God Has a Sense of Humor

By DR. DAN NAMANYA

In 2009 after our training under 1000 Missionary Movement (see p. 8), I learned that I would be sent somewhere in the Philippines. To my surprise, a Filipino friend of mine put his arm over my shoulder and kind of mourned for me, saying I was finished.

He told me that I would die within a few weeks because I was bound to be kidnapped by some rebel groups in that area at that time. He seriously said goodbye to me, with tears in his eyes.

What an encouragement from my fellow missionary! I thought.

Honestly, I got so scared. The thought of death in the mission field made me tremble. I asked God to change my African skin color, if possible, so that I would not look so different from the people that He was sending me to serve.

A dark surprise

As soon as I arrived at my destination, I was comforted by the fact that the church members were so happy and excited to have me. Right on the first night, they invited me to join them in serenading one of the church members who would be celebrating her birthday the following day.

I was informed that we would visit her house at 4:00 a.m. This was the first culture shock I had because back in Uganda, aside from the fact that we never celebrated birthdays, we never woke up at 4:00 a.m. to sing at people’s houses. Only night dancers or ritualists did that. It was something as sociated with witchcraft that involved cannibalism and spirit possession.

Well, I thought, things are different here in the Philippines. So, I joined them.

I did not realize that my brothers and sisters in faith had a special surprise for the celebrant, and that surprise was me. They asked me to hold the flowers while standing at the door of the celebrant’s house as