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Last night a group of about 120 people from many nations gathered at the YWAM Hopeland Base in Jinja, Uganda for the Welcome Event of the first ever YWAM HIV/AIDS Global Gathering. While the group was eating dinner the power went out which is a fairly common occurrence here in Uganda. I asked Sam Kisolo (National Director YWAM Uganda) if we were going to meet in the dark and he responded jokingly by saying that because we are the lights of the world we would be the ones to illuminate the auditorium. Actually we worshiped by candlelight and then Sam stood up and urged his fellow Ugandans to stand and 'give an expression' to welcome all of the conference attendees to Uganda. After Sam was finished he invited Garry Tissingh, a member of the ALT (African Leadership Team), to give us a little background and insight into the 'heartbreaking paradox' of all that Africa could be and what Africa is at present. Garry finished by mentioning that he is not involved in an HIV/AIDS ministry but since he is concerned about the continent of Africa he is here at the conference to learn. Steve Goode, in keeping with YWAM tradition, made sure that we all found out how international we are by asking everyone to stand up and declare what region of the globe they hailed from. One gentleman in the audience raised his arms triumphantly shouting, 'We're from the best country in the world, South Korea!' At that moment it was confirmed that this was indeed a YWAM conference. Steve turned the reins of the meeting over to John Dawson who opened the conference. Drawing from the book of Joshua, John reminded us of the blessing of spiritual authority that God bestows when we are unified; rising up as one man like the children of Israel, and yielded to Christ. John told the story of a European missionary to Vanuatu who boldly claimed the island for Christ over 400 years ago, to illustrate the far-reaching ramifications of prayers spoken in faith and empowered by the Spirit of God. To conclude, he commended the AIDS workers in attendance saying that even though he didn't know many of them based on what he had heard about them he saluted them. After praying for all those in attendance he sent us to bed with a "kiss from God." |
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| Report by ywamconncet.net |
About the HIV/AIDS Global Gathering, Uganda, 27 May