"Satan is a Liar"

Spiritual warfare was never a topic I thought about much before coming to Africa. Sure, I had read Romans 8:38-29 "For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." I understood that there were angels and demons. But it wasn't something that fed into my every day life, of which I was aware.

I remember the first time I went to a Pentecostal prayer rally in Kampala, and I watched church leaders marching across the room, yelling at Satan and stomping "on him". Pastors prayed in loud voices: "Satan, you are a liar, we stomp on you. We cast you out." I stood at the side of the prayer time in complete culture shock, and honestly quite spooked that church leaders would talk to Satan. Satan is defeated. He doesn't deserve the airtime of a conversation. I know that evil powers are at work, but my God is stronger and it is the Lord whom I would go to to cast out any evil presence.

Also, back in the day, I went to visit an office and I accidently stubbed my toe on the desk. The cleaning also said, "Oh, Satan is a liar and a noisemaker." Again, culturally shocked. Satan didn't throw my foot into the desk, I, in my human brokenness, didn't walk far enough around. He doesn't have that kind of authority over my muscles. I belong to Jesus.

A few weeks ago, a young girl was sacrificed in the Soroti area. She was found in a pit latrine and the community is reeling the effects of witchcraft. How can someone slaughter an innocent child to appease the evil spirits? Heart-breaking. And the murderer walks free because Satan made him or her do it, or because he's too rich to touch. 

I have mentioned for a while now that the Karuma bridge crossing the Nile River has been under construction. There were rumors on the streets of Gulu that the spirits wanted 700 "heads" to finish the bridge repairs well, so the community lived in deep fear and kept their children extra close. 

If a gravesite needs to be moved, a goat or chicken is often slaughtered as a sacrifice, so that the spirits won't be upset about moving the corpse. A price has been paid and a ceremony given.

Some "Christians" believe that evil spirits have taken over their homesteads, so they call another "Christian" group to come and pray over the land. These so called prayer warriors dig up foundations and cut down the best shade or fruit trees to get rid of unseen fetishes and bring peace. Meanwhile, the house is now foundationally destroyed, fake strongholds are cast out/released, and the prayer team walks away richer. 

Epilepsy is often seen as a demon attack and people often praying to cast out the evil spirits.

In January, Moses and I led a three-day Timothy Leadership Training (TLT) on "Fear Not: A Christian Attitude about Spiritual Powers" and again, I was shocked to hear more stories of the evils at work all around us. Am I naive as a Canadian? Am I a strong enough Christian, because I just trust in God and don't really think of Satan trying to upset the world around me?  Oh, I know that the devil has tried to change my path a few times and he has attempted to fight causes and put up roadblocks in the areas where I have been serving the Lord, but I don't want to give him any credit. God deserves all the glory!

I recently read through the Gospels and saw many references of Jesus meeting people who were demon possessed and he set them free. Demons filled a whole herd of pigs and threw themselves into the sea. So, does that mean there is still demon-possession today. Yes, Satan is a powerful angel and a true deceiver, the father of lies. He does his best, but sometimes I have a feeling that things can be over-spiritualized. Some "shakings" have a medical condition. And some medical conditions can be a spiritual attack. I might not be making any sense. I am just typing and processing.

O ya, one friend asked, "Since Legion asked Jesus not to order them into the Abyss, but instead Jesus sent them into the pigs, does that mean that Jesus has compassion even over demons?" No, their day is still coming. Wait for the second coming - they will experience the Abyss. And since they asked, we can also see that even the demons are scared of hell. It's no place anyone should desire to go.

A teenager in boarding school reported that sometimes they would wake up at night and find the matron standing over one of the girls, lying in her bed. In the morning, that girl had no ability to walk and would be tremoring uncontrollably. Three or four times this happened throughout the semester. When the "victims" were taken to the clinic, there was no medical diagnosis for the paralysis. The girls had been "cursed".

We live in a broken world. When Adam and Eve first chose to listen to Satan, that changed everything for all of us, until Christ returns. Satan wants us to rebel, lie, steal, cheat, kill, and destroy. He is happy when God is forgotten, or our walks with Christ are neglected.

The Holy One is God. He is All-Powerful and He has already defeated Satan. Satan's head was crushed when Jesus arose from the grave. 

"You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe--and shudder!" James 2:19

I am a child of God. A coheir with Christ. We cannot be destroyed. God loves me and has promised that great joy will come in the morning. I am redeemed, set free, forgiven. No longer captive. 

Attendees of the course shared stories of times when they were surrounded by spiritual battles. One lady was so weak because she had just lost someone very close to her. She was stressed and her blood pressure went so high that she fainted. When she came to, she woke up to find local grasses were tied around her wrists. People thought she was possessed, not just emotionally weakened by loss. 

Another attendee was called to the neighbor's home on the night of our first day of training. At 10 pm she was asked to pray over a 13 year old girl who was rolling on the floor. She was "demon-possessed" and so our friend stayed and prayed. At one point the girl again fell to the floor, and the "prayer warrior" felt a tremor in her own body and thought the demon had left the girl and entered her. In the morning the girl was fine and the lady came back to class.

A church leader stated that when casting out demons, the demons first come to you. Then the demons meet the Holy Spirit and the power of Jesus living in you, so they give up control and leave. Then the person will be delivered. 

A lady called into the Thursday afternoon radio program, asking for prayers. She was deeply afraid. She is pregnant with her second child, but her auntie had called and told her that if she didn't offer an animal sacrifice the child would die. She is a believer and doesn't want to do the sacrifice. Now the husband is becoming wild and has stopped going to church because the fear is so strong. "No weapon formed against you shall prosper!"

Isaiah 54:16-17 states, in God's eternal covenant of peace, "Behold, I have created the smith who blows the fire of coals and produces a weapon for its purpose. I have also created the ravager to destroy; no weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed, and you shall refute every tongue that rises against you in judgment. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their vindication from me, declares the Lord." ESV

Another one of the TLT trainees pointed out that her father was like a clan chief, or even king. And in their land there is a structure, a home, built for a large drum. This large drum can occasionally be heard beating by itself. The king needs to come with the elders, some white ants (large termites) and some shea nut oil to bring -- to the drum to find out why it is beating. Is her father a witchdoctor? Is it idolatry? People are worshipping this drum.

I tell you, how do you just listen to these stories. These happen every day. I won't even begin,  yet, to tell you about Moses' run ins with witchcraft and spiritual warfare. It's a doozy waiting for another day. 

A tree is blamed, obviously possessed, because a man committed suicide on one of it's branches.

A small, angry child threw food at a sibling and now a chicken needs to be slaughtered to appease the spirits, so that nothing else bad would happen. The sins would be paid for and forgiven. I just read through Leviticus - yep, kind of sounds like old testament teachings. Hallelujah, Christ has paid it all!

We have two weapons, the Word of God and the gift of the Holy Spirit! God loves us as His children and when we believe in Him we are a new creation. We are set above and hidden in Christ. We may suffer, but the Lord will be blessed and glorified when we continue strong and walk with Him.

People carry so many fears, rational and irrational - accidents and death, frogs and dead bodies, cockroaches and snakes, nightmares and walking ghosts, chameleons and Goliaths, dogs and dark forces. 

At the end of the day, I know that Satan and the evil realms are trying. They don't want God to be seen. As a matter of fact, I think that Satan doesn't need to work so hard in North America because we are putting God on the back burner - materialism, politics, sports, celebrities, work, awards, pets, houses, cars, etc. are becoming our obsession. In Uganda, people cry out every day in the name of the Lord. People are suffering in poverty, corruption, and so many other broken issues that Jesus is the only answer, and Satan doesn't want them coming to Jesus. So, he makes a little noise. But we don't need to listen.

Even though the TLT church leaders were sharing some of these tough stories and interesting scenarios, there was also a sense of peace settling across the room. These men and women had their eyes opened to the saving grace of Christ and His ultimate power over the enemy. Plans were already put in motion on how they were going to stop believing the lies or participate in witchcraft activities, even if it meant disrupting family beliefs. God is going and He is already at work in their lives!

Dear friends, worship God and rest in His goodness. The evil realms have been defeated. Don't give Satan any unnecessary authority or credit. Only God is all-powerful, ever-present, and all-knowing. Satan cannot possibly be everywhere all the time. Jesus is the answer. Call upon Him today! Jesus is a giver. He empowers and love conquers. 

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P.S. Where we live, we have found that we cannot play the boardgame "Settlers of Catan" because Catan is Satan in the local language. Oops.

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P.S. Again. Totally random. One lady, when asked what child birth pains were like, she said: "It's as if the grave the near."

My friends, don't fear the grave. Jesus loves you and wants you to be at peace. Don't dabble with the dark world, but walk in the Light. God's got you. He breaks chains and generational curses. He removes doubts and relieves suffering. Call on Him today. He's got you!

Here is a poem, written by one of the TLT students:

Percentages and Figures

During the "Helping Without Hurting in Africa" workshop in Kampala last week, we discussed many issues and looked at how to alleviate poverty and support the vulnerable. Some of the topics included: 

• What is poverty?
• Broken Relationships in Africa
• Fighting Poverty Through Reconciliation
• Relief, Rehabilitation, and Development
• Broken Systems
• Prosperity Gospel
• Benevolence
• and much more

One afternoon, we were talking about ways we could better support people with physical disabilities and a few church leaders were finally grasping that many people are outcast simply because there are no wheelchair ramps and accessibility points. So, just after that discussion, we were given a scenario:

"If a donor gave $1000 USD to our training group today, how should that money be spent to benefit our group and improve our training location?"

The group was divided into two. Males and Females - and what happened next blew me away.

The men spoke in percentages and the ladies spoke in figures.

 The men wanted to collect membership fees from the attendees, to invest in a future sustainability project. Then they created a list of items and percentages:

Training materials - 10%

Furniture & Accessibility - 10%

Consultant

Location 10%

Running costs 20%

Investing 50%

Membership adds 9,900,000

Identify our training group - 20 women

Budget - 3,600,000 Ugandan shilling ($1000 USD)

1. Toilet improvements - lights, locks, soaps - 1,000,000

2. Venue is too hot, therefore 1,000,000 for more fans or A/C

3. Meals should include fruits/juice - 500,000

4. More inclusive out of classroom activities

5. Improve the projector screen - cloth 30,000

6. Provide welcome packages - notebooks, pens, sweets - 500,000

7. Need of a wheel chair ramp - 500,000 or change venue

The ladies still had money to spare.

I think it would have been good to have a third committee formed of both men and women, just to see the outcome. Neither party understood the other at the time of presentation. Some people said they would never send a donation if they knew there money wasn't being spent on the assigned area. And others said that women never dreamed of tomorrow. That they just spend the money for today. 

The manual for the course summarized this scenario in this way: "When trying to help a community, it is very important to have people participate irrespective of their gender, education, race, age, religion, or disabilities. To disregard any group in the community will result in missing vital information and possibly cause us to hurt some people while trying to help the community."

Sadly I learned that even our little roleplay hurt the community. A wonderful Bible school hosted the training, and it receives all of its funding indigenously. There were church leaders and NGO workers who came from projects who are used to foreign aid or support, and so their list of expectations was higher and more entitled. The self esteem of a few of the hosts was injured because of the assignment, when the ladies berated the toilets. (Which I learned earlier in the workshop - people believe they have hosted well if their toilets are clean and presentable, and that was the highest expectation on the list). I just want to finish by saying, the hosts did a fantastic job hosting us for 5 days. They worked hard, the venue was spacious, the food was delicious, they had a photographer, a meet and greet committee, and overall it went very well.

People left informed, challenged and ready to implement a lesson learned. My goal is to help our church in Gulu develop a policy for benevolence and giving.

February Favourites 2025

 

We have realized that not everyone is on social media, and there are still some blog readers out there, so I am updating here once again.

Soul Sistaz started up again at church. 

Soul Sistaz is a Friday evening program of Bible study, fellowship and accountability. The Men of Honor also meet on this night.

While at a Life Essentials retreat, us ladies had to break away from the men to discuss the book called The Measure of a Woman.

And we "relaxed" in a beauty session. I was way out of my element as I placed foundation, creams, lotions, colours, eyeliners, and lip gloss on my willing victim. I wasn't so comfortable with extra make-up, and certainly no foundations, so the ladies volunteered to braid my hair. Ah, heaven!

We spent one week in Kampala while Moses co-trained 80 church leaders and NGO workers on Helping Without Hurting in Africa. The 5-day seminar had great discussions, great cultural insights, along with stirring emotions and a slight wonder of "will things ever change?".

We ate well every day - rice pilau, matoke (plaintains smashed) with gnut (peanut paste), greens, and meet - either chicken, beef, or goat. 

I am almost finished being trained in this curriculum, so that Moses and I can train together in northern Uganda. We enjoy training together, and it saves the budget of us sharing vehicles and rooms, :) rather than bringing in another trainer from somewhere else. The information is really too much for one person to lead the curriculum, so a team we shall be.

We accidentally, or purposely, came home with another sweet dog. ZORO.

She is a Boerboel/German Shepherd mix and should grow up to be a big guard dog.

Sunday school has moved outside for a few weeks because the hot dry season is upon us and fresh air is needed more than the stuff classroom. It's hard to keep the children within boundaries though.

The discussions were lively as we tried to discuss alleviating poverty or helping without hurting.

We were 3 expats in a room with 80 church leaders and NGO workers, and I must say that I was culturally and emotionally stretched. And I once again learned that laughter is how many Ugandans process trauma and hardships.

Moses did a great job leading long sections of the workshop.

He enjoyed working alongside the authors of the curriculum - Anthony Sytsma and Jonny Kabiswa.

I am hoping to finish the course so that I can become a trainer alongside Moses.

Moses bumped into one of our bridesmaids in Kampala - at the supermarket. I ended up going to church with her the next day and sharing a meal at her house.

We attended Eric's graduation party in Kampala. Moses was asked to be a motivational speaker and to pray over the graduates.

Three Sunday school children were blessed with a Bible, pen and journal as they aged out of Sunday school. One young man cried tears of delight when he received his own personal copy of God's Word. He just sat in his chair, with his head buried in his hands, and let the tears flow. Hallelujah.

Apparently some church members were missing me while we were down country, so they created this AI version.

Moses took me out for German food for Valentine's.

I love hanging out with my bestie!

Make-up is done

Feeling good!

It looks like we had another break-in at church. This time it was the termites who made themselves at home. I'm always amazed at how quickly a mound can be built up overnight.

After two years, I finally got up with Toto Hallelujah. She is one of my adopted mothers in Uganda, and her daughter Rose is one of my sweet besties here.

On the northern express highway in Kampala, on our way to the workshop every day. It's rare when the traffic is so light. Normally traffic is chaotic.

Moses invited anyone who wanted to play on Sunday night, to join him out at World Embrace's Gulu City park.

Apparently Moses thinks he's a winner.  :)

Church family

University students just love photo shoots. :) And we love them!

This week was a good week - I got two packages at the post office!! One was a book of short stories, that surprisingly contained a mystery chapter that I wrote back in 2012, as part of the Writer's Nest. It put a smile on my face to have another piece of writing published.

The second one was a delightful Christmas package from my long-time friend, Michelle. Treats and treasures, a note and home-made love from the kitchen.  Thanks for blessing my heart!

I wouldn't move to Uganda for the food. I would probably choose Thailand. But I still have my favourite foods here. And Rose's lentils (choroko), with friend pork, greens, and cornmeal (posho) is one of them.

Dry season is upon us. The temperatures are around 38 degrees centigrade and when the wind is blowing it reminds me of the times I have spend in the desert in northern Kenya. We think we see rain clouds in the distance, but it might be wishful thinking.

Just Happened in January

 The month of January is set aside for prayer and fasting as a church. Every day, everyone in the church WhatsApp groups received prayer requests that pointed us to specific things to pray for at UCC, in the community, in university campuses around Uganda, and personally within the congregation. 

Five nights a week, those who were able, gathered at church to share a time of prayer and then break the fast at 6pm with tea and a snack.

Then on the weekends all are invited to either our home or the home of our Pastor Jimmy and Phionah's. One weekend we hosted 17 people and two weeks later 22 people crammed into our sitting and dining rooms.

A praying family

I love the trousers I found at the second hand market!! Bell bottoms or flares.

Celebrating Erick's graduation from Gulu University.

Glad Grads

Celebrating the grand accomplishments of many.

The African sunsets glorify our God!

Hosting at home

Prepping for a Timothy Leadership Training

I made sure all the manuals were printed for our last module in the Kitgum cohort.

Fear Not - a discussion on spiritual warfare. Of which I hope to write another blog post soon. I learned so much from these amazing church leaders.

A lot of our topics keep us in God's Holy Word.

I loved these wooden stools at the edge of the church platform.

We have finished 6 modules with this faithful crew and look forward to having a graduation ceremony in the next two months. Action plans first need enough time to come into fruition.

Moses is such a passionate trainer

On break with the ladies

Moses loves these pups. Actually, they are already 2! They have been a great addition to our family.

New Year's Eve fun

Family portraits

Oh my heart!

Squeezed into Sunday school

Hosting again

Lord, bless this house

"As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord"

Joining together in worship.

Twinning with my bestie!

One of the creative pieces that came out of the Spiritual Warfare talks.

I found this paper in the church - it's the Fruit translated into the Acholi language.

Praying for break throughs from generational curses

During Christmas, a few kids gathered at the back of the church, to colour while the sermons was being preached.

Just sharing one of our favourite meals... fish. This is fresh tilapia, but I also love the smoke dried tilapia cooked with peanut sauce and poured over rice. With fresh avocado on the side. Yum Yum.

Come on over.