"You must come preach at my church!"

This week I am teaching the modular (highly compressed) Biblical Interpretation course for the Masters of Child Development students.  I took several of these compressed courses in my first masters program, and the students have my deepest sympathies.  Basically, they're in class for eight hours a day for a month, then they go and do all their assignments, and they return in May for exams. Just thinking about it gives me flashbacks to Marymount University, and I graduated from that program a decade ago.

It's a class of 10 students, and one walked in and said, "hello Jessica."  I recognized his face but not his name; our student days at UCU overlapped a bit, and he is the vicar of a church in Bwyogerere,not too far from UCU, and off my least favorite junction (intersection) in the entire country.

As we were leaving class yesterday, he said to me, "Rev. Jessica, you must come preach at my church.  How about Easter?"  When I visit various churches for Sunday supervision of my students, vicars often tell me they want me to come preach; I think it's the prestige of having a muzungu preach.  However, this was a specific request, and he meant it!

Now, something that I still get surprised about is how often priests do not preach in their own churches; it's rather the norm to have outside preachers.  I find that a bit odd, but then, to ask a virtual stranger to come and preach on the biggest holy day in the Christian calendar?  I'm quite flattered and honored at the request, though part of me is surprised that he didn't have a preacher already lined up.

Since the UCU Chaplaincy thinks they own me, I had to check with them as to whether I am on the program for Easter, and I am, so I will have to decline the opportunity.  However, I remain honored to be asked to be the guest preacher on Easter.