So, a majority of this afternoon–at least 5 hours of it– was spent with Jaja and about 50 folks from her clan at a clan meeting.  This was the first meeting that gathered everyone together in a LOT of years and was a huge answer to prayer.  When Jaja became a Christian, much of her family disowned her.  When her husband died, no one offered to help her.  Over the years, she was not treated well, but people learned that she would care for their kids if they didn’t want to.  So they would not give her help or money, but would drop their kids off and let Jaja raise them!  And Jaja did love them and raised them as her own, but always reminding them to respect their birth mother most.

Over the year’s, Jaja’s selfless and generous spirit has won people over and when the clan recently decided that they needed to start meeting to discuss family issues, her home was selected for the first meeting.  This was a great honor and Jaja calls it a miracle of God.

So when she asked me to be her special guest and bring more honor to her home–I couldn’t say no.  It’s always an honor to bring a mzungu to anything–a role that is weird for me–but I’d do anything for Jaja.  So I went thinking I would be gone 2 hours and eventually slip out, but when I arrived and was given the seat of honor in the most visible spot I realized I was in for a long afternoon.  So I sat back and watched the event unfold.  There was an agenda and a chairmen.  The chairmen took them through the discussion giving everyone an opportunity to share.  Since it was all in Lugandan–I don’t know what was said but there was healthy debate, lots of laughter and a decision to meet every month to continue the connection.

The key topic was unity and it was pretty beautiful to see 50 people crammed into 2 small rooms dedicating themselves to unityt as a family.  It made me think of Psalm 133, “Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!”

About 2/3 through, they told me that they had decided that I was now part of the clan and they named me “Mutesi.”  They said this is a royal name and that now I am like a princess. So someday Jaja should get a lot of cows for my marriage price. 😉

Now Jaja is happily singing, ‘Hallelujah” over and over.  I think that means the day went well.