Some interesting highlights

October 31, 2018        Written by Julie Sherrill

I have spent five days with pastors from three different church denominations and three different languages.  The purpose for those days was to equip those pastors in writing a story from the Bible that was accurate, simple, reproducible and memorable. These will be shared orally in their churches, villages and go from hut to hut.

One pastor whom I met is the voice of Jesus in the Karamojong translation of the Jesus Film.   Another has spent many years in Israel translating the Bible into Karamojong for his people. All of these pastors were humble, passionate about God’s Word and united in their urgency to take the Bible stories all over Karamoja and even to the Teso region of Uganda.

A fun memory that I have was a lunch conversation that I participated in.   I joined a table with 9 of the pastors.   Our lunch conversation started with the topic of dessert.  I began to explain what a pie was.  Somehow it evolved to hiking Mt. Napak and the baboons that are there.  One went on to share about eating baboons, but when I asked for a show of hands no one volunteered that they had eaten baboon.  I am confident that some have. Next were snakes, especially pythons; how they kill and it was agreed by most that biting their tail is the recommended way to survive.  Just an FYI to you from Uganda.

The most impactful part for me was to listen to the story of one pastor.   This is a story of focus, obedience and sacrifice.   Pastor Peter grew up without any education.   He couldn’t even read.   He shared with me how small and weak he was as a child.  Peter received dreams from Heaven of two hands giving him a Bible and calling him to share the words of the Bible.  Peter knew that he couldn’t read so he had someone read one chapter in the Bible to him and he would repeat it over and over, memorizing the passage and learning to read.

Peter became a pastor in the Anglican Church of Uganda.   He and his wife were walking up Mt. Napak when they encountered warriors. They were beaten and had everything stolen.  Each warrior had a gun held on them and Peter told me that one said, “I’ll shoot him, you shoot her.”  Suddenly, a voice clearly told him to yell, “Army, they’re over here!”  Over and over he yelled this and the warriors ran away.   There was no army coming.   A short while later a car arrived with someone that Peter knew.    The church Diocese told Peter not to return to Mt. Napak.  Another dream from God came and told Peter, “You take my Word to those people. I will be with you.”

Peter and his wife agreed to return.   Now there are four churches on or around Mt. Napak, and a fifth one wants to begin.   They range from 150 to 400 in each church.  

This is just a small portion of what Peter shared with me.   He shared stories of miraculous healing and always said, “It’s not me.  It’s all God’s power.” 

I had observed Peter for three days.   He was very quiet, respectful, attentive and always had a smile.  Then I asked him to share his story of his relationship with God.   His eyes lit up, the words poured out and it was ALL about God’s provision and power.

Nearing the end of training

It is Sunday afternoon in Matany, Uganda.  We have returned from a joyous, spirit filled and lively church service!  We are taking a little break before we resume our story crafting process after lunch.  The training that the Sunset Team prepared has been very well received and it has produced great fruit.  Our goal was to train the 14 pastors and CLIDE staff in how to go about crafting or writing a story that could then be shared orally.  We are reminded that 80% of the world’s population either totally rely on oral communication or prefer it.

We set out to train the participants in crafting the remaining 22 stories on the story cloth that not yet been written.  Our plan was to be finished on Wednesday October 31.  It looks like we will be done around noon on Monday. The process we prepared has worked very well.

Our team of Julie, Gail, and Mike are feeling great and strong.  We are greatly enjoying our time here with these dear people.

Thanks for your prayers, they are really working.

First day of story training

It's Thursday afternoon and we are will on our way to "craft" or create Bible stories that can be shared orally.  We are training 14 pastors or CLIDE staff.  Our goal is to finish 22 stories from the Story Cloth we are using in the Peace Villages.  We have 6 teams working in pairs.  Our goal is each team will complete a story day.  This morning we did the initial training and then assigned each team a story to work on.  We hope to have these first stories completed by noon on Friday.  Our team is doing well.

Story crafting team

Team B working on their first story

The Story Cloth

Final day of leather training

It's Tuesday morning in Matany, Uganda and we are in the final day of leather training.  It has exceeded our wildest expectations.

October 23, 2018  written by Julie Sherrill

 

Yesterday was my birthday but I asked Mike and Gail to not make it known to others.   I wanted to not have the day about me.   I also had a plan for the day to connect with the leather trainees more and make it about “us”. 

John Paul Kodet is the Director of Livelihood Projects for CLIDE. He and I met with the six women then the four men that are being trained in leather crafting.  The ages of the trainees range from 20 to 53.    I briefly shared some photos of my family, dogs included, and my role on this team.

Many shared how they weren’t sure of what to expect with this training.  They were willing to take a step of faith.  For a majority of the trainees, this was their first-time using scissors, measuring tape and especially the intimidating manual sewing machine.

John, the leather instructor from Kampala is patient and encouraging.  He only sees their potential and their desire to learn!  He always gives them positive feedback and corrects them gently

The women shared how excited they are to return home and share what they have learned.  They know that it will impact their children too as they watch them making leather products.   They look forward to teaching their children and grandchildren.  Many know that their husbands will also desire to learn leather crafting and they will be very proud of them for doing this.

Three of the young men are 20,20 and 21.  One has a wife and two small children.  He shared with me that he will perfect this new skill and go on to mentor others. I was thrilled to hear those words from him!  He also is looking forward to learning how to make shoes and laptop bags. 

Simon is 53 years old.  He is not an elected official, but he is a leader in the village.   He is also a certified teacher.  The villagers respect and listen to hm.  Simon shared how this leather training will create unity, teamwork and pride in the village   He shared that others will see the value in education and want training.

What has please me has been to watch these 6 women and 4 men arriving early to practice, attentive to the instructor, learning from each other, laughing, smiling and enjoying the whole experience.  They talk about how this will benefit their families and their village.  Never have I heard one reference to me, myself or I.

Some students shared concern about how they would get their supplies and items home from the training.  I knew that we had tote bags for them, but the plan was to give them to the students on the last day.  I wanted to lower their level of concern by giving the bags to them early.  

I went to get the bags and returned to the group singing ‘Happy Birthday’.  There was a beautiful cake for me.  I learned that this was the first piece of cake for each student.  Oh, can you imagine the smiles of the three 20-year-old guys.  They had a second piece!   I passed out the tote bags and Gail gave them one pen.   They were overjoyed and had enormous smiles!   My birthday was made complete.  It was full of sharing hopes, dreams, joy, love and cake!

Leather Training is going well

This blog has been delayed because we have not had power at our guest house for two days, but it back up this morning.

On Friday we traveled by car from Entebbe to Soroti and then on Saturday we continued on to Matany.  The roads are being improved dramatically, but there are still stretches that are very rough.  The 10 trainees were already learning the basics of making a handbag out of leather.  It was so encouraging to see the smiles on the faces of these students as they rejoiced in the opportunity being presented to them.  For some of them this was their first time out of their village and staying in a guest house with three meals a day.  Our trainer is a young man from Kampala who makes a wide variety of leather products for sale.  He loves Jesus and his passion is to train men and women like our team so that they can improve their life.

Sunday we went to church in Matany and then resumed the leather training after lunch.  We have been without power since arriving in Matany and the water in our guest house is little more than a trickle, but we are doing ok. 

It's Monday morning in Matany, Uganda and the training of the 10 men and women from Lomoruchubae Peace Village is in its fourth day. The participants are working hard and learning fast.  They have already learned to make one hand bag and today are working on a new product.

Made it to Soroti

 We arrived in Entebbe, Uganda at 10:30 PM Thursday night after traveling 23 hours from Portland.  Flights were smooth and uneventful which is always good.  Dr. Moses and our driver John met us at the airport and took us to the Comfort Hotel.  Friday after breakfast we headed out for Soroti.   Along the way we stopped in Jinja for lunch and in Mbale to get green coffee beans. We had a great nights rest in Soroti and this morning (Saturday) we drive to Matany where we will begin the training on producing leather products.  Hope you enjoy our updates and choose to follow us on the adventure.

Off to Uganda

A small but mighty team (Mike, Gail and Julie) head to Uganda on Wednesday October 17 for three weeks of training.  The first week we will participate in the training of 5 men and 5 women selected from the Peace Villages who will learn to make leather products that they can sell to help support their families.  An expert in leather production from Kampala will conduct the training.

The second week we will be training 12 people (CLIDE staff and local pastors) in how to "craft" or write Bible stories that can then be shared in their oral culture.

Finally on November 2-4 we will participate in the 10 year anniversary celebration of the establishment of the Peace Villages in Karamoja.  What an exciting time that will be.

We will try to keep this blog updated as often as we have access to the internet.