Day 5 – Kampala

This was scheduled as a rest day and it mainly has been. However today and tomorrow happen to be the days when the BUU hold their AGM and delegates have come from all over the country included Pastor Herbert from Kamuli. It seemed foolish not to attend a least a little of the day, so Gerald came to pick us up at 10.15 am and we arrived at Agape Baptist Church in time to hear the vision of the President of the BUU for the future of the Union. President Michael is also Pastor of Agape BC where Chris and Christine worship (Chris is now an Elder there). Nathan and I sat outside in the shade, we hoped inconspicuously, but were spotted by the General Secretary, Alex Wanyama, who then welcomed us to the whole Assembly and invited me to say a few words, which I did, with an emphasis on few! The President gave an exhilarating presentation of his vision for the future and whilst there may be all sorts of legitimate questions about how on earth this could all be achieved I think we all know that we cannot arrive at any destination until we have first decided where it is we want to go, and only then can we begin to consider how we get there. After discussion the vision was accepted by the Assembly but perhaps the one really valuable point made was that the Assembly had heard vision from Presidents before with little result and the hope was expressed this time that perhaps something would really come of this vision. I suspect with this President it will. We left at 2.00pm as they broke for lunch and walked the short distance back to where Chris and Christine live and the afternoon has been spent relaxing and writing reports for you to read. It is now 6.40 pm Uganda time (4.40 pm UK) and we wait for C&C to return and I think we shall go ou t for a meal as they have had a long hard day at the Assembly. Christine left to be there before 8.00 am to help prepare breakfast for all the delegates. This is not something they expect the muzungu’s to do (American Missionaries certainly wouldn’t) but C&C would not think of doing otherwise and this is perhaps one of the reasons the BUU appreciate and respect so much their partnership with BMS even though the financial advantages of seeking American aid can be greater!

Day 6 - Kampala

Today was an exciting day as Nathan and I were able to visit Choice Baptist Church in the Wabigalo slum district in Kampala (picture of inside of new church to the left). Through the Dorchester Church I have had a long and rewarding contact with Choice that began when Chris and Christine Leach first visited Uganda in 2001 on a BMS Summer Team as they explored their calling to the Mission Field. In many ways it was their visit to Choice that confirmed this in their hearts. Choice was then a small fellowship renting space in the slum upon which they had constructed a church that consisted of poles and half a roof (no walls)! Literally when it rained they had to cram into one half of the church structure. The church also ran a small school from the same building and it is difficult to describe the level of nothing with which they did this. When Chris and Christine returned and reported on their visit the Dorchester church was deeply moved and immediately decided to send the money required to finish the roof. A partnership was born and soon after the walls and a pit latrine followed; yes, a pit latrine of your worst camping nightmare which remain standard in all churches in Uganda even the wealthy ones as nearly all the sewers are open ones! Agape above is an exception in that they have a cesspit rather than just a pit!

The partnership evolved further in 2004 when Dorchester undertook its redevelopment project and set aside a portion of the monies raised to bless others and support several projects across the world. This included Choice where we were able to provide funds to buy land for the church in Wabigalo and also some monies towards the construction of the new church which was completed in early 2007, for new church please understand it is still a ramshackle building constructed of wooden poles and corrugated iron for walls and roof, but it is theirs. Now Dorchester also provides a further £150 per month which supports equally the Pastor the Assistant Pastor and the Sunday School. These relatively small amounts go a very long way as a reasonable salary in Uganda (i.e. a government paid teacher) is around £50 pcm or 150,000 US (Ugandan Shillings).

We began by briefly visiting the old site (see picture to the right)to remind ourselves of what things once looked like and then moved on to the new church. This remains a million miles away from anything any of us would find acceptable but it was also a million miles away from where they once were. The church itself is now twice the size it was previously and that is good given the rate of their growth having almost doubled in membership to around 70 in the last two years. Where before they had only the church they now have two further small classrooms where their vastly expanding and improving schools now hold two of their four classes. The children have books and pencils and some text books (before the only book in sight was a battered old Bible belonging to the Sunday School teacher). They have four teachers and 81 children and one of the teachers is actually qualified. The children pay around 25,000 shillings per term for their schooling (£8) and the school is able to pay the teachers around 70,000 US, though this is only half a real salary. It seems that 76 of the children actually pay their fees which is a very high proportion. The improvements in the school made possible by the investment from Dorchester have raised standards enormously and this in turn has seen the number of pupils increase and so helped provide more funds to run the school. It is a true partnership rather than a sponsorship and this is really excellent. By our standards they still have next to nothing but to see how things have moved forward and what a major difference such a small contribution can make is wonderful. It is also truly a blessing to see the extent to which the school and church are being empowered to take responsibility for themselves. They remain a poor congregation with weekly offerings around 10-15,000 US (£3-5) but they offer their loaves and fishes and trust to the Lord to help them achieve the impossible. Of course, just as in Kamuli the Elders were keen to share their further ‘needs’ to us and I shall dutifully pass these onto the church at Dorchester so they can be aware of how their partnership progresses.

The morning ended with a concert in our honour by the schoolchildren (the Baby Class show on the right) for I am their contact with Dorchester and the great blessing they have received from them (in their eyes) but both Nathan and I find the celebrity factor a little embarrassing. I have always taken the view that everything we have belongs to the Lord and so all we did at Dorchester was move God’s money around a little more effectively! The concert was fun for the first 45 minutes but as the second hour approached we were getting a little tired, and sadly they did not quite have the fine tuning of the Central College Chapel Choir in Kamuli! The picture below right shows one of the boys playing a village witchdoctor in a drama and you’ll be pleased to know the prayer of the Pastor succeeded where the charms of the witchdoctor failed. Eventually we headed off for lunch at the home of the church treasurer, Naphtali, where I ate last time I was here. He owns a vegetable stall in the market place and whereas before I went with fear and trembling to a meal in the slums of Wabigalo this time I looked forward to the best meal we would have whilst here and we were not disappointed.

Lunch was followed by a meeting with the Elders (pictured left) and then at around 5.00pm we returned to the church for a service. This was not a usual service day and very few members were able to be present as they were all working but Pastor Sam was very keen I should preach and Nathan should sing which we did to the Elders, a few others and about 100 children who had mostly come to see the Muzungu’s. Anyway it was a great joy and privilege to preach in the church that in some small way I had, along with many others, had a hand in building.

We returned home to a relaxing evening with Chris and Christine of whom I have yet to get a photograph to show you all, but that will come. Today has been a rest day as my contribution to the East African Baptist Pastors Fellowship has been scheduled for tomorrow (Thursday) not today but we did pop into the Conference to see how things were and met Pastors from Congo, Kenya, and Sudan as well as from Uganda of course. The evening has been spent back at Chris and Christine’s with their weekly hosting of about six young men from the Agape church who they have adopted somewhat. It’s been fun but it is now 10.00 pm (7.00 pm UK) and time to talk to Carol on MSN so I’ll say goodbye and try to post this report onto the Website later for you all to read.

Here I am preaching at the late afternoon service wearing the African shirt they gave to me as a gift (Nathan got one as well). I spoke on ‘Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice’ (Philippians ) and through the story of Paul’s missionary hardships, including during the founding of the Philippian Church, encouraged them to do the same. It is almost impossible to preach or teach here without the differences between our richness in the West and their poverty in Africa being a factor and so facing it head on is perhaps the best way.