JULITA EXPLORES: Jesus uses bread to display His love to people on dusty streets of Uganda

Gateway readers know by now how God sends me on these journeys — or adventures as I like to call them. Some, I know long before and others God “jumps” on me shortly before I have to go. 

I have just returned from such an adventure. I thought I would be home for July and then three weeks ago God jumps this one on me. He wants me to go to Uganda. Out of the blue. 

And so interesting, every time I go somewhere everything is different. God gives me a spiritual weapon for each nation and only when I am there, do I understand the weapon. And God is never wrong. I truly have an arsenal already. And this time, God told me to buy loaves of bread and give them away to the people when I share on the Good News of Jesus Christ.

So, with lots of challenges concerning my passport, I at long last catch a flight to Entebbe, Uganda.  Arriving there, I had to take a seven-hour drive to Mbale where God wanted me. I crossed the Nile at Jinja. The source of the Nile is there, at Coronation Park and Jinja is also situated on the shore of Lake Victoria, the biggest Lake in Africa. It is spectacular to see.

And just to be in Africa (Please remember I am from South Africa, but somehow I always feel SA to be outside of Africa — which it is not of course), was a wonderful feeling. I realise Africa is in my blood, it is part of who I am. I did not choose it, Africa chose me and now I am hooked. The people, the filth, the open skies, the sugarcane plantations, the potholes, the chaos on the roads, the chapattis alongside the road, the chickens in their cages being sold alive, the meat hanging on the trees, the boda bodas (mtorbike taxia) carrying up to five people at a time, the colourful people — all of it, the good and the bad,I love being among it.

So in Mbale, I settle into my hotel (a first for me, not use to staying in hotels) and go speak to the chef concerning all the breads I want and I order 100 breads per day for the next few days. When they ask what it is for, I answer that God said I should bless the people with bread. It made them so excited. I find out that an average day wage in Uganda is UDX 10 000 (Ugandan shillings) and a bread costs 8 000 or 6 000 if you are lucky. So people cannot afford to buy bread. Can you imagine that?? Bread is like a basic food source. But of course, ugali (maize) is the cheapest food and it fills the tummies. Bread is a luxury.

God once again went before me with the right thing. God sent me an interpreter –I definitely did not find him. And another few pastors and kids joined my little team and we took to the streets of Mbale to spread the love of Jesus and the Gospel of His good news.

To tell you what happened, is just not the same. On this trip, I felt the desire to start taking people with me to experience the glory of God in this way. Let me explain. The people in Mbale are very poor. They are mostly very dirty too. They walk to where they want to go or if they do have a little money, they take a boda boda.  And there iare no tar roads, so everything is dirty — much like in the days of Jesus. And few have education. Not all kids can afford to go to school as the school fees are too expensive for the parents to pay. So, in the greater picture of things in the world, these people are of no value to world events.  Nothing whatsoever.  And yet — not in the eyes of God. They are so important to Him. Daniel Kolenda and Rodney Howard Browne just had big events there and other ministries have outreaches there, I learned. Uganda and its people are very much on God’s heart.

I teach my little team that what we will do is all about the Love of God for people. I do not care if they are Muslim, Christian, atheist; dirty, poor — they matter. I tell them to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit on who to give bread to as we only have 100 each day. 

The bread goes with a message. As we hand out this bread free of charge, so is the love of Christ. They did not work for the bread, did not pay me — I give it free because Jesus loves them. And then we share whatever the Holy Spirit puts in our hearts to eventually share the Gospel of Good news. And giving them a bread — it changed the message to such good news for them. It is easy to say: “Jesus loves you”, but to show that love in a country where bread is not affordable and give them bread –free I never knew that a bread could have such an impact. Something so small opening hearts to the goodness of God which leads all men to repentance.

I found a woman with her baby on her back on a rubbish dump looking through the filth with her bare hands. I asked what she was looking for and she said onions. She looks through all the garbage to see if there are onions that she can still sell for food. Imagine this!! So I took her hands and asked her if she knows about Jesus. And right there, on the garbage, I led her to the Lord and I could show her how much He loves her. I gave her a bread and some money and her face lit up when I gave her the bread. I do not know what God did to the bread we distributed hehehee, but the bread was fantastic. People understood the message because of the bread. My heart melted at the sight of this young mother and overflowed with love and I knew that this is how the Father feels. It was magnificent.

We met a Muslim man selling tomatoes and we gave him a bread and said: “Just to say Jesus loves you”.  He answered: ”I am Muslim.” I replied that I did not care, Jesus also loves Muslims. He looked at me with astonishment and said: ”There are so many people here, why are you choosing me?” I looked at him and in a way. I wondered if this was how jesus felt when He walked among the crowds of people, always moved by compassion. Exactly how I felt at that moment. I said: ”I did not. Jesus told me to give you the bread. He sees you. He loves you”. This old Muslim man was in awe!! It was overwhelming to him that he was the one chosen to receive the bread. I knew the feeling. I did not know that he was Muslim. Only when he told me. I only listened to the voice of the Holy Spirit. He chose him. What a loving God. 

This Muslim man can never go back to not acknowledging Jesus. He asked where our church was as he would like to visit and the pastors with me, connected with him on this. I hope to receive a good report from them soon. 

I spoke to many Muslim people and seven of them committed their lives to our Lord Jesus. And all because of a bread and His love. Two Muslim woman were without husbands and when I presented them with the bread, I shared how important the widows and orphans are to Jesus. They simply loved hearing it and right there and then they gave their hearts to Jesus on the streets. They were also invited to the church of the pastors with me. Another Muslim man said he had never met a Mzungu (white person) like me and he wants to come to my church. I hugged him and he started crying. It was too much, the love of God.  My heart just burst with love for him. And I knew — this is how Jesus feels about sinners. He loves them. Simple as that. 

I came to a house where the mother was very sick. I asked about the sickness and she said: “Malaria”.  She could not afford the malaria medicine at the clinic and was very afraid to die as she had small children. Malaria is a killer in Africa. Just like that, it kills you. I told her that I did not have the money for the medicine, but I could pray to jesus to heal her. She went on her knees before me and said: “Yes please.” I prayed a simple prayer with a heart full of compassion for this woman. Oh man. I cannot tell you how it felt. I so much wanted Jesus to heal her.

So, we left and later that afternoon I felt I had to go back and take her a few things. So I get there and she was outside busy washing their clothes and hanging them. I was so surprised and asked her what was going on. She said that after we left, she started feeling better and better and later she was totally fine and could start doing her washing.  She was healed. She said Jesus healed her and she wouks tell everyone. 

But then she asked: “Did you come back all the way for me?” I replied that we did. Just for her because we love her. She could not get over this. It seemed to me that this was more important to her than her healing hehehehe. She was so touched by this. My heart just burst open because of this Jesus we serve.  I am so happy I went back. I know that Jesus also just wanted me to see.  

I have a many more stories to tell. The street boy who gave his life to Jesus and when I hugged him, I knew that he has never been hugged before; the prostitute who cried on my shoulder and who I could lead to Jesus and tell her how beautiful she is and how much he loves her; an old woman dying in her home who could forgive. This was very touching. When the translator told the old woman that she had to forgive, oh man, it was like a flood bursting forth and she cried it out. My heart –I knew that everything changed for her in that moment and that a peace settled in her heart.

God gave us lots of words of knowledge and I could see how my interpreter’s faith grew stronger and stronger.  And then there was the multiplication. I went with a group of Americans to a church service where they were told 550 pastors would attend. They prepared 550 bags full of groceries and then they heard the news — 720 pastors has come.  They were short of 170 bags! They had also filled 550 envelopes with UGX10 000 each to hand out. Wonderful initiative. Wanted to teach the pastors to share what God puts in their hands, but now they were 170 bags and envelopes short.  Disaster!

So the leader comes to me and says: ”Julita, I know that you have experienced multiplication in your life.  What should I do? We do not have the means or time to get another 170 of everything. What should we do?”

So. I ask him if he knows the story of the bread and fishes and of course he did. “It is exactly the same,” I said. I told him to trust God with this. “Tell Him and thank Him. Do not tell Him how to do it. That is not your business. It is God’s. You just thank Him for the multiplication”. He kept on saying: ”But how — how are we going to add 170”?  I told him again: ”It is not up to you. If you want to trust God with this, thank Him and walk away.” He was truly challenged, but decided to trust me and God, hehehehehe.

So, when they call all the pastors to come forward and collect a bag and envelope, this leader nearly faints. I see how he frantically tries to count all the people in the rows, but of course he cannot. So, when that whole hall with all the people receive their bags and envelopes, this pastor nearly faints. 30 grocery bags are left over and 82 envelopes.  He was stunned!! How? How? And again I could tell him: “It is not for you to know how, but only Who!!” It is still baffling him, but boy oh boy, did this charge his faith. He told everyone about it. I, of course, was stunned that he did not know God is absolutely capable of it, heheheeh. But boy oh boy, what a feeling when they stood there with all the “leftovers”. The pastor kept on asking if everyone received and everyone did. And yet they had leftovers and were not 170 short. This God of ours!! How I love Him!!

The heat was terrible. I walked for hours on end. Difficult paths. Dirty paths. I had a constant headache because of the heat, but my heart was overflowing of joy, love and peace. And I want everyone to experience this at least once in their lifetime. It changes you forever. I prayed for people to be filled with the Holy Spirit and one young man came up to me after he was filled and started speaking in tongues. 

He said that for years he wanted to speak in tongues, but never received it, so he started faking it. Did not want others to know that he could not speak so he faked a language heheheeheh. Oh my word, of all the things I have heard. But, he said, when I prayed for him, it felt like a fire went through him and he could not help or stop what flowed from his lips. He said, it was so different to the language he faked. He said the frequency was different and this of course is true. How thankful I am for this wonderful, compassionate Jesus.

Nothing about this trip was comfortable, but what an adventure with my Lord. And oh, how He loves us all. He once told me that every person I meet might be a potential son of God. I will never know which one. so I treat all people as a potential son of God. I do not care how deep in sin they are or what religion they are. They might just be that potential son of God and therefore I treat all people like this. What joy to find some of them.

Once again, this trip changed a lot in me. I always get to know myself more and more on these trips but more than anything, I get to know the character of God the Father and this is truly something spectacular to see. 

May all of the readers of this column experience the love of Jesus as well as the Father’s love for others.  To love with God’s love is life changing. It is not within us to love like that, but with Jesus living on the inside of us, there is no other way. May all of you experience this. And may the God of Heaven and Earth use you in His Kingdom to spread His love and save many souls. More than ever, the harvest is ripe. Let us be the hands and feet of Jesus. God bless you all.

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