Yes, it has been a while, but that is not because we have no
news, but more because we have been rather busy! There are presentations for the Summer to
prepare, sermons to write, exams to mark, visitors to attend to, Graduation
events to attend and prepare for, amongst many other things. Many of which you will hopefully hear about
in the Summer, but in the meantime, I’ll give you a quick round up!
Visitors
Joan Bryan and Amy McQueen came for a visit way back at the
end of March. Joan and Mark Bryan hope
to bring the family over around Christmas time, and Joan came over for a recky,
to establish what they all might do whilst here. They accompanied us on a visit to Busia,
helped out with a ladies’ meeting and the Sunday school, and visited a couple
of clinics, in the area. We hope they
were enthused enough to want to come back; we know the people here were, and
would love to see them again.
Amy, Imma, me, Joan and
Natasha at Sipi Falls NP, Uganda
We’ve had a few other guests, from ‘over the pond’ - some
coming to teach, some to preach, and some just to see what we do. Two such guests, Jerry McGuire (not the Tom
Cruise version – see left, walking with Deputy Vice-Chancellor Tim Hoke, in
blue!) and Lloyd Adams had the privilege and services of Kinsella International
Safari Services (KISS for short, and yes, I have just made that up!). I mention them because Jerry preached for the
whole week, in chapel, and both men saved so much on their excellent safari
that they offered to pay for a barbed wire installation around the whole
campus! You can never be too careful, as
you know!
This week, Jun Shiomitsu arrived with his own personal
photographer! Jun is here to speak at
our Graduation ceremony, this coming Saturday.
He also is involved in the new African Business Institute, which he
hopes will help and inspire the Christian businessmen and women of Malawi and
Uganda. Please pray for him, as his
involvement in this new venture will mean an end to his work with the Japanese
banks, and him stepping out in faith and boldness with God.
This selfie is taken by
Jun’s photographer, Miwaza Jemimah, posing with Kin Seong, Jun and Naomi at one
of the local markets. Not bad, eh!
Outreach
The Kajjansi outreach was put on hold this semester, as I
decided to take my role as Kurt Schimke’s assistant outreach co-ordinator
seriously! This meant that instead of
open air preaching with a board, I was open air preaching in Ndejje, where some
of our 4th Year students, led by Roger Drati, are seeking to plant a
church. Roger invited me along as a
guest, as well as Pastor Paul Ssemwunge who was to preach. When Paul had finished preaching he invited
me to speak, cajoling me to say more and more.
After, we invited the ladies (pictured) to tell us their prayer
requests, which we prayed for and the students promised to also remember.
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| Pastor Paul Ssemwunge ministers to Doreen, Harriet, Grace and Aysha. |
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| The Ndejje outreach team: Juuko, Daphine, John, Roger, Jeff, Joseph, Andrew, Pastor Paul, Thomas and Sunlight. |
Again, I went out
with the Wakisa team to the pregnancy crisis centre. Most of the mothers-to-be are under
sixteen. Many will not disclose the
circumstances in which they became pregnant, and most of the fathers will not
be held to account. They will be
mothers, but still girls – many still wear their school uniforms at the centre,
as they have little else to wear. It all
sounds so depressing, and would be if it there was no gospel hope for them, but
many have come to the centre and discovered Jesus, and many have renewed hope
of acceptance with God and a future home in heaven, with a Father who will
never leave or forsake them.
But, how could I finish the semester without one final visit
to Kajjansi? Second Year student, James
Adima informed me that several members of the Kajjansi outreach team wanted to
go to the market, last Thursday, and say goodbye to the locals. I thought it was a good idea, and said I
would like to go too. It ended up being
just me and him! Still, that’s no excuse
to not preach the gospel. We didn’t take
the board, instead I took a DVD sleeve!
The sleeve was from the movie, The
Good Lie, starring Reece Witherspoon and a few genuine South Sudanese
refugees. The message was about ‘the
good lie’ many are made to believe, that if you are good enough you will go to
heaven! That is a ‘good lie’, because
the Bible clearly states that, ‘…none are good…no not one. That we are all sinners and the ‘wages of sin
is death, but the gift of God eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.’ Only Jesus was ever ‘good enough’ to go to
Heaven, and only by putting all our faith and trust in His sacrificial death,
for us, can we go to heaven…that is a ‘good truth’ and good news! The
Good Lie, is a good film, but the ‘good lie’, is a wicked lie and not to be
believed! Well, Bonny, Geoffrey, Pereth,
Agnes and the rest of the regulars were pleased to see and hear from me, but
disappointed to hear I was off to England soon, until September, but wished me
well for my journey. One very
encouraging sight was the somewhat recovery of Pereth’s sick friend, who I
still don’t know the name of. We have
prayed with her a number of times over the past couple of years and this time,
praise God, she was sitting up and smiling, and as we prayed and thanked God
for her recovery, she thanked us and God, too!
The Ladies
Natasha has been filling the house with the ladies from
church. They did some cake baking (of
which I received none – the one kind soul did save me some cookies) and had a
time of sharing. Natasha comments, “We
met mainly to encourage one another in our Christian lives, and so the focus was
on fellowship. We started with baking, so that the ladies could get to know
each other in a relaxing environment. We then had a time of sharing personal experiences;
two ladies gave their testimonies which opened up a good discussion. We then
prayed and ate cakes and cookies to finish the meeting. I thank God that we were able to address some
very sensitive issues during the meeting.”
Christianity Explored
One reason I haven’t
been preaching out and about on Sundays is because I have been asked to lead a
Christianity Explored course for a group of young teens, at our church (New
City Community Church, Kampala). I was
not that familiar with the course, and didn’t have any of the materials when
asked, but thank God, Andrew Carter did…in abundance! So for the last four weeks, we (Martha, Nico
and myself) have been arriving at church an hour earlier, with cake, bread,
jam, boiled eggs and tea, and the course textbook and New Testaments (we
haven’t got Bibles yet, in case you are feeling generous!), to feed the ever
expanding gang – physically and spiritually!
Please pray for this work, especially for the team-leaders, for guidance
as to where to go with the course when we return in September.
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| The girls in the picture are, from left, |
Uganda Cranes
The Crested Crane (or Grey Crowned Crane) is Uganda’s
national bird (I shan’t say who I think is England’s!), it is also the nickname
of the Ugandan national football team.
Now, as I’ve said before, Edgar’s football team also train here (Edgar
being the Gary Lineker of Uganda – minus the sticky-out ears!), and a couple of
their youngsters have been scouted for training in Canada (Yes, I also wondered
what the link was between Canada and football).
Whether they were good enough for the trip was to be decided by Micho
(Milutin) Sredojevic, the national coach, who came to ABU to check them
out. And whilst he was here, he checked
out our pitch and facilities, and decided he wanted to bring the Cranes here
for some special training. I told him I
was too busy to get involved in all that palaver, but he insisted on bringing
the Under 23’s for a three day camp.
Yes, I said hello, but absolutely refused to help out, as we are so busy
here. Nevertheless, they stayed, they
played and they then headed off to Rwanda for their Olympic qualifier – where
they beat Rwanda 2-1! There’s no doubt,
being at ABU had the magic effect, as Micho pointed out, this is a very
‘spiritual’ place (!), and so it’s not surprising to hear, he plans to bring
the senior squad here next month.
Regardless, I won’t be here, and I won’t be coaching – I am here for ABU
students, and to serve God not Mammon!
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| Uganda cranes on the pitch... |
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| And…err…Uganda Cranes on the pitch! |
Graduation Day
I’m sure there will
come a time when Graduation Day will be a lot like Groundhog Day, but until
then, we look forward to our second and ABU’s seventh graduation. This means that Natasha has to worry about
transcripts and student grades, while I worry about what to wear! The students have already been photographed
in their gowns, and the excitement is building towards a crescendo. There will also be dinners, a Baccalaureate
Service and parties to attend, so you can see how serious the ‘what to wear’
issue is! As for Natasha sorting the
transcripts, I have every confidence in her, but I’m sure she’d appreciate your
prayers!
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| The Class of 2015! |
England
So, to conclude, we will be heading back to the UK (our
second home!), very soon. In fact, we
land on the Saturday morning of the 6th June. We are likely to be in London for the first
week, staying at Natasha’s parents. But
that doesn’t mean you won’t see us…we will hopefully have our car back, and be
out and about visiting and catching up!
And hopefully, we will be catching up with YOU! We’d love to come visit you and maybe even
your church…just let us know if you would like a visit and for us to present
our work and the work of ABU. Please
book early, as last year, I inconveniently suffered a heart attack which meant
we had to cancel a few engagements! So
until then,
Love and blessings to you all,
In the name of Jesus,
Sean and Natasha
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