When God Shows Up
August 28, 2024 - A GROW Story by Marianne
We hope that in the next couple weeks we will also be able to share stories written by the visiting team, and perhaps even one of the pastors who attended the conference. But for today, my heart is full and I desire to share with you my personal reflections on my recent experience at the GROW pastor's conference in Pader.
It has been 11 years since the last time we hosted a short-term missions team. Eleven years...
Was I excited when our sending church in Toronto, Bayview Glen, said they wanted to send a team? Yes!
Was I also nervous when our sending church in Toronto said they wanted to send a team? Most definitely - Yes!
The mission team had two objectives. One, to come and see what God is doing here through Emmanuel International. And two, to minister to pastors who are weary and heavy-laden with the the struggles of life, ministry, and poverty. The way we planned to do this was through a pastor's conference.
There is a great need for pastors to gain access to theological education. Most pastors at the village level have never set foot in a Bible school. Offering modular theological and practical pastoral skills training for pastors is something we would like to begin next year. But first, we wanted the pastors to feel loved. Heard. Accepted. Blessed.
And so, the primary purpose of this conference was not to impart knowledge, but rather to provide a forum to share burdens. We wanted the pastors to feel safe to share their burdens with our team. But even more, we wanted them to hear and support one another.
...........
So how exactly did God "show up"?
The first way we saw Him show up was in assembling the "Dream Team"!
The Bayview team comprised of four members. Two pastors, Pastor Terry and Pastor Tony, who could speak into the challenges of the pastoral call and what it means to persevere in it, while growing in intimacy with Christ. One prayer coordinator, Bobby, who made sure that prayer was ongoing during the sessions, and led times of corporate worship and prayer. And one accountant, Nicholas, who came to speak on biblical financial stewardship and who was...may we say, a little unsure of whether he really had anything to offer to a roomful of pastors!
Then, we invited our pastor from Gulu, Pastor Jimmy, to come and speak on the more culturally sensitive topic of balancing ministry to family with ministry to others.
The topics were covered. We thought we were done.
90 pastors in Pader
But God knew that this team was not complete. Just 4 weeks before the conference, from what seemed like out of nowhere, God brought along Stephen and Jane from the UK. Stephen is a retired Priest in the Church of England with a social work background and decades of experience in hospice and bereavement care, and Jane is a teacher working as a special needs coordinator in a Primary School and is also working as a counsellor. Together, they brought empathetic hearts and listening ears that made pastors feel safe and cared for.
Once they were together in Pader, it was as if the team had known each other for years. The team supported each other, worked together seamlessly, and faced the challenges and surprises of life in Africa with grace and positivity. When it was time for the Canadians and the British members to go their separate ways, there was a definite sense of loss...And joking about identity confusion, with Jane and Stephen having been adopted as honourary Canadians!
The second way that God showed up was how He used this "Dream Team" to minister to the pastors who came.
Truth be told, the organizing of this conference on our side was left a little later than it probably should have been, and we were unsure about how many of the 100 pastors who were invited would show up.
Ninety out of one hundred came! And the vast majority of them were there for the entire duration of the conference. This is no small miracle, considering the way pastors are constantly called upon here in Uganda to go and pray for the sick, officiate burials, and attend other urgent meetings.
There's an expression that says, "Half of life is just showing up." Well, the pastors did their part in showing up. But the other half of the life of this conference was in God showing up!
We started off with a ranking activity to help us focus our discussion times on stresses and challenges that would be most relevant to the pastors. Financial stress in the family quickly rose to the top. Remember our accountant who wasn't sure he had anything of real value to offer? Over the next two days, whenever you asked a pastor what they were most excited in learning about, their response was most likely "Financial Stewardship"!
During small and large group discussions about finances, a very striking underlying theme came out, over and over again. And that theme was SHAME.
Pastors felt shame for not being able to dress like a pastor "should" dress. They felt shame over when their children are sent home from school for lack of fees. They felt shame over not being able to sustain their families. They felt shame over not being able to host visitors in a way they felt was honouring. They felt shame over ministering to people in their congregation who are more educated than they are because finances stopped them from going further in their education. They felt shame over not being able to set a good example for the congregation in giving large financial gifts to God's work. And most surprisingly, they felt shame over people who threw their faith back in their faces, saying, "I thought your God is rich! Then why are you poor?"
As pastors laid out their burdens in the open during times of prayer and worship, we saw Matthew 11:28-29 occurring before our eyes. Pastors came forward on their knees, some weeping, to bring their struggles to God and receive prayer from the visiting team. One after another they came, and kept coming. And one by one, we believe that like the verse says, they left that sacred place feeling lighter.
There was nothing fancy or elaborate about this pastors' conference. No flashy displays. No plush chairs. No designer nametags or banners. No slick media presentations. But the one thing we had was the one thing that mattered.
God showed up. And when God shows up, you don't leave the same.
