Sermon

I was asked to give the sermon for last Sunday.  I was asked a couple of months ago.  I used the time to pray about it and the Lord led me to do something unusual for me.  I began by singing a song I heard in the Holy Land and again at St. Andrew’s Seattle after our visit to the Holy Land.  I asked a few people if the song, ‘God is speaking to his people’ is known here.  They had not heard of it; however, I may have asked the question incorrectly.  I was looking for the Kakwa translation.  At both the English and the Kakwa service, I heard some of the ladies join in when I started singing.  They dropped out when I switched to Kakwa.

It made a point; the prophets gave us a message.  If we look at that message, we can find predictions of the events of Holy Week.  God was telling me to link things together.

Padombu PMT

It has taken a few bi-weekly visits, but we finally managed to meet and conduct a bible study.  Previous visits ended with turning over the study notes for later study by the Scripture Union due to competing schedules.  This time we struggled to get people to come on time (always a challenge here), but we started with a small number.  We finished with more than a dozen attending, half of them ladies!  I wish the female turnout was that good at our Tuesday meeting.

The growing pains continue, but the prison ministry team (PMT) at Padombu is getting on its feet.  I am excited to be part of God’s work here in Koboko district, Uganda.

Connectivity

My newsletter is late in going out to the online community.  I try to send it the same day the paper version is due to be mailed; however, that depends on Uganda’s telecoms providing internet service.  Yesterday it was up and down, mostly down, throughout the day.  Yesterday was also the once a month visit to Arua where the banks with the best ATM services (in my region) are located.  Again, no connectivity, or as the error code put it, unable to contact issuing network.  So many things that I (and many others) take for granted are far from being available all the time to everyone.

P.S. Today the internet service is better.

US Ambassador

The current US Ambassador to Uganda, Ambassador William Popp, is making the rounds of the country (Uganda).  I met him during his visit to Arua.  During the town hall he asked each of us to talk about the community projects we are involved in.  He told us about the US’ ongoing efforts in the battle against AIDS and how modern treatments are allowing people to live longer and to have children that are HIV negative.  He also talked about how the US effort in Uganda is focused on people development, not on infrastructure.

He mentioned that he plans to make these community visits a regular thing.  This is not one and done.  He wants to meet and to know the US citizens in Uganda.

Computer Skills

My Birijaku computer skills students that did not graduate last year are coming for class now.  Last year they were senior secondary year 4 students.  The ‘O’ level national exam year.  They were using all their time to prepare for those exams.  Now one is preparing to return to school for his S5 year (looking to complete his ‘A’ level exams at the end of S6) but injured himself working to raise his school fees.  He does not want to return to the boarding school until his foot has healed.  He is using the opportunity to work on his computer skills.  The other student is working to finish paying for last year’s school fees so he can find out how he performed on the exam.  He is also using the opportunity to work on his computer skills.  They are both progressing well.

MTN part3

What should have taken two hours, four if things were slow, ended up taking five days.

In Uganda you must show a national id to register a SIM card (get phone service).  The company is required to expire the service on the date the id (or visa) expires.  MTN realizes that most people renew their id, so they send SMS messages beginning three days before the expiration date to remind them to bring the updated id to their office so service can be re-registered with the new expiration date.

My old visa expired at midnight last Friday.  I visited MTN with my extended visa last Wednesday.  I went again on Thursday when I received another ‘need to renew’ message instead of the SIM re-registration successful message I expected.  That visit did not result in the success message either, so I went a third time on Saturday, after service was blocked.  Still nothing.

I kept checking periodically (morning / evening) Sunday and Monday.  Finally, Monday evening at 18:19 hours (6:19 p.m. East Africa Time) I received a successful re-registration message.  No hurry in Africa.

Calendar

I am thinking about creating a calendar for 2025.  The last two years I have needed to print calendar pages from Outlook, so I have a place to write upcoming ministry activities.  However, this is not the reason I want to create the calendar.  I want to create the calendar as something to share; something I can give to people when I travel to talk about the ministry and what God is doing through me in Uganda.

Naturally, I want the calendar to have pictures.  I just need some ideas for what pictures you would like to see on the calendar.  Comments to this (and all) blog posts are welcome.

Construction

The wet season is trying to begin.  It starts with a little rain, maybe a couple times a week.  The humidity and the temperature are high, making it a time of transition that many of us want to rush through.  It is also a clue to those making mud bricks that they better get them burnt (cooked) so the rain does not ruin them.

I did not expect to see so many of my neighbors building as soon as bricks were available.  There is a new house being built next door.  The neighbor on the other side of the school play field is building another building in her compound.  At the end of the block, a neighbor has already raised a new building and was busy making a door.  Turning the corner, there are other new houses underway.  Seems early.  In previous years there were a lot of people preparing the fields for the first growing season.  While it was growing the building commenced.  Not this time.

MTN part2

MTN turned off my phone service just like they threatened.  I have been to an agent to upload a copy of my visa extension. The next day I went to the service center to repeat the process because the reminder message indicates the efforts with the agent did not resolve the situation.  One of these should have worked, so I should not have lost phone service.  But they have not processed it, or they have refused it and failed to send a message why.

I went to the service center again.  Once again they created paperwork and took pictures to submit to their processing center.  I do not receive a copy of this paperwork.  If I did, I would have saved them the effort to recreate it each time.  This time I was told I would have service back in two hours.  It has been six and I am still typing this off-line for posting whenever service is restored.

School Sports

We are over a month into the first term of the school year.  I have not seen a lot of schools preparing their football (soccer) teams yet.  However, I am hearing (on the radio) about schools being required to compete in the city sports competitions.  The school next door is training the older primary grades in several field events.  Mostly running races so far.

In previous years, the competition between schools has become spirited, in a not-so-good way.  So far there are no indications of rivalries or ill will towards any of the competition.  However, it is early, and training has just begun.