Today was an awesome day in Jinja! It featured a renewal of something old and
the beginning of something new.
Today, July 1st, is the 25th wedding
anniversary of Jill and I. You are not
going to believe how this happened. We
have known, for some time, we would be in Uganda on this special day. Since we have moved to our current house, at
the ranch, we have been unable to locate the box that contains the old VHS
tapes, including the only known copy of our wedding ceremony. I had been looking for it so that I could
write down the exact vows that we said in that ceremony. I looked and looked unsuccessfully for
several weeks, leading up to our departure for Uganda. Finally, in the last week, I found the VHS
tape while Jill was in Duncan. I fired
up the old VHS machine and had to adjust the tracking (remember that?). I transcribed the words we said into a Word
document and saved it to my computer.
When we arrived in Uganda, I started making plans to have a renewal of
the vows ceremony at Gabba Community Church.
While we were in Rukunjiri, we found out from Jamil, that he
had been born again, but had never been baptized. So Jill started making plans for a “Baptism
on the Nile” party. She said that this
was all that she wanted for our 25th anniversary. So she started making plans, inviting many of
our friends in Uganda, and even planning a lunch after the Baptisms. I talked to our friend, Pastor Ken Gallyen,
from Alabama. He was going to be in
Jinja and wanted to be a part of the party.
I told him my secret of renewing the vows and emailed him the Word
document. Then, I just sat back and
smugly watched as everyone was showing up for the Baptism Party. I was going to get to score some big bonus
points for this forethought!
Meanwhile, Jill went shopping in Jinja. I know, what else is new? Yesterday, she purchased African shirts for
myself, Jake, Jared and Jamil. She also
purchased a dress for herself and a skirt for Jayne. I thought that she was just going to take
advantage of the setting to take some family photos. I was also thinking in the back of my mind
how sharp it would be to do our renewal of vows ceremony in these duds!
So we arrive at the property in Jinja. It is a beautiful place that has a large
slope of grass down to the Nile. Our
friend David has his video camera. Our
friend Faith has her Cannon regular camera.
I’m thinking, how lucky can one guy get?
This is all going to be recorded too!
We walk down the hill to the river and I am excited as Ken says I want
to gather you all together before we start the Baptisms. He said the following “I don’t know exactly
how to say this, except just to spill the beans. Both Jill and Jay, separately and secretly
planned to surprise each other with a renewing of their vows ceremony. I was like yeah! That’s right! I’m a romantic! Wait, what did he say?
So Jill had planned to do a renewal of the vows
ceremony. She had coordinated the guest
list, arranged the lunch, ordered a cake, picked up some new African rings, and
got us in fancy African clothes. I had
found a VHS tape, transcribed some words, then piggy backed off of her. Oh well, she one upped me this time, but the
two of us together had planned a really nice ceremony and had 15 friends and
our family together on the banks of the Nile River.
Jamil walked Jill down the…..hill, and then we
had a short and beautiful ceremony, repeating the exact words that we had
uttered 25 short years ago. How amazing
is it, that as we gathered with this large group of family and friends that there
was no one, besides Jill and I that had been at the original ceremony?
Now on to the new beginnings. We moved down to the river bank. Our friend, Jonathan Kabanda, led the Baptism
part of the day. I was blessed to be
able to help him in the water. While we
were talking with Jamil about his salvation and Baptism, Jared told us a new
bit of information. He had made a
profession of faith several years ago.
Last year, he wasn’t sure that he had understood what he was doing at
the young age that he had first prayed the sinner’s prayer. So last year, he re-prayed that prayer. He had not been baptized, since that
prayer. So Jared went first. Jayne wanted to be baptized again because of
the nostalgic location of the service.
So she went second. Jamil was
third.
Pastor Fred, from Palissa, joined us by the Nile in Jinja
today, as well. He had been in Palissa,
and was able to bring Magdalen and Allan.
Magdalen is a girl that Jayne has friended and that Due Unto Others has
been sponsoring in school. She too had
been born again, but never Baptized.
Allan is a young boy that April Berry has been sponsoring in
school. She recognized him as That One
Person one day as we were working in Palissa.
He too had never been baptized.
Magdalen went 4th.
As Allan
went, Jonathan asked him if he had been born again. He said no, but that he wanted to be born
again. He prayed the sinner’s prayer,
standing in the Nile River and then was immediately baptized!
It was awesome.
Following the ceremony, we gathered around these 5 young
people and prayed over them.
Then those
of us that were wet and muddy, went to change clothes.
Jill and I got to cut the wedding cake and give a little
speech to those present.
We were
supposed to give words of wisdom on how to make a marriage last 25 years. I don’t know that I had any really good
advice, but I did quote the great American philosopher, Clifford McGhghy. He says that “the secret to a long marriage
is for both people to think that they married up, out of their league, and for
neither of you to find out any different”.
Today was an incredible day.
Two of the ordinances that we observe as Christians were on
display. Baptism and marriage. There could not have been a better backdrop
than the magnificent River Nile.
Jay
What a wonderful blessing and experience- praying there are many more years for you two to share your love and service together for The Lord
ReplyDeleteHappy anniversary my friends!