Ferris Bueller's Other Day Off

I am Ferris Bueller's best friend, so I assume that makes me Cameron. We are trying to break into at room at his high school to steal back a banner that was confiscated from him by the principal. As we are opening lockers, we keep finding jeans that were taken for being too baggy. Eventually the banner turns up. It is one of the impact banners from when I was a co-chair.

This past week at the site was tough. The workers have been putting in a lot of energy, but things seem to be moving a lot slower than we had hoped. Some big potential problems are cropping up. If the Kenyan stone dressers decide to go home early, we won't have enough shaped stone. And even if they stay, we might not be able to squeeze out enough stone from what we have on site. Also, it has been tough to sleep out there. The rats are really active and I woke up with one almost in bed with me two nights in a row. Almost killed the little blighter with a sharp stick, but it got away. At least it associates my scent with the fear of death now. Investing in some traps tomorrow.

All that said, I have been learning some of the best lessons about faith that I have ever learned. Faith seems more real when things are bleak. Faith is choosing to believe that the Lord can make this building go up even if the Kenyans go home and rats carried all of our stone off in the night. Faith is believing that if I imitate Christ in the way he served, then that is enough, regardless of what I see being accomplished.

On a different note, Lindsey and I went with our British friend to a Catholic church in Bujagali Village. As I sat in the service and listened to the fiery Italian priest tell Ugandans in English (translated to Lusoga) that Christ forgives sins through the priesthood. He made sure to emphasize that forgiveness comes by Christ's blood acting through a priest. Then the congregation sang some songs to Jesus and Mary. It struck me how wrong I thought some of the doctrine was. But the Holy Spirit was working in my heart during the service. The Priest said a few key things that I want to point out. First he said that we are saved through the blood of Christ. Secondly he exhorted the congregation to serve the poor, because that is the same as loving Christ. The Scripture says that no-one can say "Jesus is Lord" apart from the spirit. It also says that pure and faultless religion is to look after the orphans and widows in their distress. So we have the important things in common. It always upsets me when I hear people differentiate between "Catholics" and "Christians". Catholics are Christians. Some are anyhow, in the same way that there are plenty of Baptists and Methodists who aren't. I disagree wholeheartedly with a lot of Catholic doctrine, but anyone who claims the Blood of Christ as their sole justification before the Lord is my brother or my sister in Jesus.

Its not letting me load pictures right now, so I will try again next weekend. I got a great one of God (his actual name, I found out is Gordon, but poeple call him Gordy, which sounds like "God" in an African accent)