By far the most exciting thing which happened during the House of Prayer was the response of the Jie Elders to the gospel!
All around the world it seems that women outnumber men in the church, but here the lack of men is particularly stark -- and also culturally significant. According to Karamojong cultural belief only the Elders, who are older men who are initiated through spiritual rituals into Elderhood, can speak to Akuj (their name for their creator god), so the Elders mediate all important religious, cultural, and social functions and hold enormous power within their communities. Younger men who do not participate in cultural functions may be ostracized, losing the opportunity to marry and participate in the communtiy, with the end result that few traditional, rural Karamojong men have accepted the gospel.
Since we recently started learning about the Jie culture, we have really been praying for the Elders. The Elders of the different Jie clans were called by the organizers of the prayer conference. Last year when they were called, the Elders responded by gathering to curse the prayer meeting. But this year when they were invited, they came! A group of church leaders met with them during the conference, and the Elders asked to be baptized and to have churches established among each of their clans. All of the Jie clans were represented.
It is incredible that we got the privilege to witness, after just a few months of God placing this people on our hearts, a door being flung wide for men to be free to accept Christ, thus helping the Jesus be born into all levels of the society.
We also enjoyed seeing more of Kotido, which recently achieved municipal status. It’s an interesting dichotomy: the population of Kotido is greater than that of Pader, and some things are available there which are not in Pader, but because of its remote location they don’t yet have electricity -- so we saw lots of solar panels and even a few windmills, both of which you can see in the photo below. Elias found the windmill to be quite fascinating, but just a little bit scary.