Theological Education Network

By Anthony:

I am excited to share with you about a theological education network that I've been coordinating since December 2020. I hadn't shared about it yet because it started slowly with few people and we have only met three times in total. The goal was to meet every quarter, but covid slowed down our plans. 

I have always had a passion for bringing different denominations together in unity to focus on Christ and our common goals while also keeping our distinctions and even debating our different beliefs. In my context here in East Africa, my impression is that there are many small Bible colleges and programs led by different denominations or missionaries and often they are quite isolated from each other and compete with each other. I've written about that in this article. I have a passion to see how we can have our schools working together better and learning from each other. Theological education is incredibly important in a country in which the vast majority of pastors have no training or only a little informal training. And yet there are common frustrating challenges of illiteracy, material poverty, staff shortages, and many others. 

The idea I started with was to have all of the Bible colleges of our region in Uganda come together one time to see how we might find ways of partnering and strategizing for theological education together. After the first meeting, the idea morphed into an ongoing network for mutual learning with participating institutions consisting of both formal Bible schools offering accredited programs, as well as informal Bible training programs offering unaccredited certificates. The first two meetings were at our home, but then we grew from there. The participants have been mostly principals of each school, but also other teachers and bishops from different denominations.

From those first two meetings we came up with our group purpose:

We are a group of theological educators and church leaders who are committed to improving theological education in North Eastern Uganda. We keep our diverse identities as we come from diverse churches, but we commit to humbly listening to each other, learning from each other, and sharing ideas with each other for the sake of the Kingdom of God. Together we can develop a more cohesive strategy for theological training of church leaders in our region. We strive to make each of our Bible colleges more financially sustainable and more effective at transforming church leaders as we share advice and information and make partnerships together to address the enormous need of theological education in North Eastern Uganda.

The last meeting we had was held in Deliverance Church Soroti in October 2021. We were very grateful for their willingness to host us. Every time our group meets we discuss a different topic and have different people facilitating. Future topics could include: analysis of overall picture of schools in our region, curricula choices/library books, income generation and financial sustainability, setting up online programs, governance/board, denominational loyalty, partnerships, scholarships, skills/livelihood training, mutual projects or advertising events/conferences to do as a group together, issues of language, and many more.

I was very encouraged to hear that some of these schools, even of different denominations (Pentecostal and Presbyterian), were already working together to share professors.

The facilitators for this October meeting were from Kampala Evangelical School of Theology (KEST). Philip Wandawa, the principal there, did his PHD at Calvin Seminary and we met him in Grand Rapids before we went to Uganda the first time in 2009! KEST was the only school represented that was not from our region. Philip and his colleague Emmanuel led an important conversation on how accreditation works in Uganda and how to obtain it, but more importantly talked about the advantages of both accredited and unaccredited informal theological education programs, and why both are extremely important in Uganda. Here is a picture of Philip speaking to the group:

So far we have 23 schools/programs within our network from our region. They are nearly 50/50 in terms of formal and non-formal. With Soroti as a geographical center, they include other surrounding places such as Lira, Amuria, Karamoja, Kaberamaido, Kumi, Mbale, and Kapchorwa. They represent various denominations: Pentecostal, Anglican, Presbyterian, etc.

It was nice to have a mixture of Ugandan leaders as well as a few foreign missionaries. It was also a time of great fellowship and reunion for everyone. Some people were meeting with their former teachers after many years. 

Resonate has an ongoing partnership with PAG Uganda as a denomination, so it was also nice that we had both the current principal of Pentecostal Theological College there, as well as the former principal who was there with us in 2009. Here is Patrick on the left who we worked with in 2009-2010:

The current principal Erich:

We don't know yet what fruit will come out of these meetings, but so far people are finding them helpful. And I love seeing the fellowship and partnership towards the common goal of theological education. Please pray for us that God would use this group to equip and help each of the schools.

Soroti TLT Video Testimonies

By Anthony:

Recently I and another facilitator, Tom, led the preaching TLT manual for 4 days in Soroti. It was a wonderful and intense training. I've shared about this training many times, so this time, I will only share a few video testimonies I captured from the participants. You can view them here or click on the names to go directly to YouTube. Some are sharing about their action plans from the previous manual, From Harm to Harmony: Overcoming Violence in the Family.

Moses Adoput:

Isaac Ogwang:

Samuel Opolot:

Sarah Okiror:

Youth Bible Study Party

 By Sara:

This month marked the end of almost two years of youth Bible study groups here in Soroti.  We hear that kids are going back to school in January, so we decided to celebrate what God has done through these groups with a Christmas party.  I told them long ago that I would have them all over right before they go back to school, so the kids have been looking forward to this for at least six months :)  

I invited all of the members of the three groups over to my house for the party and planned the details with representatives from each group.  I spent the day before baking lots of sugar cookies and preparing colored sugar and icing for decorating.  A couple of the kids did the shopping for food, so I went to their home to pick up the things they bought as well as cupcakes and a cake some of them baked, and the juice others had prepared.

The morning of the party, some of the kids came early to help me set up, and to cook pilau (spiced rice mixed with small pieces of meat), while I cooked chaya.

When everyone else showed up around noon, they had a great time playing Pictionary (or at least a version of it that worked for them).  The girls' team beat the boys, by the way - but just barely.

After that, we feasted on pilau and chaya.  Once everyone was full, there was still more food - everyone got to decorate 4 cookies, plus they got a cupcake and a piece of cake.  Decorating cookies was a big hit and a new experience for everyone except the kids who came over for a Christmas party last year.

We sang happy birthday to everyone, one month at a time.  The person whose birthday was closest to the party (2 days before) got to blow out a candle on her cupcake.

I am very thankful for all of these people and the ways I have seen God work in their lives over the past two years.  I will miss them when they go back to school!

They all wish you Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Post-Lockdown Ministry and Fun Life Photos

By Anthony:

We really enjoyed the lockdowns in Uganda and made the most of them, although of course we had great compassion for our friends who struggled economically during that time. Once the lockdown ended at the end of September, life went into high gear with trainings, meetings, small groups, and visiting people. This post will share a few highlights about things that don't fit into other posts. I'll start with ministry events and at the end share other fun photos from life.

We had a preaching TLT training in Kachumbala with Pentecostal Evangelistic Fellowship of God Church (not the same as PAG). Leaders from this denomination from around a few districts gathered for the training. I led it with Robert Odukatum and also my Resonate colleague Stephen Omoko. There were 25 participants and we had to translate everything into Ateso. It struck me that we were teaching perhaps bachelor-degree-level biblical interpretation and preaching concepts to many pastors who have never finished primary school. When you consider that, it really makes you respect their commitment and desire to learn!

I've shared so much about TLT in the past, so I'll just tell one story. A pastor shared about his church that at the end of the service, the floor is open for each of the church members to share about their recent dreams, and the pastor has to interpret them for the rest of the church! He was not thrilled about this practice, and the rest of the pastors encouraged him to have it stopped. My co-facilitator shared about another church that did this, in which a lady shared about her dream of the pastor walking down the road, walking backwards, while urinating, and that pastor had a hard time interpreting that one for the church! Speaking of dreams, the most common question I get when people personally call my phone after my radio teachings is that they tell me about their dreams and ask for help interpreting. I have to help them think about how some dreams are from God but some are just dreams, I talk the issues through with them, and I pray for them.

Here is the group:

I had an interesting opportunity to teach a group of youth from our own church how to play ping pong. It was a joy to share that God is okay with us having fun, and that exercise is a good thing! Walter (in blue), one of our guards/groundskeepers who I taught how to play ping pong (and who is now an expert player), came along with me to teach them. 

Federico, a missionary friend from Argentina, also came along to help teach.

We also went to Kampala a couple months ago. We had a whole slew of different meetings with various Resonate partners and institutions. It's always a good time for high blood pressure, road rage, and near death experiences. I didn't take this photo, but it gives you some idea of the fun of driving in Kampala.

But one highlight of that Kampala trip was that we got to meet our new Resonate colleague, Barbara Kakemba. She is working with Resonate's Educational Care program. It was nice to meet her and her family and to see their amazing strawberry garden which is giving them good additional income.

When the churches opened up again, one of our church members took some pictures during the service. This was back when the chairs were still spaced and people were still wearing masks. Nowadays it's very unusual to see anyone wearing a mask in Soroti. Things went back to normal really fast. Yet somehow covid is not spreading rapidly here like in the US, and comparatively few people are hospitalized when they have it. We don't understand. Perhaps because Ugandans have less obesity or stronger immune systems? One new development is that a lot more Ugandans are willing to get vaccinated than before. Uganda is up to around 11% of the people having been vaccinated with at least one dose. 

I meet every other week with a group of pastors in Soroti for a book study. We are going through Prodigal God by Tim Keller. It's creating very stimulating discussions and biblical study for us as we think about God's grace, community, and church discipline. We meet under a tarp at our home and I provide them breakfast.

If Sara is ever around when I have meetings with pastors or Bible studies like this, she will spend time showing her garden to them afterwards or sharing seeds with them and giving planting instructions. Here is a photo of pastors taking home huge bundles of chaya that she shared with them.

After a pastor's meeting last week, we discovered many children out in the street a few feet from our gate. It turns out they had a pet monkey! We and the pastors had to take a look and one pastor fed the monkey a banana. The kids must have caught it in the village and then took it to town. Here is a video:

Some of you may have read about Resonate and PAG's church planting efforts in the Karamoja region. We are happy to share these beautiful photos of one of the new churches that is meeting outside of Daniel's home! These photos are already many weeks old, and the church has grown more since that time.

One of the most exciting things to happen in Soroti recently is that the new market opened, and it is enormous! Years ago, the market was a mass of little wooden shacks with tarps overhead, a maze of dark and dirty tunnels. Then we had a nice outdoor temporary market. And now the new market is the biggest building in town, almost like a modern shopping mall. This picture doesn't even show half of the structure. It's a beautiful place. Unfortunately we hear that people really struggled to get places in the new market and a lot of bribery took place. Some of our friends who had places in the old market failed to get places in the new market.

We made an effort to visit the homes and families of our guards recently. We have 4 guards, 2 who alternate working days, 2 who alternate at night. They each work only two weeks in a month. That way we have someone at home both during the day and during the night. In the last couple months, we visited Paul's family, John's family, and Raymond's family. Here is Paul with his wife Rachel and their new baby:

Here is John's family:

Here is Raymond's family:

I love that their home has a tree in the middle to provide shade and a gathering space for everyone in the big family. 

Raymond's sons keep pigeons as a small project. So the other day I bought two of them and cooked them for myself and Sara. I simply fried them for 2 minutes on each side, and then roasted them in the oven for 10 minutes. They were very tasty! I recommend them. We will surely buy them again.

Speaking of eating interesting things, our Argentinian friends, Federico and Belén welcomed us to a goat roasting at their farm. It was very good, and a lot of food! I didn't eat for the rest of the day after that lunch.

It was their son's birthday so he got to blow out a candle on the goat, rather than on a cake:

Last, a few pictures from around the home. This is our veranda many mornings because of our ducks. 

This is a frog who was living in one of our toilets for a long time before I finally scooped him up and let him go outside. At least with geckos, we do it the other way. If I catch them outside we bring them inside, which I did last week. Geckos are like our pets, a fun home decoration, and they eat mosquitos and bugs.

Trimming Caleb's hairy feet:

Beorn making dinosaur noises: