Marriage Retreat

 By Sara:

After having to delay our plans for a long time due to Covid, we finally were able to go to Sipi Falls with most of the Pentecostal Assemblies of God pastors from Soroti and their wives for a marriage retreat.  It was a beautiful place and everyone enjoyed having the chance to rest and spend time with their spouse away from work and household responsibilities.  Anthony put in lots of time making phone calls to the pastors and the place where we stayed to coordinate everything, so it was a relief to have everything come together.  Including the facilitators, there were 17 couples total.

There was a bit of a shock the first evening when it rained and got down to around 60 degrees!  Most of the couples had never been to the area around Sipi Falls which is at a higher elevation than Soroti, as well as being less arid, and therefore cooler.  Some people must not have taken us seriously enough about how "cold" it would get and were freezing, wrapped up in blankets and winter coats!

 

Joseph, our colleague from when we worked with World Renew, and his wife Robinah, came from Kampala to help us facilitate the retreat.  We really appreciated the wisdom and marriage experience they brought and were able to share.  Between the four of us, we facilitated discussions about communication, the specific challenges for pastors and for their wives, healthy ways of dealing with conflict, and balancing work and home responsibilities.  While there are different cultural challenges people deal with in marriage in Uganda, Anthony and I learned that there are also some areas of disagreement which seem pretty universal, including minor ones like how one is supposed to squeeze a toothpaste tube! 

 

 

On the second day of the retreat, we were blessed with a beautiful morning for hiking.  Those who were able to participate in that activity had a great time hiking up and down muddy trails to see several waterfalls.  It was a challenge for some people since we're all used to very flat Soroti, but everyone who went was very glad they did. It was a really good activity for team building and doing something fun together, rather than only difficult ministry.

After the retreat, some of the wives of the pastors expressed how much they appreciated having the chance to be fully disengaged from their work, cooking, and household responsibilities.  One of them said this was the first time she benefited from her husband being a pastor!  The couples also appreciated how the discussion during the retreat gave them ideas about how to mentor new pastors and help prevent them from becoming over-committed, and as a result disconnected, from their families. This was the first time that all the wives of the pastors were able to come together, and it was the beginning of new supportive friendships.