Lord. I was wondering while I was singing what it was about their worship that made it so special to me. I’ve been in many types of services, other African churches, etc but something about their service is special. I realized that it’s because they are free. Free to worship in whatever way they see fit. They are true to their culture and don’t try to act like a typical American church. They may sing praise and worship songs that we sing in America, but only because they love the message of them. They are free to dance, shout out a traditional African yell, have fun and even blow a whistle (love you Sarah!). Now a whistle may seem strange to you, but let me tell you… it just works for Wilber’s wife Sarah and seems to fitting and natural. The people who have so little by worldly standards show great gratitude to God for everything and are not afraid to pour out their hearts to Him. It’s a beautiful thing to witness.


After more than an hour of singing, Pastor Wilber got up to introduce the Howard family and then Cody. Cody got the privilege of preaching that morning. He was very nervous, which is so unlike him. Now, people in the service probably could not see his nerves, but I knew they were there. His concern was making sure his message was understood and culturally appropriate too. Some humor and illustrations just do not translate well. Sarah translated for him into Luganda. One interesting thing about Mbale is the number of languages used there. It’s a blend of many different people and tribes, but Luganda is the most universal there, so between English and Luganda, I think everyone got the message. It was a great sermon about salvation and evangelism and each person’s responsibility to share the gospel with others. This tied in beautifully because Pearl Haven is planning their first international mission trip later this month. They are taking a team to Southern Sudan. This has long been a dream of Pastor Wilber’s (about 16 years!), and it’s finally happening and it’s very exciting to see. This church wants to help spread the gospel all the way up the Nile River to Egypt. It’s great to see an African church having a heart for missions and to reach other Africans. The service ended up being about 3 hours long.  Cody didn’t preach that whole time, but after he spoke Wilber got up to talk about the Sudan trip, the funds needed, and then held a special prayer time for the trip. It was a long service, but guess what… no one complained, except for Mercy who had enough after about 2 hours. Ha! We stayed for the 2nd service as well, which was equally as wonderful. Jeremy preached in this service and talked about finding the will of God for your life. Again, Mercy had had enough, but the parts I heard were great.

That evening we went over to Wilber and Sarah’s house for dinner. This is always a blessing! There is very yummy food and great fellowship. Also, for my birthday I told Wilber I wanted some of his famous avocado juice. I know it may sound disgusting, but I promise it’s delicious. Once you get past the fact that it looks like Nickelodeon Slime, you will enjoy it. It’s made from avocados, lemons, and sugar and is the consistency of a smoothie. We’re going to try to recreate it today. We had a great time visiting. Wilber got to share a lot with Beth and Jeremy about his story, ministry, and vision for the future. They got to ask him a lot about culture, churches if Uganda, etc. I know at the end of the night we were all sad to go. So grateful for the Okumus, Pearl Haven, and great friends in Mbale. They’ve helped us in many ways along this journey and I’m so glad they are in our lives and that Cody got to see it all firsthand.