The Miracle of Kibale (The rest of the story)

To read the first part of the story, click here.

This is the rest of the story... Sunday Nov 11, 2012, at the Kibale BC (God’s Plan BC), we arrived to a temporary shed with a grass mat ceiling and walls, which was expanded to include an orange-tarped area added on the side to hold over 140 people. (Tarps are not as cool as grass mats). The people were already worshipping and celebrating when we arrived and greeted us excitedly. Songs continued, all teaching the biblical truths that will keep these people strong while living life in difficult circumstances: “Though I lose everything, still I will serve Him”. (This is the church GOD planted in June when the vans both broke down in the ONLY town inside a one hour drive. 19 young men gave their lives to Christ as the team had their own impromptu Crusade (minus us leaders who had returned to town to solve the problem of petrol in a diesel powered van)).  There were about 60 adults, Youth and 60 children present for the service. We were planning baptism, and, as the question was asked for a show of hands on who would be baptized, I asked how many of the original 19 men converts would be baptized. Nine men stood, indicating they were part of the original 19. Today 36 new Believers of that new church were baptized.

After the service, we loaded up and drove to other new churches where about 300 people piled into a rented cattle truck to go to a stream for baptism. 127 adults and youth were baptized from 5 churches:  36 from Kibale. When Agnatius had gone to the Kibale Baptist Church the first time after we left in June, there were only men in the church. He asked where the women were. The men said that their wives were waiting to see if Christ really did make a difference in their husbands’ lives before making that commitment to Christ themselves. We returned to Kibale for lunch served by the church (just to us). We had bought 10 loaves of bread in case there wasn’t food for the masses. We broke each slice in 2 and the kids impatiently pushed for their ½ slice. (The Pastors helped finally with a "line”). I had given out candy to the 40+ kids in the church and shared a Bible story with them. About 15 of the older kids indicated a decision for Christ.

Tonight we had a impromptu mini-Crusade under a large tree. After a message on Ps. 40, 111 more people gave their lives to Christ. (Time for another baptism).  It was the ONLY day it didn’t cloud up and rain in the afternoon. One man said, “Take those cigarettes out of my pocket. I’m giving my life to Christ.”

After lunch on Tuesday, we attended Simon’s Discipleship class at Kibale. 27 adults, 6 Youth and about 30 children listened attentively.  Two men read out of the 2 Bibles in the group, and people eagerly answered questions (and applauded the correct answer). After 1 ½ hour of class, a man raised his hand and said that he had missed baptism on Sunday (cooking for us, I think) and asked, “What shall I do?”   Two more said they had missed it too, and Hugh commented, “We’ll just go do it now”. So we loaded them in the car, drove a wild 15 minutes back to the stream again and baptized the 3.

As we did the baptism, of course, a small crowd had gathered. The thought crossed my mind as I looked over at them, “And what hinders YOU from being baptized?” After the Lord whispered it 3 times, I went over and explained to them what had just taken place, preached the Gospel to them and 5 of the 7 gave their lives to Christ. As we laughed about all the "coincidental", unplanned things that had happened, none of which we had planned, we realized "God DID have a plan". The Pastors decided to name the church God's Plan Baptist Church.