More Activity

This week there are several things going on that are not part of the normal routine.  Stephen Awayi, a local evangelist, just returned from ministry that took him well past the boarder into D.R. Congo.  He came with another member of the Church.  Denis comes from Busia on the boarder with Kenya.  He will be staying here (Northwestern Uganda) and learning the work of an evangelist for a while.  He is also interested in prison ministry, so he has joined the team.

The head of our children’s ministry is a refugee.  He is registered in one of the camps.  (I am near the border, but all the camps are at least 50 miles from the boarder to make it difficult for warring factions to disturb them.)  He would stay in the camp, except he requested to stay with another member of the ministry (who agreed) so he would be available to work with the ministry.  He needs to return to the camp periodically and this is one of those times.

The South Sudan Evangelical School of Theology holds classes in Mugujai for a week at a time (intensive studies for current and prospective clergy in the Free Charismatic Church).  They do this several times within the year.  This week’s class will end with the annual graduation.  Because several of the bishops who lead the school also participate in (or request the ministry of) Truth is Light, I have been asked to give the sermon for the graduation.

Meanwhile, all the regular activities continue.

Planting season

It is an unusual sight traveling through the villages to reach Mugujai.  During the dry season some of the old plants are left in the ground until the soil is soft enough to till again.  The transition from the first to the second growing season is not set.  Some farmers are still waiting for the first crop to be ripe, while others have found theirs was ripe, have harvested, and planted again.

That’s what make now unique.  The old plants have been pulled out (everywhere) and burned along with the weeds, and the fields are either bare, or low – filled with young plants.  It is easy to see tookels and brick houses hundreds of meters away, usually hidden by corn (maze), sorghum, and a variety of other plants, and the surrounding countryside.

Transferred

The deputy officer-in-charge of the local prison has been transferred.  She has been a great contact point for the prison ministry.  She also appreciated what the ministry does and how we kept in contact with the prison administration during the CoVid lockdown.  From the sound of it, we may have been the only ministry that did.

The officer-in-charge of the local prison has changed far more frequently.  Some have been great to work with.  Others are more administrative and have delegated us to the deputy to handle.  One served the local prison for two years before transfer, another was just six months; however, the average for an officer-in-charge seems to be one year.

Other staff members, know who we are, have talked about the ministry with the new officer-in-charge.  I expect the same thing will happen when the new deputy arrives.  This is the first time the deputy has been changed in four years, but it shows why our developing a relationship with the staff, not just an individual is important.  It also highlights the reason we need the letter of permission from prison headquarters (mentioned in previous posts).

Kudu

Last night (really it was early this morning) we had rain (kudu).  This was a big rain (heavy or lots of rain) at times and lasted for several hours (which is unusually long).  I think we needed it.  It was 7 days since the previous rain and the water tank was low.  The farms were looking dry too.  The roads were dusty, like it was dry season, which goes to show that we have not had enough rain to thoroughly soak the ground yet.

A few days ago I was talking about rain with some of the refugees in the area.  They were telling me about the roofs on the tookels (thatched roofs) leak during heavy rains and those inside dread when the night rain is heavy.  He described holding a saucepan above his head in bed to stay dry.  I was surprised.  I thought thatched roofs did a better job (than that) of keeping the rain out – if they are thick enough and not too old.  He said no.

Padombu PMT

The unofficial leader of the prison ministry team (PMT) at Padombu called me to make sure I was coming for the team meeting / bible study.  I join them every other week to maintain contact between the teams and to provide them with copies of the study material.

When I arrived with one other member of the Birijaku PMT, we were met by the team member who is on the staff at Padombu Secondary School.  He sent word to the Scripture Union leader and the team members that we had arrived.  One team member came to talk with us about coordinating the ministry for Lobule Prison since they are about to enter the time of exams.  Afterwards, he explained that the rest of the team would arrive late (which could be anything from 10 minutes to 2 hours later) because most of them are prefects and the prefects were still in their meeting.  This is why I want to coordinate things between the two teams, so we can cover for each other and keep the ministry serving God.

Pancakes

The board members are gathering for the monthly meeting.  Some of them are staying at my home, so I cooked extra pancakes for breakfast.  However, they were fasting.  I saved them for when they decided to break the fast.

Mid-afternoon they broke the fast; however, they were going to gather in Sambia.  I sent the leftover pancakes with the person hosting the tea to break the fast.  She gladly accepted them. 

After she had served the board members, she called Ramadan to join us.  He was going to decline until she said there were pancakes.  Ramadan said he had been missing pancakes because the Ray family is in the US.  The recipe to make them from scratch is simple.  It is common (locally) to eat something with the morning or afternoon tea, but making pancakes seems to be something left for those of us who grew up in another part of the world.

Future Neighbor

A new row house of three rooms is being built just outside my yard.  It had not been worked on for almost a month now.  Today a truck arrived carrying lumber.  They asked permission to offload it into my yard because I have a fence and a lock on the gate.  I gave permission.  A work crew arrived and began working on building the joists for the roof.  In this part of Uganda, they are not manufactured at some company and delivered ready for installation, they are built on-site.  Today they put a wood beam on top of the brick wall and strapped it in place.  Tomorrow they will begin building the joists, nailing them to this wood beam.

Prison Ministry

I was checking WhatsApp for updates a few hours before our prison team meeting.  I have been using this method to check in with the head of spiritual affairs for all Ugandan Prisons.  It has been a few weeks, so I inquired about the permission letters from prison headquarters again.  There has been a recent change in the Officer-in-Charge at one of the prisons and when I met him, he inquired about our letter.  I mentioned this.

I received an unusually quick reply.  We cannot find your file; can you send me a copy on WhatsApp.  At least I did not have to take a day to travel to Kampala, and another day to come back – along with the expense.  I scanned and sent both requests (one per prison) along with the copy I received with their mark showing it was received at prison headquarters.  Maybe they were working on it; maybe it was lost five months ago, and I received various explanations while they looked for it.  I do not know.  My re-send was acknowledged with a phone call requesting a new cover letter with the current date.  I was also told, ‘Do not give up, we need your ministry in that area.  Have you considered expanding to other districts.  Maybe you [will want to] request permission for that too in your new letter.’

Multi-language environment

I managed to get a public car back from Mugujai (to Koboko) quickly this week (unusual).  A little farther, the driver stopped to fill his last seat.  He spent some time talking with the family members that were seeing the passenger off.  As we drove, he asked her, in English, why she wanted to go to Gulu so late in the day.  Vehicles leaving now (from Koboko) would not reach Gulu today.  She explained that a family member was sick, and she was called to come help.  She had been doing the same thing in Mugujai and had to wait for the family to release her.  The family in Mugujai is Kakwa, but the members in Gulu are from another tribe, that became part of the family by marriage.  I have the impression that the reason the family members spent so much time talking to the driver is because she does not speak Kakwa, only English and the language of the tribe in Gulu.

Schedule

The current reverend at St. John’s is teaching the parish leadership how to plan.  Instead of following their tribal custom of just responding to whatever happens as it happens, they should plan.  He has instituted a quarterly schedule, very much like the monthly church schedules I knew in the US.  The acting Church Teacher has been going around getting people to sign up.  I offered to type up what he had so far and provide a clean copy so he can finish the work.

In the process of reviewing what I typed up, he realized that he needed to distinguish between those signing up for both services and those volunteering for just the English service or just the Kakwa service.  Together we made the changes.  We are already several weeks into the new schedule and it is just now being completed; however, some are beginning to see its value and the reason it needs to be completed before the quarter begins.