Update from Dave in Uganda #3

Day 5 & 6 – The Weekend

Weekends are a special time here in Uganda. The banks are closed, as are most of the schools. Fee payments grind to a halt and we are able to focus our attention on the children themselves. For the past nine years, Kiwatule EPC has hosted a Saturday school for all the kids in the project. Students begin arriving just after 8 am and things wrap up somewhere around noon. It’s a great time to hear the students sing, watch traditional Ugandan dance and have an hour or so for instruction. This week, I was the guest lecturer. I found out late Friday night that they wished for me to teach for an hour on the “perils and pitfalls of fornication.”

I had apparently volunteered for the task, albeit accidentally. I made a passing comment after visiting one of our students who has been chased from the project after her second pregnancy that we should do some group teaching on the subject of pre-marital sex. Next thing I know, I am before 75 teenage boys and girls teaching through some scriptural guidelines for proper sexual expression and then answering questions. Elder Jim spent the same time teaching the little children the story of David and Goliath. Who got the short stick on this one?

Sunday means church…all day. It’s hard to describe what a worship gathering is like. It’s part dance, part singing, part testimony and a whole lot of preaching. As the guest of honor, I was given the task of preaching. I spoke for just over an hour on “Forming and Fashioning God into Our Image.” As I was coming to the end of my message, I looked up at the clock and asked my interpreter if there was enough time for me to look at one more passage. Before he could reply, Jim spoke up from the front row and said, “That’s enough!” I took that as my cue to close in prayer. We returned to the guest house just after 2 pm and I slept soundly for nearly 4 hours. I guess I was more exhausted than I thought. Week two begins tomorrow.

Day 7 - August 30

After a restless night of sleep in which my lower legs were a buffet for a mosquito who got trapped inside my mosquito net, I headed out with Jim and the rest of the team for the long trek to Mokono. Mokono lies northeast of Kampala on the road to Jinja. We have several students in St. Joseph Secondary School. Most of these students are orphaned or from single-parent households and have been with the project since it’s beginning. It has been a joy to watch them grow as I have watched my own children grow. It’s hard to believe that many of them will soon sit for their O-Level exams (the equivalent of completing 10th grade). The results of those tests and their cumulative scores during their O-Levels will determine their future. Those who test high and have accumulated 12 or more credits are eligible to go on and study in A-Levels. Those who fail to meet those standards have come to the end of their sponsorship with the Project.

With the exception of three boys, these students have not been performing up to their potential. They have a long track record of good scores but somehow in the last year they have let their grades slip and they are now in danger of not passing their exit exams. We gathered the 12 together and tried to determine what the issues were that were causing their grades to plummet. After some serious barking at them mixed with expressions of loving concern, we were able to put together a strategy that can put them on the road to success in their upcoming exams. Chastising students for a lackadaisical approach to studies is not our favorite thing to do but a necessary one nonetheless.

In the process of talking with each of the kids about their struggles, I was called over by one of our team members to talk with a young girl about her recurring sickness. The head teacher was nearby and joined the conversation sharing that the young girl would often miss classes because she had “the demons.” As I investigated further, she told me that she would often stay in the dorms for the entire day in a “coma.” I’ve yet to determine exactly what she means but it was clear that the girl was very troubled. I asked her to tell me what was going on and she began to share how her nights were filled with bad dreams and that she would awake and be short of breath and feel pains in her heart. She went on to say that she would hear voices in her head telling her to do terrible things. She feared that an evil spirit was possessing her. I shared with her that with the Holy Spirit living within her that there was no need to fear Satan or his demons. I talked with her about how to speak boldly to these voice and tell them to leave in Jesus’ name. The team gathered around her and prayed for her. You could sense a powerful move of the spirit as we lifted her up. The peace that came over her as we hugged her and said our goodbyes was amazing. It is days like today that remind me of why I am a pastor and why a part of my heart will always be here in Africa.

Day 7 Recap: 1 bank 19 students and creeping closer to having all the fees paid!