Church and Faith

It is refreshing to experience the Christian faith in a completely new culture. Living in the Smile House, all of the volunteers are Christians and they are very open about their beliefs. Every weekday at 8.30 we have morning devotions with everyone and it is really interesting to share in their faith and have Bible study and discussions together. As I have mentioned, one of the ways they express their faith differently from western Christianity is how often they pray and how fully they believe that all good things come from God. Also, they are a lot more open about their faith than I notice people, including myself, are in the UK. God is not just someone they meet in church or in their private devotions but He is in their lives everyday. Often in normal conversations God or faith will be mentioned, maybe a Bible verse or words of encouragement which I find amazing as, the way I see it, in the west God is quite separate from the everyday conversations and experiences. Personally, I often feel like talking about God to non-Christians in England is seen as 'preaching' or trying to 'convert' people - because of widespread secularism in the west. I enjoy the freedom of religion here and although it brings its problems, it is refreshing compared to how secular the west has become.

The outside of KBC

Me and Kathryn outside Kampala Baptist Church

We attend Kampala Baptist Church here which has about 300 people at its English Sunday service - it also has a service in Luganda with about 150 people. I particularly enjoy the worship, there are great musicians and usually about 6 or 7 singers leading the songs with a male worship leader who is a brilliant singer. It is so lively and joyful - they even dance and smile and everything!

The inside of KBC

Ken and I play guitar and sing so we were introduced to the music group and we were asked to come along and play in the small Saturday service last weekend. At the practise we soon realised that they play everything by ear and don't use sheet music or read guitar chords as we do at home. This will take a while to get used to, but it is in line with the general laid back attitude we have encountered many times here! The service went well and it was really fun to play with the band. We recognised a couple of songs but most were new to us, so hopefully I will be able to bring some new songs home to England!