40 year old man, first time ever in a restaurant!

David is one of the most humble men of God I know

Meet David. Single. Pastor. 40 years old. He has been serving Namyoya Christian Church for about 10 years. He takes home 45% of the monthly offering, which is approximately 20,000 Ugandan Shillings x 45% = about $6.00. He farms some of the church land to make another 40,000 Ugandan Shillings 3 x a year...thats another $6.00 per month.

He began to tell us his whole story. He had been tossed around like a rag doll as a child, from one parent to another, then grandparents, then granparents in law, and back and forth, never belonging anywhere. He was abused and abandoned many times. When he was 19 his father demanded that he sign a letter, a contract have you, that would permanently seperate him from his father.

He had nothing, and no where to go, so he became poorer and poorer. He developed tuburculosis. People around him said he had less than a year to live. He was so alone and confused. He had no hope. Then an uncle took him in. This uncle brought him to church one day, and he felt loved and community for the first time. He found the love of Christ. He was able to take medicine for his terrible cough and soon attended Seminary. Within a week of seminary training, he was placed at Namyoya Christian Church....I guess to practice every other Sunday. The people nearly laughed him out of the village. His preaching skills were not yet developed.

He began to doubt his calling and was about to quit when some of his friends convinced him to stick with the Seminary training. Mind you, there was no "building" just a mud and stick center with patches of roofing and tarps at the time. Here is a man with what felt like the whole world against him...and he felt God calling him to start building a real church building. This was nine years ago. So he called the first congregation meeting to start clearing the land. David was the only one to show up to do the work. The next Sunday he showed the congregation what he had done by himself, and called another work day. He and one other person showed up. The third week, a third person showed up to work. Slowly, and painfully, they built the walls for this church. They made each brick from the local supplies on the land.

The church walls just 3 months ago

This man's perseverence is absolutely amazing. NINE YEARS later, we are answering so many prayers of this wonderful sacrificial leader. He is such a hard worker.

Melody with Pastor David outside the renovated Church Building

At church last Sunday, he mentioned that I had been to visit him 5 times, but the language barrier was too difficult and we never could get to know eachother. So I decided to surprise him today and bring him downtown Kampala for lunch...

Pastor David as our guest at Le Petite Village

This man is amazing. He has NEVER until this day eaten in a RESTAURANT!!! We had fun spoiling him rotten. He deserved this meal. During Lunch we were able to tell him about his monthly salary. He was absolutely blown away in disbelief. He said that this was all from God and that God was telling him, "see, be patient, I will keep my promise to you" Tomorrow we go to apply paint on the inside and possibly plaster the outside. Things are moving so fast in Namyoya! PTL!