July 7 -- Josh's Journal

July 7, 2008
Wow, a lot has happened since the last time I wrote. Today was Timothy Institute training in Otuboi. We finally completed the course work for the first topic: Pastoral Care. We have met 8 times to get through the 11 lessons. Today we did lessons 10 and 11 since they were both quite short. Before lunch we discussed “the Church and HIV/AIDS” (lesson 10). I was struck by a few things. Every pastor had members in their church who have HIV. Every pastor knows of AIDS related orphans. Every pastor knew good Bible passages to use when leading an AIDS related funeral. However, the pastors felt highly unqualified to teach about HIV prevention and AIDS care in their churches. They said that all the training available to them has always been the “safe sex” principles which do not work and are contrary to God’s will (a correlation perhaps). I was made aware how badly Christian AIDS/HIV teaching is needed.
After lunch we made a 6-month action plan (lesson 11) in which each church leader made specific plans about how they would apply the things of this course to their own churches. Many of them made plans regarding visiting the sick. A few wanted to focus on reconciliation ministries. One woman will focus on encouraging married couples within the church. The last pastor wanted to focus on reaching youth by getting them involved in the choir. I gave each member a notebook and told them that they need to write about every visit they make for the next six months to see how this action plan affects their ministry in the church. I was really pleased with how specific their action plans were. I was afraid they would all write vague, pious sounding plans; however, they were quite specific- even predicting what results they hoped to see.
Yesterday, I went to visit a Karamajong village in Moroto district. It is a long bumpy ride from Soroti, but I loved our time in the village. It reminded me a lot of Mahula, which also made me a little homesick. We started out by worshipping under a big tree. The church has begun only recently. Judging from the group gathered when we arrived, I would estimate them to have about 8-10 members. However, after a van full of mzungus (white people) arrived, every child and half the adults in the village soon appeared. We preached a very basic message about the need to turn from sin and turn to God through Jesus Christ. The people felt they had all turned to Christ before; the problem is that they still have not turned away from sin. We could see women wearing crosses and charm bags on the same necklace. Although it is a natural step for new Christians to combine the old with the new, they do need to be continually and clearly challenged to turn away from sin and traditional religion. It was exciting to have an opportunity to share with people who only recently heard the gospel for the first time.
After church we walked through the village for a couple of hours. We tried our best to interact with the people. A few spoke English, but not many. Ateso and Karamojong languages overlap about 50% (my estimation from listening to them) so they could all understand the Ateso that I spoke. I was struck by how badly the people need Jesus and by how open they seem to be. They were at least willing to listen. Oh, and the children -- many, many children. If only there was a good children’s ministry. God, please raise up workers to go into the harvest fields of Karamoja.
Friday night - July 4 - we had foreigners over from 5 different countries to celebrate our American holiday with us. We grilled a variety of meats (every one brought meat to grill and a dish to share). After supper we had a camp fire and roasted marshmallows. It was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, our party came to an abrupt end when a good thunder storm rolled in about 9:00.