May I Hold Your Leg

During the reign of terror of Idi Amin in Uganda, no one could relax or feel safe at any time.  You never knew when the police would be coming for you and your family.  You never knew if you’d see the end of that day with your limbs intact.  Pastor Kennedy, as a young man, was working in a government office.  Suddenly Amin’s regime police burst into his office, arrested everyone there and took them off to prison.

At the time of Amin’s regime, he had given notice to all Asian people in Uganda to be packed and out of there in three months.  Because Indians were the merchants in Africa, there were hundreds of thousands of East Indians exiled from Uganda back to their home land. 

When Kennedy and his fellow workers were taken to prison, it was because they were working for the previous regime.  Idi Amin had three ways to get rid of people.  That was to banish them from the land, kill them or imprison them.  Kennedy, when he was in prison, was given a Bible and he read it and he found the Lord there.  He stated that he was forever grateful that he had to be in prison because it’s possible he never would have found Christ otherwise.

Many years later when Amin’s regime was ousted and Amin himself was exiled to France, and prisoners were released, that was when Kennedy decided he was going to serve his Lord and Savior whom he had met in prison.  He went to school and trained to become a pastor.  When Mike met Kennedy, Mike was anxious to hear his story and asked him to please tell him about how the Lord came into his life and how he grew in his faith.  Kennedy and Mike became close friends.  Kennedy would come to visit us at the Namirembe guest house in Kampala.  Kennedy listened to Mike’s story about how Mike had lost his feet, and how God said to Mike, “I’ve allowed you to lose your feet, now go to Africa”. Kennedy was intrigued about those legs. One day, out of great curiosity, Kennedy asked Mike if he could see one of his prosthetic legs.  Mike, always being in good humor about his disability, was more than willing to show it to him.  But now Kennedy wanted a picture to be taken of him holding Mike’s leg.  How silly is that request?  But being compliant friends, we did it.  How does one explain your friend holding your prosthetic leg?  Well, it gave Kennedy great joy to see Mike’s leg and actually hold it in his hands.

And for sure he wanted a quality picture.  He turned down Mike’s suggestion of producing one right there in the room.  Kennedy wanted a first class glossy print.

And here it is!

Pastor Kennedy