Manry Family

Since the beginning, it has been one of humanity’s God-given tasks to name the things on this earth.  Through language, cultures embrace the task to assign and communicate meaning about the world God has created.  The special nature of this role is most fully experienced when we give names to people.  The names we are given and give shape our identity (see “A Boy Named Sue,” by Johnny Cash) by describing events or ideas surrounding birth and/or projecting ideals for our lives.  It has been a tradition in the Busoga Churches of Christ to give missionaries Soga names since the first team arrived over ten years ago.  It is a meaningful act that allows the people we are dwelling among to actively shape our emerging identities in their culture (and attaches names to us that are easier to pronounce).  And so it was a privilege to receive our Soga names today from the Bugaya village church with whom we’ve been blessed to develop a relationship with since we bonded (spent the night) there in May.

We’ve been anticipating our Soga names since our arrival.  We knew the people of the Bugaya church, who had welcomed us into their lives, would be the most qualified to welcome us into their culture and language through our new names.  And so at the end of an extended (over four hours) Sunday worship, Bwana Ronald and Busoga Patrick shared to those gathered the names they had decided among themselves for us.  Luke was given the name Musasizi (mu-sa-see-zee) which means “merciful one.”  Connor was named Bagalana which means to “love one another.”  Lydia Jane was called Mubezi (mu-be-zee), meaning “saves.”  Lori was given the name Biryeri (beedh-ee-erdh-ee) which means “everything with God.”  I was called Mwesigwa (mwe-see-gwa) meaning, “faithful.” Needless to say, our names represent convicting ideals more than descriptions of reality, but we are thankful to have been challenged by the names we have just been given.

Check out this video of our time of worship and prayer and the giving of our names in Bugaya village:

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