Thirty years ago I was given a picture in my mind’s eye of speaking the heart of God and praying freedom for people in Africa.

It’s been thirty years of preparation,

Thirty years of lessons, deep heart-aches, experiencing deep poverty of my own heart and soul and finding through it all a deep knowledge of God’s heart and of provision that supersedes anything I could figure out on my own.

God is alive and well and deeply interested in our realities and in entering into the mix of our lives with deep encouragements and touches from his heart to ours, and through our hearts to others and back again.

This is the knowing, and the message, that I took to Uganda.

Simply put: touched by God we are transformed forever.

It constantly amazes me how easy it is to bless each other. If I had never opened my mouth, there would have still been a profound ministry of God to the people of Madudu and Jinja and Inganga simply because a white woman came (alone) and stayed awhile.

This simple act of getting on a plane and flying half-way around the world spoke its own message. I don’t completely get it, may never fully understand it, but I saw it, was told it, and am humbled that my simple obedience can be such an empowering thing for those I met and stayed with.

One of my first days we took some simple medicines and prayer to the elderly in the outlying areas of Madudu, and in one humble home, lying on his bed unable to get up any longer, was one beautiful old man.

I could not speak his language, and he could not speak mine, but I prayed over him, blessing his strength and beauty of soul that poured through his eyes and countenance.

He then spoke to my companion, the translation:

“If a white woman has come to Madudu then God must be real, and I am ready to accept Jesus Christ now.”

I simply had to show up and in this a message of God was spoken to him.

And isn’t that simply it, really and all the time,

We show up,

We engage,

We honour,

We bless,

By our very manner, we say ‘Thank-you for living and for your contribution to the world’,

Simply by the space we hold for others,

The common places of joy and pain where we meet heart to heart, regardless of age, regardless of gender, regardless of space and time, of circumstance or surroundings…

We are simply all the same, and as we get into each others spaces we bless and are blessed.

This, in a nutshell, is our ministry around the world.