Attacking demons, the dead walking

Our last day in Gulu, God continues to show his mighty work and truly stretched some past our comfort zones. We started the day with 2 teams. LIfe Community went to the juvenile prison and LifePoint went to Lagutu. Ashley opened the medical clinic at the prison with a powerful gospel message that was the most effective yet. There were close to 80 in attendance with half of them asking Christ into their hearts. We are not sure if it was Ashley's passion and their grasp of Christ's sacrifice or their desire to be white as snow since they have no idea what snow is. The interpreter let us know there is not even a word for snow in Acholi so he replaced with hail stones. Nevertheless, we have not had a 50% conversion rate yet, so we might use hail stones more often.

When the medical clinic started we were all able to have one on one time with each prisoner that made their decision earlier. We triaged their medical concerns and prayed for each one of them. Of all the medical clinics, this one by far had the least severe ailments, but the spiritual needs were greater and unexpected.

Tim and Sam both had prisoners request prayer for healing and God immediately answered the prayers. One felt instant relief from chronic pain in his ribs, another had is hearing restored and another was able to rotate his neck after an injury that previous to prayer was extremely limited in doing so.  Praise God!!! McKinley and Greg on separate occasions had requests for demonic deliverance. Both discussed after the clinic and found humor  in the fact of the first thoughts that came to mind, "WHERE's PASTOR TIM!!!???" however, the Holy Spirit provided the strength and confidence to both and those demons had no chance with God's presence in those prison walls.

While Life Community was at the prison touching lives, Lifepoint and Eric headed to Lagutu to do some home visits and see the people who's lives they are touching through their support. Upon arriving in Lagutu, we were rush by children who held our hands and walked with us. We saw one of the wells in Lagutu that is out of order and talked about what it would take to get it back up and running.  Of the 5 wells that serve to clean water to the residents  of Lagutu, 2 are not working as a result of minor problems that could be fixed with a little money to service them. Then we went to the school where patrick, a teacher there, brought us to each class where we were welcomed with joy and rejoicing by the children who sang songs for us and danced. We danced a little too, mazungu style. Patrick passed us off to Dennis for our journey deep into the bush. If ever we doubted the bush was deep and remote, any doubts were put out of mind as we made turn after turn on small path feeling ever more lost. But Dennis knew the way and we went to visit some  of the villagers. The stories were all so touching and each home  was so welcoming of our prayers. We were able to pray for Dennis and his grandfather and hear their stories. We also prayed for a broken home of a mother who takes care of her 3 children while her husband is overcoming alcoholism. Another touching moment was when Dennis took us to the home of 2 girls who were left to fend for themselves by their parents at just 15 and 18. We did laugh though in dennis' home which he had cleaned for our coming. After Aaron Talley and Eric each insisted on sitting on the floor, Eric got the honors and went to sit. But while doing so took note of the scrubbed floors, and He asked what was used to clean the floor. Dennis quickly stated cow dung just as eric's hand hit the floor. Upon hearing it, he busted out laughing and was unable to stop. Not to be outdone by the other team, we too tackled a spiritual warfare opportunity when  a mother asked us all to pray for her son who she believed was demon possessed Aaron, Laurie, Kelly and Flow (Chris) united together and RBR'd the demons (RBR-rebuked, bound and released).

It was a beautiful trip, getting to see the town that Lifepoint is sponsoring in such a light and putting a face to who we are helping out. After finding our way out of the brush, we headed back towards Gulu to meet up with the medical team for lunch.

So much that God Has blessed us to be a part of, it's hard to say something as a highlight, but we were all looking forward to this afternoon as we all went to Lajwatek to spend some time with Esther, the one who was dead for 3 days and God brought her back to life. Of course, it's not every day you get to speak to a former dead person that is not a zombie (apparently Chris and Joan are/were zombie movie watchers ).  Even though we have all heard Esther's story, hearing the details directly from her was incredible.