When we first arrived in Uganda, I was amused at the little roadside food stalls along the dirt roads selling “CHAPPATI” (an Indian flat bread) and “ROLEX”, scratched on wooden signboards. After all, a “Rolex” is a fancy watch back home! They seemed like incongruent wares to me. It was only weeks later that I discovered, a “Rolex” here is a chappati wrap with a fried egg filling.
Back home, a Rolex is an extravagant accessory or status symbol. Here, it is a functional item, something to fill one’s growling tummy. Today, as we visited yet another village church that Cliff preached at (this time no more than scrap zinc and sticks), I looked at the simple, sturdy frame of the wall-less, floor-less building and marveled at the devotion, love and warmth of its people. Like the “Rolex” here, it was simple, basic and humble, but it fulfilled its purpose, filling up broken lives and hungry hearts.
Springs of Life Church
Cliff’s animated preaching about the Parable of the Good Samaritan,
and loving others as ourselves spoke to the attentive crowd.
Here, our lives have been greatly simplified, not out of altruism but due to…
choices made.
Yet, we both agreed that like the simple church which stood without walls,
or like the humble Rolex by the dirt road,
we each felt a peculiar sense of divine calling and purpose here.
Cliff in his joyful element sharing the message!
After all, who are we but jars of merely clay,
broken vessels used in this lifetime but for one Purpose.
“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power
is from God and not from us.
We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed;
perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned;
struck down, but not destroyed.
We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus,
so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.
For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake,
so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body.”
– 2 Cor 4:7-11