The first thing I noticed about my Ugandan friend Nelson Barigye was
his smile. When Nelson greets you, it's as if he switches on a 60-watt
light bulb. His smile is so bright that during a visit to England a few
years ago, a woman told him: "You smile like God."
But when I
learned more about his difficult situation, I wondered if I could smile
at all if I were in his shoes. Why is this guy so happy?
At age
40, Nelson and his wife, Grace, have five sons—ages 15, 13, 11, 8 and
6—and all seven of them live in a tiny, two-bedroom apartment in the
city of Masindi, three hours from Uganda's capital.
The five boys sleep
in one room. Their bathroom is shared with three other families who have
seven other children.
The kitchen is outside. Grace uses a sigiri,
a charcoal stove, to cook meals. The apartment costs 100,000 Ugandan
shillings a month--$30 U.S.—but Nelson struggles to pay the rent because
he also must pay school fees of $130 per term.
Nelson and his
family live on a basic diet. Breakfast consists of sliced plantains,
chapati (Indian-style flatbread) and tea. ("The boys get milk maybe
twice a week," he says.) Lunch is usually matooke—mashed plantains—and offals, which are boiled cow intestines.
Dinner
may include sweet potatoes and beans, but Nelson has to be careful what
he eats because of a recent flare-up of ulcers that sent him to the
doctor. He had to pay $30 U.S. for treatment—the equivalent of a month's
rent.
To complicate matters, Nelson's youngest son, Godwill, has a disability and couldn't walk until recently.
For
a long time Nelson's family didn't have their own means of
transportation, except for his used motorcycle. But last year his
pastor, Robert Kaahwa, allowed him to purchase his 1991 Toyota Sprinter
at a greatly reduced price. Nelson's bright smile lit up again when he
told me how proud he was of that vehicle.
He smiled again while
sharing that he and his wife are thinking about adopting a daughter
because there are so many abandoned babies in Uganda.
I couldn't
help but marvel at this guy's joy. I tried to imagine sharing a toilet
and bath with 18 people every day. I thought about how uncomfortable I'd
be in that hot apartment with a tin roof and no electric fan. I
wondered if I could stand to eat offals.
"My hope is in my
God," Nelson told me when I asked for the secret of his smile. "Jesus is
my Lord whether I am hungry or not. I am a living example that there is
hope in God and His generosity. No one can add anything to their life
by worrying, so I have learned to trust in God."
Nelson grew up in
a home with nine children. His grandfather was a witch doctor, and his
father was a nominal Anglican who beat his wife and children
mercilessly. But his dad stopped beating his mother after a dramatic
conversion.
"My father believed he should dominate everyone, especially women,"
Nelson explained. "But after he got saved he changed dramatically."
Nelson found Christ at age 23. And that's when he also found his trademark smile. Jesus flooded his soul with miraculous joy.
Today
Nelson spends most of his time working for C3 Church, a growing
Pentecostal congregation in Masindi. He plays the keyboard during
worship, leads the praise team, disciples young people and serves Pastor
Kaahwa. In return he gets a small stipend—all the church can afford
since the majority of members don't have steady jobs.
Like many
Ugandan churches, only fifteen percent of the congregation has salaries.
At C3 Church, which has 800 members, the weekly collection is only $20.
Or $30 on a good Sunday.
During the offering time at church, some
people who don't have money give other things—such as fruits from their
gardens or bags of cassava flour. "Once someone gave a chicken, all
tied up," says Nelson. "They just laid it on the altar."
These offerings of food sometimes end up on Nelson's family table, and he is grateful for the provision.
Nelson's
joy in the face of unimaginable lack totally rocked my world,
especially after considering that I pay more for a dinner with my wife
at an American restaurant than Nelson spends on meals for his family in a
month.
I asked Pastor Kaahwa how he explains Nelson's joy.
"People in my church know that having the Lord is the most important
thing in life," he said. "There are a few people in Masindi who have
money yet they are not happy. When they find the Lord, immediately the
joy of the Lord becomes evident."
If you have the joy of the Lord,
I hope you realize how priceless it is. And I hope you can let your joy
shine as brightly as my Ugandan brother, Nelson—who smiles in the face
of poverty and rejoices instead of complaining.
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