Electricity

The power lines that Wenreco started installing in January 2021 now have electricity in them!  It has been a long time coming.  The specials that we were promised for connecting when they were ready to begin service are also slow in coming.  Saint John Birijaku decided not to wait.  The cost of buying fuel for the generator is getting so high that they decided it made sense to pay the high meter fee and get connected.  Despite paying the fees for the meter, the drop wire, and for labor, the work was not done until Rev. Johnson went and sat in their office waiting for the manger to come in.  After waiting half a day without meeting the manager the office staff managed to find all the pieces and a crew and told reverend, if he could find a ladder, they were ready to begin the work.  He found someone with a ladder!

The church is receiving typical Wenreco service, intermittent.  However, the building looked good with light coming out of the windows when I arrived for the 6:30 a.m. service.

Shopping

When the prison ministry team went shopping for the food items to take to the prison for Christmas, they found some of the items had higher prices than they had been paying when shopping for themselves.  They did not buy those items in the Koboko market.  Instead, they asked the driver to take them to the border so they could walk across to the D.R. Congo market on the other side.  In the process they saved the ministry money that can be used for other ministry needs.  It really helps to work with several team members who can share their experiences and guide the ministry on the best option available.

Church of Uganda leader transfers

During my three plus years in Uganda I have not seen any Church of Uganda parish go through a process to call a new minister.  What I have observed is the diocese will consider how each of its archdeacons is performing and move them around accordingly.  Likewise, the archdeacons will make decisions about the reverends and the church teachers (lay readers).  The process appears to be annual, occurring in advent with effect on the first of January. 

I have not seen any of the lists, nor witnessed the process.  What I have learned from those who have is the moves can be for one of two reasons, a promotion or because things are not going well.  I do not know if (or how) the person being reassigned knows which it is.

Bible Study

The efforts to hold a Bible study at St. John’s continue to suffer.  None of the people standing around at the church were interested.  They were all youth, primary school students, who came an hour and a half early for choir practice.  When they saw that I was arranging chairs for a Bible study they went back outside, uninterested, and not wanting to disturb.  Unfortunately, no one came for the Bible study.

The other missionary in town has also been asked to offer a Bible study, albeit at a different church.  He reports a similar response.  Discipleship classes where the pastor hand picks participants are finding good attendance.  Bible study where it is just announced in the service is finding poor to no attendance.  The people seem to depend on being told individually that this is available for them.

Voting

Many of the Kakwas living here, in the border region, are dual citizens.  On 20 December many of them traveled across the border into D.R. Congo to vote in the Congo elections.  They were voting for many of the national offices, including the presidency.  Some of my friends had to travel a long distance to reach their D.R. Congo polling site.  Others returned in time for computer skills training because they were registered at polling sites closer to the border.  None of them reported the events mentioned on the radio the next day – a polling site that opened late or did not open.  D.R. Congo extended the election into 21 December for these sites.  Several opposition party (to the currently ruling party) candidates have objected saying extending the election is unconstitutional.  The D.R. Congo judiciary has ruled that the people must be given the opportunity to vote.

Christmas Shopping

I ventured into the open-air market a few days ago. The open-air market is a mass of people at this time of year.  This is not unusual; however, the price of some items is up in anticipation of Christmas demand.  Food items are a great example of this.  The cultural trend is to have a special meal at Christmas.  As a result, families that can only afford the cheaper types of fish or beans as their protein will struggle to buy meat.  The price of meat typically goes up in December, the question is will it come back down in January.

Other items are better buys at this time of the year because many people are selling that item to raise funds for buying clothes for their children (the cultural thing to do at Christmas). 

Returning

The Ugandan school system is on the equivalent of what I knew as the summer break between school years.  The three school terms come during the wet season (February – November) and the break comes during the dry season (warmer months: December – early February).  As a result, some of our prison team members have been returning to the ministry.  Today we had a former team member return.  I say former because he was away for more than a year teaching in another district.  We thought we had lost him from the ministry and updated the roster accordingly.  Today he returned.  All things are possible with God.

Charge Controller

The challenges to computer skills in Mugujai continue.  We must be doing something for God if the devil keeps creating problems like this.  This time it is not the computer.  Although the replacement keyboard continues to give us intermittent problems, we are working through that – so far.  Now the charge controller appears to be malfunctioning.  The readings jump from blank, to low to a charge way to high to be believable, to something in the middle.  As a result, it was not passing the power through to the battery (believing it was full) and we started having the equivalent of a “brown out”.  We had to connect the panels directly to the battery.  We only did this for an hour because there was no way to know how much power the battery was getting and we did not want to burn up the solar battery.

Nursery School

Another nursery school is starting.  This time it is in Birijaku where I attend service when I am not visiting another church. (The nursery school that started a year ago is in Mugujai.)  The plan was to meet following the second service; however, many of us (including me) became involved in other post-service discussions.  Finally, the meeting did start.  It sounded like it was going to be a working meeting until one of the government officials attending the meeting suggested deciding what needs to be done and then creating sub-committees to do the work and report back.  Due to the desire to open next school year, the full committee will meet again in five days.

Lay Reader

While I was still in high school, I was asked to take lay reader training (training to read the lessons) at my parish in Seattle.  I did.  It also included training to serve as a chalice bearer.  After I wrote my answers for the test and it was determined that I passed, I was issued a lay reader certificate.  Around the turn of the century the role was re-titled Eucharistic Minister.

Here in the Church of Uganda (also part of the Anglican Communion) the term Lay Reader is used for those trained to lead local congregations as a Church Teacher.  As a result, the training is more than lector training and chalice bearer training.  It involves training for preparing people for baptism and / or confirmation. 

A member of the prison ministry team just completed Lay Reader training and was commissioned as a Church Teacher.