[and viewing of Passion of the Christ for the entire village]
The Passover. Being at Lusenke Church of Jesus Christ as their Bishop and pastor, it was our first time to celebrate Passover and the Lord’s Table as a church. In fact all the people knew nothing about Passover, the Passion Week, and Even the Lord’s Table. They had never been taught about the essentialness of the Lord’s Table in a New Testament Church. All they knew was "Easter". I had a task of serious teaching prior to the Passover, but every teaching fellowship was very interesting to me because church was very happy to know about Passover and its importance, and the Lord’s Table as we were going through the Passion Week and Foot washing. We had about two weeks of serious teaching prior to the Passover/Lord's Table celebration. Meeting four times every week having a wonderful moments of learning every single truth about this important event. I was able to handle this topics in full detail as the New Testament teaches. It was a serious surprise to know about this truth which had been hidden from them due to the ignorance of their leadrers. Many of them wondered what went wrong and why did the Church abandon the truth and followed a great deception. I communicated to Joshua and he felt so privileged to join us in Lusenke.
On Friday 3rd was a great and wonderful day in the Church. By 3pm the church had already gathered in the house. We began with foot washing where by me (bishop Bita), PR Joshua, PR Kukiriza and Elder Elizabeth washed the feet of the church members. We had 25 adults and over 50 children. Only adults participated in foot washing.
Preparation for Foot Washing
After that, we shared the Lord’s Table, with bread and grape juice. Some people when they took the cup and eat the bread, they began to shed tears as they remembered teachings on how "Christ our Passover" was sacrificed for us [I Corinthians 5:7]. The weather was good and the sky was very clear and we were able to see the full moon.
Presenting the elements----symbols of the body and blood of Christ
Bishop Bita leads the Church in partaking of the Body and Blood of Christ
Receiving the Body and Blood of Christ-----this is their very first communion ever
After the Lord’s Table, we had a wonderful and powerful moment of praising, thanksgiving and worship. Then I began to connect my machines as we prepared to watch the Passion of the Christ movie. I turned on my generator to power on my projector and the laptop and connect all the lighting we needed in the church house as it was already dark. The church house was already full as many other people including non-believers poured in to watch the movie. But the laptop failed to connect to the projector. I tried my best but could not figure it out until I went and borrowed a DVD player from a certain village man who had one, it worked very well for us. The movie moved many people to tears, especially when it reached the part when they bruised Jesus and his crucifixion.
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only son"-----John 3:16
"for God has laid on him the iniquities of us all"-----Isaiah 53
After the movie, I was asked to replay the movie the following day (Saturday) I asked the man to allow us to use his DVD again on Saturday. He allowed me so I replayed the movie and it was yet another wonderful evening. Lusenke Church is very happy and blessed to be among the few Churches around the world who love and practice this truth of God’s word. Special thanks to our teacher/my dad (Danny McDowell) for opening our eyes towards this truth. Son---Bishop Pastor Bita
Just imagine-----a service like this----way back in the countryside, in a little village called Lusenke