TLT Five Country International Retreat

 By Anthony:

As a Resonate team in Eastern and Southern Africa, our goal for TLT over the next 3 years is to form healthy and effective teams of TLT facilitators so that the work is done in cohesive, strategic, and effective ways. In the past, TLT has been mostly done by isolated facilitators leading on their own. We want to see people training alongside others and working together, both in terms of Resonate TLT facilitators, and the volunteer facilitators that we mentor. We want to see TLT facilitator teams in six different countries, starting with Uganda, Kenya, Zambia, and Ethiopia, but also expanding to Burundi, and another new country at some point. We want to see facilitators caring for one another, holding each other accountable, writing quality reports together on time, managing resources faithfully, and having the important skills of facilitation that are necessary to run TLT well. Our whole plan is very detailed, but this gives you a short summary.

One of the main initiatives we came up with to kick off this new vision and strategy was to host a TLT international retreat for facilitators. We originally were going to have everyone meet up in Kenya, but it became very expensive and very complicated due to covid-19. So we ended up having people meet at nice hotels each within their own countries but then we had some sessions each day over zoom. We had TLT facilitators from Uganda, Kenya, Zambia, Ethiopia, and Malawi. Most of the sessions were led by people in these countries, but we also had a zoom call with Albert from the TLT office in Grand Rapids, and one with Mike our Resonate team leader in South Africa.

Since Stephen is now leading our Ugandan TLT facilitators, my job was to coordinate the schedule and presentations for the five countries and manage the technology for the zoom sessions:

In Uganda, we had zoom up on the projector for people to see, and then people came to my computer when they wanted to chip into the discussion. Let me tell you: when you have power outages in every one of our countries, weak internet networks and outages in every country, some people using zoom for the first time ever, different time zones, delayed lunches, loud rain on metal roofs, and people having loud feedback on microphones or not knowing how to mute their microphones, it was an interesting week and a complicated job for me! Yet God helped us, and the whole thing was still successful. People were grateful for the presentations and what they were able to learn. 

The purposes of the retreat were: team building, rest for busy leaders, fellowship, equipping in TLT skills, strategic planning for TLT in our region and in our countries, and time for prayer. We had a full schedule for the 4 days of the retreat, but there was plenty of time built in for rest and for personal prayer. And there were team building activities. One team went to a museum. Others walked on the beach. And others played football. I think the best zoom sessions we had were when each country shared about their "best practices" in their TLT ministry.

One of the highlights for everyone was the fellowship, in person and online. People loved the ecumenism - we were from many different types of churches. My favorite moment was the end of the very last zoom session, when everyone went wild greeting each other on all the zooms at once. It was pandemonium, with so many languages being spoken at once, people singing, and people dancing and waving. People were full of the joy of the Lord.

Here are the Ugandan facilitators who came:

Through a special Resonate fund, we were able to give study Bibles (bought locally in Uganda), to each of the facilitators so that they can be more equipped in the ministry they do. 

Another highlight was that on one of the afternoons I got to attempt to teach all these guys how to swim at once. It was exciting and fun, but also quite nerve-wracking, as I was constantly retrieving people from veering off towards the deep end, and helping people who were trying to learn how to swim who kept spluttering and panicking! But they had such a good time. For many it was the first time to even be in a body of water like this. Eventually a lifeguard showed up to give them some real lessons.

In Uganda, we stayed at a less expensive hotel in order to take an additional day for the retreat. We used that day to drive into Murchison Falls National Park. It was inexpensive because we had rented a bus instead of park vehicles, and we just drove in and out on the same day, and Ugandans get an extremely discounted rate compared to tourists. This was the first time for them to be in a national park and to see their beloved African animals. It is sad to me that Uganda has such rich natural treasures like this park and most Ugandans will go their whole lives without being able to see it. While the park itself is inexpensive, traveling to the park is costly for most Ugandans, and costly to pay for transport once at the park. I suppose that in the USA, materially poor people also have trouble accessing our beautiful national parks in just the same way.

Some of these pastors had seen an occasional monkey or monitor lizard as they live in rural areas, but most had never seen other big African animals. It was fun for me to watch the pastors be in awe of what they were seeing. The comments from them were so different from the comments of tourists. For example:

"Uganda is so rich!" - (while seeing a field of countless antelope. Remember that in their cultures, wealth is associated with the number of cows you own) 
"Just imagine all the firewood we could collect and sell!"
"If we could only take back one antelope to eat...."
"So much meat."
"This is our Uganda. Imagine."

One park ranger in response said with exasperation, "sometimes I think we Ugandans can only think about food! Our national motto should "For God and our stomach" rather than "For God and my country!"

Stephen and I talked to the park rangers and learned that it is actually legal to raise some of the park animals. If we do the right preparations and have the land, and follow the Wildlife Authority's procedures, they would supply us with animals and then we start raising them. So Stephen and I are now scheming about buying land and starting a warthog farm! Too bad both of us are so busy we might not ever get to it.

We also took a boat ride on the Nile River and saw Murchison Falls. This was the first time many of them had ever been on any kind of boat in their lives. Later, in a testimony, one of pastors was telling people about how they had seen Murchison Falls, "the biggest waterfall in the whole world!" Not quite, but you can hear the excitement!

After that we headed home. But something came up on the way home. On the way to Masindi at the beginning of the week, one of the pastors happened to see his uncle, a police officer, on the road. We stopped and said hi. The police officer invited this pastor, and all of us, to visit his home on the way back. I tell you this story so you can learn about the culture and what these pastors are like. We had extensive discussion during the week. We all had tons of things to do and families to get back to, so in one way it made no sense to stop and visit a family on the way. Ugandan visits take many hours! Literally impossible to do a 30 minute visit. But these guys are all evangelists at heart. They all argued, "no, we must see him. It's a chance to share the Gospel with him. It will be a blessing to him to be able to host us. We can't say no." So in the end, majority ruled, and we had to do it, but they decided to limit the time we spent there to two hours.

The officer is an alcoholic and has multiple wives. It was very sad and unfortunate that he did not know the names of his children that he was trying to introduce to us. But he did allow one of our team to share a short message from the Word. We had a pastor from the Church of Uganda (Anglican) share the Word. He did it so skillfully. The officer had boasted that no one in his clan had had as many children as he did, and that he was fulfilling the command to be fruitful and multiply in Genesis. So our pastor connected his message to that, and talked about how it's not enough to produce children, but you need to make sure to produce children and raise them in the fear of the Lord. And that it doesn't make sense to try to obey God's commands but live without God. He shared about Christ and preached the Gospel clearly. The officer's family listened attentively but they did not commit to trusting in Christ.

We traveled home on Sunday. One facilitator is so committed tot TLT that he had to rush back to his church in the village to lead a TLT group of church members that very day in the afternoon. Since we were missing church, we had church on the bus. 

This video just gives you a feel of our fun fellowship on the bus.

Last, here a few video testimonies. There are many more because every country shared testimonies from the retreat, but I'll just show you these from Uganda.

Moses Eyadu

Opus Moses

Engolu Tom