(My favorite moment so far in Arua: when these two little girls climbed in our laps and fell asleep in our arms. It was absolutely beautiful and I was reminded how we are to crawl in our Daddy's lap and let Him love us with an everlasting love and sleep in His peace!)As I reflect back over the last two weeks I am humbled to see and be a part of what God is doing here in Arua. A week ago Friday we made a trip to Nebbie town, which is about a hour and half south of Arua. Through some amazing contacts God had put us in touch with a group of pastors who were interested in our training. Through a series of meetings with them our team explained our purpose, who we are, and what we believe. On last Friday they handed us an official letter saying that they wanted to become part of our training. So praise the Lord we will begin training pastors in June! We are starting with only a handful of pastors (2 or 3) this way we can be sure to disciple them and train them well so that in January tentatively when we add more pastors they can help us train them as well. We are so grateful for this open door that the Lord has given us to begin to train pastors!
(our team minus Erica who is so graciously taking the picture with pastors in Nebbie)
Also this week we had several meetings that were quite incredible. On Friday morning John, Erica, and I met with the Director of Education for Arua. Our hope was that we might be able to help with some of their literacy seminars for children and women since the mayor said that it was a huge need here. However, in learning more about it we found that all of the literacy seminars were done to help the people learn the local language – of which none of us know more then a few words. I have to admit I was a little disappointed at first because we had hoped that these literacy seminars would open some more doors into the community…however God had other plans. As we sat in the director’s office we begin to ask about other departments and directors. I asked about the agriculture director, he smiled and said she works right here, this other desk is hers (there were two desks in his office). It turns out that the director of agriculture is a veterinarian and a woman! I was so excited and immediately I knew why we were supposed to have this meeting with him. She called me earlier today and I meet with her tomorrow! Once again another open door!!
Friday afternoon we had yet another meeting with the Director of Public Health. These meetings are to help see how we can partner with the community as well as let them know who we are as an organization and to get our name out in the community. During our talk the director mentioned a need for people to help with sex education in secondary schools (high schools). I was excited because the need for knowledge and education in this area here is huge. As we talked with the director we learned that as of now they have no curriculum for teaching sex education. So over the next few weeks we are going to work along side him to come up with a curriculum for sex education in the schools. We were very clear that we were Christians and would be teaching abstinence and be presenting the information with a biblical perspective and he was more then ok with it! We are thrilled with once again another open door for our team!
As you can see it has been a busy week and we have so much to praise Jesus for! We have also been busy at work preparing for our first work team from Indiana Wesleyan University that arrives in two and a half weeks. God has opened up a door for them to do a Vacation Bible School out at Ugandan Christian University. The University has been so open and receptive of us and we are praying that this first week of VBS will be a kick off for our further involvement and partnership with them. We are so thankful for the relationship that is being built with this university and for the contacts that Jesus has allowed us to make through them!
Another huge praise is for our guard Christopher. This last week has honestly probably been his hardest week. He has been in a lot of pain and his spirits have been down. It has been hard to watch him be in so much pain and not knowing exactly how to help. Today however when we visited it was like being with another person! His arm, though still swollen, had reduced a considerable amount and his spirits were high!! He was actually up out of bed and walking!! It makes my heart happy to see his improvement!! As of today he was realized from the hospital and is now resting at home!!! What a huge praise!!!
Friday afternoon we had yet another meeting with the Director of Public Health. These meetings are to help see how we can partner with the community as well as let them know who we are as an organization and to get our name out in the community. During our talk the director mentioned a need for people to help with sex education in secondary schools (high schools). I was excited because the need for knowledge and education in this area here is huge. As we talked with the director we learned that as of now they have no curriculum for teaching sex education. So over the next few weeks we are going to work along side him to come up with a curriculum for sex education in the schools. We were very clear that we were Christians and would be teaching abstinence and be presenting the information with a biblical perspective and he was more then ok with it! We are thrilled with once again another open door for our team!
As you can see it has been a busy week and we have so much to praise Jesus for! We have also been busy at work preparing for our first work team from Indiana Wesleyan University that arrives in two and a half weeks. God has opened up a door for them to do a Vacation Bible School out at Ugandan Christian University. The University has been so open and receptive of us and we are praying that this first week of VBS will be a kick off for our further involvement and partnership with them. We are so thankful for the relationship that is being built with this university and for the contacts that Jesus has allowed us to make through them!
Another huge praise is for our guard Christopher. This last week has honestly probably been his hardest week. He has been in a lot of pain and his spirits have been down. It has been hard to watch him be in so much pain and not knowing exactly how to help. Today however when we visited it was like being with another person! His arm, though still swollen, had reduced a considerable amount and his spirits were high!! He was actually up out of bed and walking!! It makes my heart happy to see his improvement!! As of today he was realized from the hospital and is now resting at home!!! What a huge praise!!!
Thank you for being so excited with us as we walk through the doors that God is opening for us as a team! I am sorry this is so long and wordy, but I just had to share with you all that Jesus is doing!! Thank you for your prayers and encouragement – I wish I could let each one of you know how much they mean to us! We have truly felt your prayers and are seeing them answered daily!
