Aug. 14 Josh's Journal

August 14
I don’t think I have written for a couple of weeks so I wanted to write and give you a little update. The week of teaching the Timothy Leadership Training - Pastoral Care unit went very well in Amuria; however, I was very surprised how much it took out of me. About 65 pastors and church leaders gathered for the week. I was a little worried about how serious they would take it since I was the one providing all the food and notes. However, I was very happy with their response. It took me about an hour to get there each morning. I left home at 7:00 each day. As soon as I walked into the church they rang the bell and within 60 seconds everyone was inside and ready to begin. On Tuesday my motorcycle broke down on the way there so I was over an hour late. (First I had tried to get it running, then I had to push it back to a primary school because I did not simply want to leave it setting along the road. Then I hitch-hiked to the next town. There I waited until a market truck came bouncing down the road - they had room in the back yet so I climbed on and finally made it to Amuria.) However, they had not waited for me to begin. They had begun without me by discussing what I had taught the day before.
Some of the church leaders had been serving God for 20-30 years, others for only 1 year. However, few of them had finished any sort of Bible training. They were all grateful for the chance to receive training. They also wanted to know when I could teach the same course in Katakwi. I would love to, but I am still trying to get over my cold - which started the second day I taught in Amurai. The course lasted a week.
I enjoyed the weekend with our family and Stacey. Then on Monday I headed to Otuboi to teach for the day. We began the 2nd section of the Timothy Leadership Training - Christian Stewardship. I think it will be a good course because those church leaders identified many resources that local Christians have, and many ways the churches need to improve their giving and offering system.
These last few days have been a little less busy. I have been working on my Old Testament Survey course for Bethel Bible college again. I am on Zechariah which means I am nearly finished. Yeah!!
This weekend we are going to Murchison Falls, a game park in Northwestern Uganda. The nice lodges were quite expensive so we decided to stay at the cheap one, called Red Chilis. We will be staying in one of their tents. As the time gets closer we are starting to question the sanity of staying in tents in a game park with all of Africa’s big game animals, but people do it every night. Anyway, it should be fun. Then next week we head on to Kampala to renew our work visas. In many ways that feels more intimidating than staying in a tent in the land of lions and elephants. Hopefully it goes well.