As this is our first blog, we decided to use our 'A week in
the Life of the Kinsellas' newsletter, and add some photos. We hope you like them and add our blog address to your 'favourites'
Will we go on Facebook? If you knew how long it took us to get this thing up and running, you won't ask again! But you never know! Watch this space.
This is now
our third week of teaching at ABU and we wanted to share some of our
experiences so far.
Sundays have been a great blessing; we are
worshipping at New City Bible Church in the centre of Kampala. Services start
at 10:40 and finish at 12:40, the music has a definite African flavour but is
biblical and includes the singing of hymns and psalms. Last Sunday it rained so
hard that it was almost impossible to hear the preacher (due to the tin roof)
and we had to quickly move away from the windows before we got soaked – as the
rain was falling horizontally! We enjoyed the company of the Robertson’s for
lunch and thankfully the rain had stopped, allowing Sean to travel by motor
bike to a local Sudanese congregation where he preached (with translation). Recently
there have been evening services held on campus, where Palmer has been
preaching from Genesis. We give great thanks for these services; please pray
that they will continue and that many will come from the surrounding community
to hear God’s word faithfully proclaimed.
Mondays begin at 8:00. Sean teaches English to the first years and
Natasha teaches physics to Elliot and Daniel Robertson. The first years are a
small group (19) but are thankful to be at ABU and a delight to teach. Please
pray that the Lord will help these students to settle into university life and
train them up to be servant leaders for Christ. 10:00 is chapel, where we sing,
pray, and hear the preaching of God’s word. Each morning we have been blessed
by different speakers - it is the highlight of our weekday. At 11:00, Sean
teaches world history to the first years, which he greatly enjoys. It has been
tough having to prepare lectures, when he’s so used to teaching, but the Lord
heard our prayers, and he has found help from his friend, the internet! Natasha
spends her afternoons preparing lessons and doing jobs at the library, whilst
Sean organises the sports. He has introduced a new Sport Coaching and Ministry
Development program, which everyone is slowly coming around to! This semester, he is leading the girls in
circuit training and fitness coaching, whilst the men are developing football coaching
skills.
Our
evenings are fairly quiet at the moment, but we hope to use some of our spare
time getting to know the students and other members of staff. Sean, occasionally, will sneak off and watch
the football, across the road, with Bentry, his football buddy and colleague.
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| Sean teaching History to the 1st Years |
Tuesdays start at 9:00 for Natasha, with a
library orientation class. This week’s lesson was based on using the library
for research and how to write a paper MLA style. This is a new skill for all
the students, some of which have very limited experience of libraries. 10:00 is
chapel time, followed by 11:00 class for Sean in ‘Foundations of Curriculum
Development’. This is a class for 2nd
and 3rd year students who have taken an elective in education, and plan to
teach. This is a great opportunity to set biblical foundations for education
and train future teachers. Sean is learning along with the students and would
appreciate prayer for wisdom and understanding. At 12:00 Natasha takes a class
of eleven 3rd and 4th years looking at the book of
Proverbs. This class is based around a small group bible study book and
involves studying the book before class and then discussing what we have
learned in class. It has a been a great challenge for several reasons, Natasha
is not a trained teacher and feels poorly equipped for the task, she is very
thankful for online resources and Charles Bridges commentary but feels a lack
of wisdom regarding the book, the students are very reluctant to participate in
class discussion and have dead-pan faces that are very difficult to read,
therefore Natasha has to keep the energy of the class going for 50 minutes and
is exhausted at the end! Please pray
that Natasha would be equipped to serve the students as their teacher of
Proverbs that she would rely wholly on the Lord and trust him to use her for
the good of the students. Please pray that the students would study the text well,
before the lesson, and be willing to share and discuss their own thoughts and
experiences through this wonderful book.
Wednesdays, Natasha gets to teach chemistry
twice today, once to Elliot and Daniel (yr8 lesson) and once to Murray (IGCSE),
which she very much enjoys. Wednesdays follow a similar pattern to Mondays,
with the added benefit of a faculty bible study in the evening. Palmer has been
going through his thoughts on the flow of the Psalms, where you can feel his
joy and excitement in the word of God. It’s an encouragement to hear the
prayers of the saints and enjoy a little fellowship after. We greatly miss our
CPC mid-week meeting.
Thursdays follow the pattern of Tuesdays, no
library orientation for Natasha but the second Proverbs class.
Fridays start at 8:00 again following the
pattern of Mondays and Wednesdays for Sean. Natasha teaches physics twice today
and learns some new jobs for the library, such as cataloguing. The afternoon is
free on Fridays and so last week we enjoyed a trip into Kampala with the
Knights, another family on campus. We were able to complete some errands for
sports classes and experience a bit of Ugandan life. The traffic is heavy and
chaotic here and so much prayer is offered up before any trip, I’m not sure
Natasha will have the courage to drive if we ever get a car!
Friday night has been Youth Group night for so long, we found ourselves at a loose end, not knowing what to do, so we decided to host the first years for a History film night. We treat them to pop and popcorn, and so far have swatted up on the Greeks, with the help of Troy and 300 (both edited by Sean)! The students love coming round, and we love hosting them. One recently commented that he hoped they would one day host others and show similar hospitality, when they have their own homes. Please give thanks for the encouragement they have been to us.
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| Film night at the Kinsellas! |
On Saturday evening we enjoyed a meal with
Patrick and Kenny (see Photo). Patrick is an ABU graduate, now working as our
personal relations officer. It is his job to visit schools and other
establishments talking about ABU and our vision in order to keep the flow of
students training to serve Christ. Kenny is 17 and an orphan, he is living with
Patrick (26) so that he can study IT in a local college. Patrick has a great
heart for sharing the gospel with young people, the very thing we would love to
do.
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| Kenny enjoying his first ever Italian meal! |
This Sunday,
Sean will be preaching at a reformed student camp, please pray that the Lord
would be glorified and that Sean would be helped by the Holy Spirit to preach
on the theme, ‘who is my neighbour?’.
Meanwhile: the rain comes down in buckets (but
not for long, thankfully), we are not getting bitten so often (well, Sean
isn’t, but he does have chronic ear-ache!), five super-large cockroaches were
killed in the pantry (one chased Sean out of the kitchen, but was then chased
back into the pantry when Sean’s courage returned!), there’s a new kid in town
(the she-goat had a cute kid the other day, so the billy-goat we are sort of
looking after is now a daddy!), Sean’s back playing football (and taking the
pain-killers and tonic water that go with it!), and if any of you are planning
to come out soon, please let us know, for there are quite a few things we
forgot to bring, or just couldn’t fit in our 8 pieces of overweight baggage!!!
We remember
you by name before the throne of grace and thank you all for your prayers which
have greatly helped us these past weeks.
With much
love,
Sean and
Natasha
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