04 October 2012

The Eastham's: Passion



It has been about a month since my last blog post.  So what have I been doing?  The short answer is “Passion”.

Passion is based out of Atlanta, Georgia.  In short, it’s a praise and worship concert with Chris Tomlin.  Passion travels around the globe.  They came to Kampala in 2008, and they decided to come back.  Passion had three concerts in South Africa.  Their only other stop in Africa was here in Kampala, and that’s very special to us and the Ugandans.

My job helping with Passion was very behind the scenes.  First, I helped recruit over 70 people from the church to volunteer as ushers, security, etc.  Second, I was in charge of team transportation for their group of 35 people.  Fuel money, transportation schedule, driver’s ID badges, etc. was my responsibility.  Then other responsibilities came to me, like arranging team dinners.  

Yes, I did see Chris Tomlin up close several times.  I even spoke to him once.

I said, “Your van is ready.” Volunteering means getting the job done.  It's not the time to be a groupie.
On event night (29 Sept.), I was busy helping here and there.  Passing out flashlights to volunteers.  Getting dinner over to bus drivers.  Finding guards to keep volunteers’ backpacks from being stolen.  Helping to take the offering.  A bunch of other things to help things run.  The workday was 8:00 am to 1:30am.

About 35,000 young Ugandans attended.  Only 4,400 people pre-purchased their tickets.  So the remaining 30,000 bought them event night.  That make things "interesting" on several levels.





I took this photo just as the concert began.  Most of the 35,000 people arrived afterward. 

The music was wonderful and energizing.  It was exciting to see so many young Ugandans praising God.  Pastor Louie Giglio gave a great message about really knowing God (rather than knowing about Him).

I saw many great people (Tague, Michael, Seth, Misty, et al.) work tirelessly to make the event such a success. I was happy to be a small part in it.

From Kampala,

John Eastham
Missionary to Uganda

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