Rain, Healing, and Salvation

Tuesday, April 29, 2025 - Budaka, Uganda

Another hot day this morning in Uganda. The forecast called for rain nearly every day of our visit this time, but we had yet to see even a sprinkle after four days. We had just recently planted new crops in hopes of helping with the cost of food for the ministry. 

Mugisha and I walked together across the field and I teased him, “where have you put the rain Mugisha?” He smiled and said, “the Lord has it, He just hasn’t released it yet.” I grabbed him and said, “well let’s pray for rain then.” I proceeded to pray in earnest for the Lord to bring us rain for the newly planted crops.

The church in Budaka decided to make this a day of evangelism. We split up in groups of five with at least one translator (English and Lugwere) and at least one secretary (to take notes). We had five groups of five (one for each of us Americans). The request was to go out into the community near the church and approach houses/huts with the purpose of sharing the Gospel, asking for their commitment to Christ if they are interested, praying for them, and asking them to come to church. I had no idea what to expect. None of us did. We left with an idea and the love of Christ in our hearts. The first home we approached, a young woman hurried into her house and brought out chairs to sit in. We learned that this is customary in Uganda–when a visitor comes, bring out chairs for them to sit and talk. We proceeded to share the Gospel. She shared that her husband is Muslim, so while she does believe that Jesus Christ is her Lord and Savior, she also must keep it to herself. We prayed for her - and prayed for her husband to have a revelation from Christ. We visited a few others who were attendees at a local Catholic Church. I noticed a desire to tell them that the Catholic Church was not Christian. I corrected that a few times and then focused on the truth of the Gospel. Upon asking what they believed, some of them did believe that Jesus died for their sins and was raised on the third day to a new life for them. Others, it seems, were in church for friends or family and did not have the truth of the Gospel. It was a challenge to share because some believed that it would violate their church membership or church family commitment. This was a challenge in some ways because of how we were presenting it–as if their church was false without even asking about what they were taught. A few times I interceded and corrected this thinking. The truth is the Gospel of Jesus Christ and our salvation is not connected to what church we attended or what pastor or priest we listened to. We learned that we really do need Lugwere translated Bibles for the community because none of them had their own Bibles. 

It was about two hours later that we approached a hut/home with a man laying on a mat on the far side. There was a woman who brought out some chairs/benches for us to sit on. The man stayed down on the mat. He was an older man (probably in his 60s-70s) and he said that he could not get up without a lot of help. His name was Patrick. We asked if we could speak and pray with him. He shared that we would need to come to him because of his leg/hip. He said it was broken and prevented him from getting up. The Holy Spirit prompted me to ask if I could pray for his leg to be healed. He confirmed and I knelt down next to him with my hands on his leg/hip. I prayed in the Spirit and I don’t recall specifically what I prayed, except that I know I prayed that he would be physically restored and be able to get up and walk again. After the prayer I asked if his leg was any different. He lifted the bad leg in the air and started pumping it in the air and said that it was better. He was still hesitant to try to get up. We asked if he knew the Gospel of Jesus and he said that he didn’t, but that he does go to the Catholic Church. Like in America, it seems some churches are content to teach many things, but leave out the most important thing - the Gospel of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. He was hesitant to believe and said that he would need to speak with others first. I was still excited to see him get up, but I had to wait for that. 

The woman that brought out the chairs was nearby listening off and on. She had some children that were small (probably age 3 or younger) and completely naked. She would follow the children back and forth and sometimes stop and listen for a few minutes. After praying for Patrick and speaking with him for some time, she spoke up. I didn’t understand what she said, but our translator, Felix, said to me, “she would like to receive Jesus.” We called her near to us. She sat down at the bottom of Patrick’s mat and just as she sat down a big wind stirred up and the trees around us shook. We all looked up and then at each other. Felix said, “the Spirit is present.” I asked her to repeat after me and we prayed the sinner’s prayer with Felix translating one line at a time. About one minute of prayer and there was lightning and thunder gathering around us and the village. Just as we said “Amen” and she said “Amen,” the raindrops started to come. 

We all lept to our feet and grabbed a chair/bench and followed her as she guided us inside her home. I looked up in a moment of feeling the first drops hit my head and saw Patrick hurrying to his feet and grabbing his mat in his hand. He nearly jogged to the house to escape the rain. My eyes could barely take in what had just happened - my heart was beating heavily as it came to me. Jesus just healed that man! I looked down at my own hands in wonder and awe. I should never doubt the Lord’s power and His will, but I still looked as if saying, “how can it be Lord, how can it be?” In this small room I stood while others sat down. I couldn’t sit because I was too filled with wonder. And I watched just outside the open door as the rain just poured and poured down. This was a Tennessee kind of rain - a torrential downpour with thunder and lightning.

The others sat quietly and the Lord brought to my attention the prayer earlier. I prayed for rain. Nobody else knew about the prayer–it was only Mugisha and I. One man in our group sat quietly reading, another (our secretary John) jotted down notes in his notepad. 

I broke the silence “we prayed for rain this morning.” Like a new lightning bolt in the room, “this morning,” I said, “I grabbed Mugisha and we prayed for rain.” As the words left my mouth, they all shouted and celebrated. 

We celebrated a prayer for rain and an answer to prayer for rain. We celebrated the healing of a crippled man. We celebrated one new soul in the Kingdom of Heaven. Her name is Maria.