Jerry
"There is nothing new, under the sun."
Solomon never stood under the African sun. If he did, he didn't stand long enough. If you've ever left home to live and teach and coach under the African sun, you know that no matter how long you stand under it, you'll find new things--only the rice and beans remain the same.
Since the last time I was out here, I've had my "Introduction" ceremony (the traditional Ugandan engagement ceremony--a bigger deal to most Ugandans than the wedding itself), coached the UCU Basketball team to the Championship of the 2nd Division of the MTN League, hosted Joe Jarvis and Monica Francois, good friends from Chicago who were in Kampala for four great days, helped Louise re-organize and re-paint with the goal of converting the place where I've been sleeping into a worthy first home, dragged a class of 7 third-year literature students--60 pages at a time--through Moby Dick, received the "Rotary Vocational Award" by the Rotaract Club (student version of Rotary Club) of UCU--an annual award given to what the president of the Club called "the professional of the year" (I was able to hold my laughter in front of 500 students watching me receive the award), taught children with diseases in the bones of their legs to juggle tennis balls, helped coach the Uganda National Basketball Team (men) to their first-ever Regional Championship, and sat in the front seat of a borrowed car and held the hand of one of my UCU players and prayed as he asked Jesus to forgive his sins and change his life.
I could write 6 pages about each one of those events between commas, but I've gotta grade Moby Dick exams and buy bus tickets to get players home to Mombassa for Christmas and ...
What I want to do and need to do right now is testify. What I want to do and need to do right now is cry (with joy), but I'm going to testify first. More than ever before, God has been assuring me. These last few weeks in particular, I've been busy coaching the National Team, trying to still give attention to my UCU teams--both men and ladies, writing the Moby Dick exam, finishing those lectures, talking over SkypeOut to Louise a couple nights a week (she's been back in Ireland since November 4), I've had a fever that I thought was malaria that's now turned to tonsillitis, I've been leading a Bible Study for basketball men and women every Sunday night (about half the players show up). But the biggest thing has been that I've been made aware that some of the basketball players have been going out on weekend nights, drinking. Who, anywhere in the world would be shocked to hear that college athletes are going out on Friday for a few beers? Probably no one. I wasn't shocked, but I was disappointed. There's a University rule forbidding drinking on campus, and being drunk on campus, but there's no rule about what happens off campus. So, no one is officially breaking any rules. But there are rules and there are rules. In East Africa, it's a basic rule, I wish was unspoken, that "Christians don't drink" (a potentially tragic message that leads to a mixed-up understanding of Behavior as Faith that makes it complicated to truly understand and experience Repentance and Grace). So I know these guys, Christians or not (I'm sure many of them are not) don't want me to know they're going out, which means they're hiding something from me. I talked to a couple guys on the team who I knew weren't involved, talked to a few administrators, talked to Louise, prayed, but still never really knew exactly what to do. Finally I went with, "I played four years of college basketball without ever drinking a drop of alcohol, why can’t they?" I decided to make a list of rules, the most important of which was one forbidding ANY drinking, ANYwhere, that everyone'd would agree to follow and sign at the bottom, acknowledging they were prepared to face the consequences (first two offenses, a ridiculous amount of sprints--third, removal from team) also printed there. I gave the paper with the rules and consequences to the Dean of Students for his approval and he was supposed to meet with some folks and give it back to me to give to the players. Two weeks later, I hadn't heard anything from him and I kept working on all my other stuff. One night after practice I talked to one of the guys not involved in the drinking. I told him about the rules and that I was waiting to hear from the Dean of Students. It took courage for him to encourage me not to make guys sign a list of rules to follow. He thought I should talk to them all, one-on-one and just see what happens as a result of the conversations (this was also Louise's suggestion). I thought more about it, prayed about it and realized that Louise and the guy were right and thanked God for holding up the Dean of Students paper-work.
Monday at practice, all the guys sat down on the court and I was telling them we needed to spend the next two weeks totally focused on doing well on exams and on winning the championship of University Games. I talked about a couple commitment kind of things, then I said, "Just so you know. I know some of you have been going out drinking. I want you to know that I know because you can't fully respect someone if you think you're getting away with doing something behind their back. And I want to say, if you feel strange or weird knowing that I know, then there's a reason for that. Think about that reason. I'm gonna talk to you individually at some point. But I encourage you not to wait for me. Talk to me. Two line lay-ups ..."
After practice, Jerry, a first-year guy who's not really a student yet, but will start studying in January--6' 2", super strong, lots of muscle, quick, runs well, plays mostly in the post, can dunk with two hands from standing right under the basket with no noticeable effort--walked up to me and said, "Coach. I'm thinking about what you said and I want to stop boozing and I think I might want to get saved." It's funny the words and phrases that become part of another culture and the ones that don't. The other day, a player asked me what a "moron" was--no one else knew either. But they all know "boozing" and they all know "get saved." I told him we'd meet for lunch the next day. So, yesterday, Jerry and I had lunch. I explained to him that quitting drinking and accepting Jesus are two different things. He understood and explained to me why he wanted to do both. We talked while we ate, walked from the canteen/restaurant to the car, sat, held hands, and we both prayed. He asked Jesus to change him. He said Amen and had tears in his eyes, joy in his eyes.
That was yesterday, Tuesday.
Saturday I was in the middle of the on-court celebration after the Uganda National Basketball Team won the East and Central Basketball Championship for the first time ever. Uganda hosted the tournament. I was called and asked to help the head coach prepare the team three weeks before we started. We practiced twice a week and there was only one practice where all 12 players were there. In the first game, we lost to Tanzania by one at the buzzer, then lost to Kenya by 6 in the second game, then put it together and beat Rwanda and Burundi. We then beat Burundi again (in a crazy game) in the semifinals and then played Kenya in the final and beat them by one. The first time Uganda's beaten Kenya in 15 years. I had people I'd never seen or heard or smelled before hugging me, thanking me, grabbing my hands, one guy draped me in a Ugandan flag--I was smiling all over the place, absolutely loving it. But that was Saturday.
Yesterday, Tuesday, in the front seat of a borrowed Landcruiser, Jerry had tears in his eyes, joy in his eyes. I did too. Yesterday was the best day I've ever had in Uganda.
God is doing things. I'm so grateful he's letting me participate with these few of the many things he's doing in Uganda. I'm so grateful that he's letting me see clearly that my presence here is making an eternal difference. I can hope it's making a difference, and I can tell other people I think it's making a difference, and I can make it sound as good as anyone can, but only Jesus can get inside Jerry and make him cry.
Jerry is new! Testify!
Amen.