Watoto Conference

KPC organized the 2nd Watoto Conference, hosting delegates from all over Africa and around the world. There were 500 delegates all together, 250 from Africa, 50 from the churches around Kampala and 200 from other parts of the world.
Gary feels God has called him to carry the vision of looking after widows and orphans, in Uganda they are mainly victims of the LRA war in Northern Uganda. The purpose of the conference was really to equip other pastors in Africa to replicate the Watoto model.
He put it something like this; - Hill song Australia is known for their wonderful worship, Yunghu Chow is known for the Cell model, and God has called him to lead in regard to looking after the widows and orphans.

The conference started on Wednesday but for many reasons I couldn’t attend, so I figured I would go for the Thursday morning session. It was open to the public and less crowded – I tell you, I don’t click KPC these days, its jam packed, actually over flowing and then some. Everybody wants to be the “one”, at some point if feels like competition. I will tell you that Sunday service kind of feels like getting into a movie theatre without allocated seating. Every one is rushing to enter and take a seat before the show begins, if you are late too bad, all the seats are gone, then the ushers try to find spaces, if not you are kindly or unkindly ushered to the overflow and that sucks.
Anyway I was talking about how I opted to attend the morning session. At 9 prompt, the worship begun, it was lead by non other than Darlene herself. I love her heart for God, she seems sold out through and through, she puts all her energies right there and you can see it. The music filled the temple, it was loud and clear and exciting, I jumped and danced, it’s always wonderful to ‘let down my hair’ in the presence of the Lord and among His people.
Marilyn Skinner talked about using our Christian faith to bring justice and hope, she quoted Jeremiah 22 that talks about putting the wrong things right. We as Christians should be impressed to make the community livable again.
She invited David a former LRA abducted child soldier to testify, my! You could have heard a pin drop as David’s story unfolded. I just thought, man! There times I think I have experienced some really painful things until I hear someone else tell what burden they are carrying.
David looked about 19 years old, he spoke slowly and clearly about how the LRA forced him to kill every living creature in the village as a form of initiation. When he accomplished that, he was congratulated with 150 strokes of the cane. He was told to get a uniform and a gun from a government soldier and of course the only way to do that was by killing him. He was told to kill babies by tying them to a tree and hitting them until they died. Oh! My heart broke, no one created in the image and likeness of God should ever do such things or have such things done to them. I was crushed.
Then he shared about the hope he now has in Christ, the night mares are gone, he is looking to a bright future and aspires to be a doctor.

The next speaker came as a big surprise to me; he was the last person I imagined but yet again the most appropriate. Norbert Mao, LC5 for Gulu district. He had an interesting speech. For starters he is not born again, he is a politician, so the whole idea of giving a talk in church was, well, uncomfortable (he said so himself).
I liked the fact that he embraced the opportunity; he said the one thing he had in common with Gary and Marilyn was they all ended up where they didn’t intend – Gary looking after widows and orphans, him becoming the M.P for Gulu.
He mentioned how Young Egland had called the war in Northern Uganda one the worlds most forgotten conflicts.
He acknowledged that Him and Gary were serving God in different ways and how that was an opportunity for them to partner. He said “There is no better place to start but through spiritual renewal”.
He ended on the most interesting note. A child once asked an adult what Jesus said when He rose from the dead, the adult was at a loss and the kid informed the adult that Jesus said “ta-da!” So just when the people of Northern Uganda thought all hope was lost, “ta-da!” Jesus showed up, Gary showed up and so on.

At the end of the morning session we were all in tears, I felt God was saying his heart is bleeding for these children.

After that Dr. Robi Sonderegger talked about his involvement in training the people in trauma rehabilitation. It’s about rescuing the widows and orphans (even the men), raising them up and rebuilding their lives. “It’s about people and community” he said, God is calling us to serve our community.



The next session I attended was Thursday evening, I got to the church and found a thick loooong line, people cueing up to enter the church. It was a sight to behold, I’m sure some people might have just turned around and gone home.
Turns out that the cue was for those interested in sitting in the auditorium, I didn’t mind sitting outside so I gladly went to the over flow. Security was tight, the volunteers were giving orders about where to sit, it was rather upsetting. I had never been on this side of things, I was always on the inside with the choir. Now I’m not sure if this is what all the other church members feel or it’s because I’ve known better.

The evening session begun and as I cried out to the Lord about how lost I felt, not feeling at home, at home, He asked me, “who are you looking for?”, that was enough to shut me up. I had a wonderful time, “I couldn’t find myself in Philly, and I can’t find myself in Uganda, but I always find Jesus”, that was the main point, what more would a woman want?