Kittens

When Queen Sheba (my cat) was little she was content to stay in the yard.  She was a year old when she discovered the male cat next door.  Their first encounter was not friendly, but that changed.  She is over three years old now and gave birth, again.  This time it was on my nephew’s birthday.

Two of the three kittens born 30 October

The bishop who lives in Mugujai joined me for mission work yesterday.  When he heard about the kittens, he requested one for a pastor who has been requesting one.  Mugujai is an hour away from Koboko; however, many of Queen Sheba’s kittens have moved there.  Mugujai is a small farming community with no other way to control the small critters that might come into the community.

Prison Ministry Team

The prison ministry team members have decided to try using the popular phone and computer app called WhatsApp for communication.  One of our newer team members has volunteered to set it up.  As I feared, within hours of being added to the group, it became a chat forum instead of a communication platform for prison ministry events.  I have not said anything.  If that will bring better communication, then it is worth the extra side conversations.  It is still too early to know if it will be effective, or if only a few members are online and registered with WhatsApp.

Computer Problems

As I mentioned in the previous post, the Think Pad that was out in Mugujai has stopped working.  Now I am having trouble with a flash drive that I loaded with files for the Children’s Ministry that also uses the Mugujai mission center.  There are viruses going around and I suspect it has one on it; however, it takes so long to scan (hours) that I cannot find out without taking a computer away from the computer skills ministry.

Regarding computers for the computer skills ministry, the other computer that stays in Mugujai has developed keyboard problems.  Several keys, particularly the number keys are not working.  As a result, I am trying to do everything with my computer.  (I bring it with me when I go to teach computer skills in Mugujai.)  I need to have this other computer fixed this week.

Computer Skills

I have started a new computer skills class in Mugujai.  One of the graduates was bringing some friends.  At first I heard two, then three.  When a couple of hours past and he still had not arrived, my friend who handles the scheduling for the Mugujai computer skills class called.  They were walking from Busia (4 Km away).  He suggested that they hire a boda.  That is when we found out they were five in number.  When he finally did arrive, there were five new students plus himself.  We already had two new students from Mugujai, making a total of seven.  Normally I limit the class to two per computer which would be four now that the Think Pad has stopped working.  I agreed to take the entire group with the understanding that it means they will have less ‘hands-on-the-computer’ time per class day due to the large class.  They all agreed.

Queen Sheba

Queen Sheba is my cat.  She has been fussy about what she eats lately.  She has been catching field critters which is why I have a cat.  I keep reminding her she is welcome to them – outside.  Sometimes she plays with them, lately she has been eating them, nothing remains.

When the vet was here, I mentioned that I thought she was pregnant again.  He confirmed it and said that the means for nursing the young are full so she should give birth soon.  Actually, he said, “any time.”  Today her behavior is similar to what she was doing the day before she gave birth last time.  Last time she decided my laundry “basket” was her nursery.  I moved the laundry and put an old towel in the “basket” instead.  (The basket is really a rough neck tote that has been repurposed.)

Vet

The other missionary in Koboko and I called the vet to schedule his annual visit to give rabies shots to my cat, his cat, and his dog.  The vet was on the other side of Uganda but planned to travel back on Thursday.  We scheduled for Friday. 

The vet was late returning from Kampala.  On Friday, an hour after we his anticipated arrival, he called us back to reschedule for Saturday.  We agreed, saying that it needed to be early (9 AM) due to other commitments.  At 10 AM he called to say he was just beginning to come from Arua (an hour away).  So much for being on time for our 10 AM service.  However, many things start late in rural Uganda, so I went after the vet’s five-minute visit to give my cat her shot. 

Mission Week

The Church of Uganda diocese of Madi and West Nile has urged each of its eleven archdeaconries to send missionaries to the churches in another (specified) archdeaconry of the diocese.  These missionaries are to visit for a week, hosted by the receiving church.  While they are there, they will visit the homes of the members of the church to encourage them in the faith.  They may also be asked to do an ‘open air’, which I learned is evangelism in the marketplace or other public space.  The Koboko Archdeaconry hosted missionaries last week, involving them in many of the ministries going on throughout the diocese.  A few of them visited the prison while I was there with the ecumenical prison ministry team.  Next week Koboko Archdeaconry will be sending its missionaries to visit Terego Archdeaconry.

Kakwa

I am struggling with the local language, Kakwa again (still).  I am presented with the meaning of more new words than I can handle.  It is there on paper, and I add them in alphabetical order to a list on my computer.  That exercise ensures that I go over them one extra time.  I must alphabetize them because there are letters in the Kakwa alphabet that are “symbols” on the computer, they would not sort correctly if I asked the computer to do it.

The most recent struggle is with a word that was already on my ‘yet to be memorized’ list of vocabulary words.  Only this time the meaning was different.  When I asked, I was told the word ‘kana’ is a big word in Kakwa.  The explanation revealed this means it is a word that is used in many ways with many different meanings that do not appear to be related (weather, like, area, …)

Prison Ministry

Attendance is down (from a month ago) at prison ministry team meetings.  However, those that are coming are arriving closer to the announced start time!  This week we had five, including the presenter for this week, and his backup, in the room at the announced start time.  Typically, we only have two at that point.  The discussion involves more than the one or two of us with church training now.  I am encouraged, I see God moving in the lives of these team members and I am excited about the possibilities of what God may do with the ministry next.  This is a huge change in just 3 years.  In early 2020 it was hard to get others to speak.  When they did it was memorized, not what they were thinking about the scripture being shared.

Denominational Prison Ministry

Rev. Johnson has invited me to join him each Sunday for the Church of Uganda worship service in Gbukutu prison.  Today we had visitors from a neighboring district, Terego, which is reverend’s home district before coming to St. John Birijaku.  We took time to be with our guests, which meant we were late for the service at the prison.  The rest of the worship team normally comes from the church closest to the prison. They are currently waiting for a new reverend, so Rev. Johnson fills in.  Today they went ahead without him because they also had guests and had involved them in the service at the prison.  Rev. Johnson did not want to disrupt the service already in process, so he told prison security that he would wait, and bring them Holy Communion next Sunday.