#snapbackking

Hey guys,

So I'm Matthew, 17 years old, also known as 'Matty Weir' and I’m in Upper Sixth studying Politics, History and ICT. I love music, especially worship and working with kids. I truly became a Christian last year during Autumn Soul and this year has been really life changing through coming to faith, making new friends and having wonderful opportunities to exercise my faith and help others.

I say ‘truly became a Christian’ because I lived under the banner of being a Christian for as long as I can remember without truly believing. I was raised in a Christian environment with the usual go to Sunday school etc. So I always assumed the rest of my family was Christian. However recently I found out that really in my family I’m pretty alone in my faith alongside my sister Katie. So I have always had the influence around me in church however I never really capitalised on this until Autumn Soul which was by far one of the closest times I’ve ever felt to God. That weekend simply opened a new chapter in my life and it prompted me to start going to SU just last year and I love it. What it has taught me is that Christian influence from people our age is crucial; I wouldn’t have gone to Autumn Soul or be writing this blog without being influenced by so many people in my year group and friendship circles. They are the people, along with a few oldies (shout out to Mark Hand) who have made me who I am at this moment.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 - Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work. If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!

So now onto Uganda an experience I will never forget.

I was lucky enough to have the opportunity this summer past to go to Uganda. I’m a strong believer in evangelism through action as it speaks to people more than shouting “love Jesus or burn” at passers-by in the town centre. An example is Xpression, something that brings people to God and those already in relationship with God even closer. In my area this year there was a youngster called ‘Junior’ who told one of the leaders, Henry, that he was waiting until he was old enough to sign up for Xpression. It shows how our work in the area had spoken to him and brought him closer to God. Anyway back to Uganda, as a kid I’d always seen those advertisements on the TV where you’d see a young child in Africa drinking dirty water and I knew that as soon as I was old enough I’d go to Africa and as soon as I was asked I grasped it. I went with a charity called Fields Of Life which sponsors children to go to school, funds those schools and provides clean water for 500,000 people to date. My team was called Cutiv8 and as the youngest team member there was a bit of pressure but with support from my good friend Rebecca we really became a vital part of the team. The age range in our team was 17-72. We spent 7 months preparing our trip and organising certain areas of our program in the schools. We were allocated areas, so the teachers in our group planned lessons and the nurses planned hygiene lessons and packs to give out to the kids. I was in-charge of the sport aspect of the program, gathering football kits from Loughgall FC and Laurelvale FC along with footballs and other basic equipment. So with all this preparation on top of fund raising for the well construction, the anticipation was piling up. Exams passed and the excitement factor kicked in. Before I knew it I was on a plane headed to Uganda.

We arrived in Uganda around 3am after around 12 hours of travelling and running around terminals. We arrived at the guest house in the main city of Kampala at around 5am. At 9am on the same day we set off to the slums to meet a pastor who set up a school in the middle of the 4 main slums of Kampala called Treasured Kids. On our bus journey we passed a palace, this caught me by surprise because yeno whats a palace doing in Uganda. My initial reaction was pretty slow because of sleep deprivation and by the time it had hit me we had reached the slums. You may be thinking wow I must have been really tired but the shocking fact of the matter is merely 5 minutes from the palace was the main slums of Kampala. The gap between rich and poor was so blatantly in your face it was hard to comprehend. So just hours into the trip I was faced with the harsh reality of Uganda and it didn’t let up for the 2 weeks. We were able to walk through the slums with the pastor as he was respected enough by the community there to ensure our safety. The slums were just an eye opening experience into what the word poverty really was and what those adverts on TV really meant. The next day my heart was broken again at Sanyu Babies orphanage. Kids who were abandoned by their parents and left on the streets were here being looked after by the women of the orphanage. Their happiness struck me, how bleak there situation was but yet how happy they were. It impacted me because it made me look back at home at how my attitude needs to be changed and how well off we really are.

After the hard first two days we headed to Marantha School where our main program would take place. We attended the Sunday morning service where the children came to worship and listen along with their parents and teachers. The principle and pastor spoke with such passion and power he inspired our team. The praise was unbelievable; if you didn’t dance you looked silly and people openly walked in and out chatting and genuinely enjoying themselves whilst in the presence of God and his teachings. This struck me because personally I seemed to find it far more enjoyable and more of an experience with God through the interaction and openness than what I was so used to back home in our churches. Through the following week we carried out the program we had planned for so long and it felt great. We had so much time to engage with the kids and hear a bit about them. They came from such broken backgrounds, the majority of them waking up at 4am every morning to do their chores before school and walking for miles. In the mornings we ran a holiday bible club consisting of stories, songs and games to connect with the kids. Their laughter and happiness combined with their attention made me reflect on the attitudes of the kids here in our churches and schools and the lack of attention that they sometimes show when exposed to the gospel. But we can’t blame them, it’s the society we live in and I think we should review how we come across to the young people.

After the holiday bible club in the morning, year groups went to certain activities, some went to the hygiene or English lessons and others came to me and Rebecca for football and other games. I found that engaging with some of the older lads (who were in primary 7 but the same age as me) was easy when we played football and had a bit of craic. They came to me asking questions and interacting because they felt they could talk to me. This taught me that sometimes in order to connect with others we need to connect with them on another level in my case it was football in other cases it can be simply engaging in banter. We can apply this at home when we do the likes of Xpression or kids clubs or connecting with people in school. I think this also enforces the need for us as young people to engage with other young people because we can connect on the same level and can be more effective than any preacher.

Fast forward a couple of days to our last day in Marantha School. We paid for the kids to have a nice meal and the kids loved it! They were given porridge every morning and for lunch it was rice and beans. Everyday. Personally I’d get so sick of the rice and beans so for them this was a pretty big deal. The smile on their faces which never seemed to fade during our time there spoke to me personally and I think it impacted our team as a whole. It give me a boost, a drive to change more lives in the small time I had left on the trip and also ambition for my return home.

We returned to Kampala to prepare for a week of solid travelling around Northern Uganda. We lived out of our hand luggage rucksacks and small suitcases for seven days. In these seven days we did so many things. We visited 3 wells in what was literally the middle of nowhere. Families lived in one-room mud huts with their family of 6+ - once again it was a hard sight to take in. When we arrived at the villages we were met with such warm welcomes and such gratitude. The wells were providing 3000 people with clean water (3 wells combined). The women told us how many of their friends had died searching for water in swamps and travelling for miles to find water as it was seen as the woman’s duty. Once again smiles all round - it truly was extraordinary. Finally we visited 3 more schools as we went around North Uganda where we met children who were sponsored by people back home. They were aspiring to be doctors and go back to their towns to help. All of this made possible by people funding them back home.

So what do I have to say after all that? Mission is the future of our faith. I believe that mission builds us and it builds others we work alongside and work for. Whether it is mission at home or mission abroad, it all counts and it sheds light on the image God wants us to portray to others. The thing I’m taking away from this trip is that I should be seeking the kingdom of God not possessions in this world. No possession in this world could give me the genuine happiness I saw in those kids as they found strength and foundation in the love of God and I think we should all take a page from their book. One key word that stood out to me was the word ‘hope’. Those people who had nothing, whose situations seemed so bleak found hope in knowing and trusting in God. They had it right. They knew what came next and they trusted God to take them there.

Mission trips build people and have rebuilt my outlook on life. I hope this can push some of you who may be unsure about your call to mission. My advice is grasp it with both hands and bring the glory of God to more people!

Thanks for reading.

 Matthew Weir

AKA the greatest guy you have ever met