DAYS 7-10 KAMPALA

As I type this final report I am looking at the view you see top left of the river Nile from the room/tent at the Hotel Nile Porch so not all is bad in Uganda. This is our last couple of days and after 12 of the most demanding days that I have experienced (let alone Nathan) we are enjoying a final two days doing nothing at what has to be one of the most beautiful spots you could find anywhere in the world. Just to the left and a few hundred yards away is where the Nile flows out from Lake Victoria at its vey source down initially the rapids and the Bujigali falls in front of us.

Anyway back to the timeline of our trip and to Day 7 (Thursday 29^th October in Kampala) when I was privileged to speak at the annual gathering of the East African Baptist Pastors Fellowship (see picture to left) to leaders from Kenya, Sudan, Tanzania, DR Congo, Rwanda, South Africa and of course Uganda. The theme they gave me was ‘Leaders who manage and develop their resources.’ It appeared to be received well and I was asked a series of good questions afterwards. They are very intrigued and encouraged to hear of the growth of black African churches in the UK and in discussion after my address spoke of the possibility of forming an East African Missionary Society to send Missionaries to the UK. An intriguing thought!

Friday whilst free of any engagements was a very busy day for us both as we prepared for the Kampala Baptist Association Leaders Conference. I had one talk to write from scratch and I also had to amend significantly my talk to the EABP for this Conference and then prepare three PowerPoint’s for my three hour long lectures. Nathan was leading three blocks of worship each 30 minutes long and had to prepare for this including typing into SongPro a number of the songs we would be singing. It was a typical African occasion scheduled to begin at 8.00am we were picked up by Gerald at 9.00am and arrived to find five people present. Eventually we began at 9.30am and people continued to arrive into the afternoon. By the time I had given my three talks on ‘The Key Principles of Christians Leadership,’ ‘The Keys to forming Partnerships,’ and a reworked session on ‘Developing and Managing resources’ the group had swelled to those in the picture to the right. The middle session on partnerships was perhaps the most important for them as IU was talking about how true and genuine partnerships between them and us in the UK can be formed that are based on mutual responsibility and openness and accountability which is two way rather than the we are poor you are rich give us your money and don’t ask questions approach that is all too common in existing partnerships. In truth the senior leaders are beginning to understand that they need to radically change their approach but many pastors who remain poorly educated simply see the whole process as a quest for sponsorship without accountability and think that all muzungus are walking ATM’s! They day finished at around 5.00pm and we returned to Chris and Christine’s. Their week has been horrendous. The first two days were the AGM of the BUU and the next two the EABF Conference. On Friday they shot off real early to help another missionary couple move home and were out all day – Uganda removals need much supervision. They don’t twist the furniture to get it into a room they just push until it goes in eventually, usually in pieces! Saturday they left even earlier to attend the opening of a vocational centre at a school 3½ drive away as guests of honour, which meant they had to arrive on time (unlike anyone else) and could not leave until everyone else had. The regional minister attended and sat throughout the event reading the newspaper in the front row!! His presence, however, was useful for the centre had been built by World Vision and the computers provided by TWAM (Tools With a Mission) and looked wonderful except that electricity had not yet reached the school complex and so this beautiful new fully equipped Vocational Centre could not actually operate. The minister was most willing to look into this small difficulty. After leaving at 6.00am C&C finally got back at about 9.30pm. Such is missionary life in Uganda!

Sunday saw our final engagements of the trip at Nakawa Baptist Church. This is the church that Gerald, Oscar and Phyllis all go to. Nakawa has extensive premises, though to us they would appear little more than an assortment of poorly built wooden huts. They do not own the land on which they are built (a British company does) and for several years they have been threatened with eviction because Nakawa is generally an upmarket area but the church and the housing immediately around it are very poor. These threats have intensified with a Muslim University wanting to buy the land. There is a possibility the church could buy the land but only if they also contracted to rebuild the church to the same standard as the general area. They estimate they need £50,000 to do this but this will difficult because they, of course do not possess anything like these funds. Gerald is church Treasurer and says that they receive around 200,000 US per week (£35 to you and me) which is quite good but won’t help their dilemma. Gerald was supposed to pick us up at 9.00am so I could preach at the first service at 98.30am (the service having begun at 9.00am) but there was a torrential downpour and when it rains in Uganda everything stops! Gerald and his wife of five months Joan (pronounced Joanne) arrived at 10.00am and we got to church at about 10.10am. Perversely when it rains the only people who turn up to church are those who travel from afar and so either have their own vehicles or take taxis and budda-buddas (motorbike taxis) to church. Local who have to walk do not do so which given that in this rain it would take 30 second to soak you through to the skin is understandable – no one has umbrellas or raincoats! So it was that both services that morning at which I preached had significantly lower attendances than usual which was a shame but nevertheless for us it was still a great occasion.

The pictures to the left show Nathan attending the Sunday School Class at Nakawa, the Nakawa Worship Group, and Phyllis holding baby Hannah the daughter of Steve and Caroline Sandersons who are BMS missionaries working with the Uganda Lawyers’ Project an offshoot of the BUU.

Phyllis is about 25 years old and resisting parental pressure to marry because she eels called to study and train at Bible College to be a children’s worker and missionary in Uganda. She’d be great at both!

The service over we went with Gerald and Joan (See picture on left below) to their home outside Kampala. It is a nice house and I visited two years ago but he has been unable to do any work since. Gerald father was a Colonel under Idi Amin and when Amin left he became a pursued man. Gerald as eldest son spent five years running and hiding with his father before he died whilst he was a very young boy which was a harrowing experience. Call it African perversity or call it the grace of God but when eventually and amnesty was called (long after Gerald’s father had died) the government decided to honour the pensions of all Amin’s officers and Gerald received his Father’s posthumously and used it to buy his home. After lunch Pastor Peter Mugabi from Nakawa (no relation!!!) came with his family (see middle picture below) to joins us and we had a pleasant time with them before we returned to the Leach’s our duties complete as is this final report. Hope you enjoyed them and see you soon! The final picture shows the Parliament building in central Kampala with an interesting sign if you can read it.