For a number of weeks now a group of men from the Obule village have been meeting at our home on Thursday nights to study God's Word. We have been working our way through the book of Acts. I was given a book by Nik Ripken called The Insanity of God, and while reading this book I began to feel a desire to really study Acts, not just read it but study it. The theme of Ripken's book is on the persecution of millions of Christians around the world, and how persecution for most places in the world is the norm. Persecution, trials, suffering - these were also the norm in the book of Acts. About half the book of Acts involves imprisonment or persecution of Christians because of their sharing the Gospel. In the west we have never faced persecution and even see it as a great evil that must be stopped. In reading Ripken's book I was able to see that Jesus told us we would face persecution and to even expect it when we are living in obedience to Him. Persecution is a result of opposition to the sharing of The Gospel. If we as Christians are out there seeking the lost and boldly sharing The Gospel, then persecution or opposition to the message we bring, is a natural result. Jesus told us it was going to happen. So as I got all into studying up on persecution and what Jesus had to say about it, I also really got into studying the beginnings of The Church and the persecution they faced on a regular basis. It was this line of thinking that led me to wanting to study Acts with the men's group in Obule.
Our study has focused on several themes from Acts but one thing we see over and over again is The Church gathering together, building one another up, mentoring and teaching one another, and then scattering to share the good news of the risen Jesus Christ. You then see the disciples making disciples who make disciples. As a group we have been challenged by what we see in Acts - that a true disciple of Christ is a follower, a learner, but also some who makes disciples. Disciples make disciples. To be a disciple of Christ who doesn't share Christ with others means you really are not following Christ's example and commands. He told the disciples to go and make disciples (Matthew 28:19-20). As I read about the persecuted church around the world it became obvious that for most of us in the west we disregard Jesus's words when He told us to go and make disciples. Now I realize "going" doesn't always mean you have to go to some foreign land, but we are told to go. So that must mean that as we go, wherever we go - we are to be about the work of making disciples. If we aren't going and we're not making disciples then are we really disciples? We are just church members when we are not being obedient to what Jesus told His church to do. Living in Africa it is just as easy to fall into the role of "church member" rather than "disciple" as it is living in the U.S. Being a missionary doesn't automatically make me a disciple who is making disciples - it's the Holy Spirit that helps me to be obedient to this most important commission. I can go through the motions of Christianity in Uganda just as easily as I can from San Angelo, TX. Reading about Christians around the world counting the cost of following Jesus and deciding He is worth any cost, and then bolding proclaiming The Gospel and making disciples in the face of persecution has really challenged me and our Bible study group. It has challenged us to examine our own lives and see if we have indeed counted the cost - are we willing to pay anything to be called as disciple of Christ? Are we disciples who are actively making disciples? Or are we just church members? It is even challenging the way I view persecution and how I can try and identify with the persecuted. So as we journey through Acts I think I am learning and growing more than the guys in my Bible study group, but that is not a bad thing. God is using this time of study and teaching to broaden my understanding of Him and His ways, to stoke the desire within me to study His Word not for the sake of knowing more stuff, but for His sake, to know Him.
A quote that we continue to go back to week after week is from Oswald J. Smith that says, "The light that shines the farthest will shine the brightest at home." Every week we begin our study with a brief overview of Acts, the history and Biblical and cultural context, and the key themes and verses. One verse we read every week is Acts 1:8 where Jesus is fixing to ascend into Heaven and He tells His disciples to wait in Jerusalem and that He will send the Holy Spirit. He also tells them that once they have received the Holy Spirit they are to begin witnessing, first at home in Jerusalem, and then working out from there into Judea and Samaria and finally to the ends of the earth. We go back to this verse week after week because discipleship for these men begins at home. As the heads of our households, as husbands and fathers, we're called to shepherd our families first. Jesus told the disciples to start working at home and then work out from there. I find that a big obstacle that we must overcome as we disciple our Ugandan brothers and sisters is family. Family looks very different here than it does in the U.S. You just do not see husbands and wives together, talking, walking together, sharing, sitting together. Husbands and wives many times do not even attend the same churches, and if they do then they certainly do not sit together during church. Public showing of affection doesn't happen. Based solely on family size I know that personal affection is happening, but I'm not sure couples are bonding and being intimate as much as they are just reproducing. All that to say that I do not witness a lot of intimacy or closeness between couples here. I do not see husbands loving their wives and kids in the way I expect fathers to based on my own upbringing and being from the west. During these past months as we have been walking through Acts and discussing the Biblical truths we pull from God's Word, we get to spend time discussing and sharing about our home lives, about discipling our wives and kids, about shepherding our families, about guarding and cultivating the hearts of our wives. It has not been easy to get into this area as this is sort of off limits culturally, but as we've built a mutual love and trust we can be open and honest as a group and share what God is doing in us and even our failings. Every week I ask the men if they have been discipling their wives, and every week they look at the floor and remain quiet. I know it has to be hard for these guys who grew up in homes where their fathers (the majority of their father were not Christians) behaved in a certain way and that was the way men were supposed to behave. In Uganda it is just not customary for men to share with their wives in the same way we see view sharing with our wives in the west to be natural. What is normal for us is not normal for Ugandan men and women. This is just cultural stuff that you learn over time, but it still presents a challenge as we all continue to mature and experience God together.
So please pray that as we meet weekly we can continue sharing what it means to be a disciple of Christ and how do we disciple others. Please pray that there will be more trust and openness within our group so that we can work together, with God's help, to overcome some cultural barriers and begin to shepherd our families Biblically, to be obedient to God's Word, and to be disciple-makers.
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