3rd email home

Hello Everyone,

The last couple weeks have been very busy, but that seems to be routine around here.

Some very typically Ugandan things have happened in the primary school ministry. Ryan (the youth pastor) and I are attempting to teach Bible studies in 2 primary schools a week, one on Wednesday and one on Fridays. The school we go to on Wednesday is the one that we had about 300-400 kinds on the first week. The next two weeks that we tried to go, but the kids were practicing for an intercity sports event. So we had no children. Then we went again this week and we had about 300! I taught the younger kids, about 150 of them. With a group that size it was very hard to keep them all interested and under control. I did however have about 30 kids who I could tell were really paying attention and could answer questions about what I was telling them.

The school we are supposed to teach at on Fridays hasn’t been going so well. The Principal is a Muslim, needless to say he is not very open to us being there. He agreed for us to come to the school every Friday but, every week he has had a different excuse about why we can’t preach that day. It happened again yesterday and I was very disappointed. You can be praying that he starts opening the doors for us to come.

I did go to a new secondary school this week with Ryan while he taught. He will continue to teach that one but I am going to start a small girls Bible study with the girls from that school. It will be Thursday after school and I am very excited about it.

I started my small group girls Bible study with the church girls 2 weeks ago. We are going through Proverbs. It is going really well. The girls come to my little apartment and sit on my living room floor (I have no chairs yet) and I give the tea and buns. I have made a question jar, so the girls can ask any questions they want. None of the girls have parents or adults in their lives that have time for them, so they are getting their views on life and sex and AIDS from school. They have a lot of misconceptions but have asked some really good questions. I am having a lot of fun getting to know them and spending time with them. Women’s day was Last week and the schools were closed, so I took all the girls swimming. It was really enjoyable day.

My work permit is going so much easier then last year. Bev has really held my hand through the whole thing and it has been so nice. I don’t think I would have figured everything out on my own, which I would have had to do last year. The sad news is, they raised the price of the work permit from about 150 US dollars to 1,000 US dollars. I don’t have to pay for about another 3 weeks, but it does have me a little stressed out.

I have started being the “creative side” of the youth group. I am coming up with games and fun activities to add to the youth group. None of our youth group kids seem to be friends, no one stays and talks afterwards. The come the sing the listen they go home, there is really no fellowship involved. I am trying to come up with a weekly short game (kind of like a Young Life game) to help create fellowship. If anyone has any ideas I would love to hear them!

Everything is going really well here. I feel like I am a good fit here. I am really getting close with our Ugandan staff here and enjoy working with them. God has brought a great group of people here. In so many ways it feels like home (no offense mom and dad )