Teaching about Preaching and Family Planning

Recently Sara and I both got to teach a class again for PAG Amuria's In Service Bible School Program for pastors.  We each only spent one day teaching.  Here is an old photo of Sara teaching IBS classes from several months ago.

This time I taught about hermeneutics, and then also the 4-Page Method for preaching.  It's a method I learned while at Calvin Seminary.  It forces pastors to dig into the passage rather than just reading a verse and talking about whatever they want.  The general pattern is:
1.  Discuss the problem in the text. 
2.  Discuss the similar problem in our lives today.
3.  Declare God's grace and activity in the passage.
4.  Declare God's similar grace and activity in our lives today.

This method is very simple, but very effective.  It forces pastors to look at what God is doing rather than just preaching a moralistic method.  It helps pastors to remember to proclaim the good news of the Gospel rather than just telling people to stop drinking or read their Bible more.  The students really appreciated this message, and we discussed how to use it for dozens of examples from Scripture.  When I went through the first example, giving them a 30 second version of a sermon using the method, they all started laughing, because they realized how helpful the method is and enjoyed it so much.  They are excited to try it out.  Here is a photo of the students discussing how to apply this method to various Bible passages.

Sara taught about community development again, as she did with the previous round of IBS students in Amuria.  It went very well, but she allowed time for questions at the end.  It turned into an hour long discussion about family planning techniques.  Sara was careful not to tell them what to do.  Family planning is a very controversial issue in PAG with some people thinking its wrong to use any method, and others thinking non-abortive birth control is okay.  Sara was able to remain neutral and answer many technical questions about the different types of birth control methods, their safety, and their effectiveness.  There are a lot of misunderstandings out there.  For example, we've heard people say it is unhealthy for a woman to go too long without being pregnant.  Some think that using condoms causes abortion.

Family planning is an important issue on everyone's minds because on the one hand people love having children and think that is God's will for each family.  But on the other hand, many women are worn out from constantly having children and people see that overpopulation and the high cost of education is contributing to poverty in Uganda.  Each family leaves behind their land to their children and it gets divided up, but you can only do that so many times.  Imagine one man who had 10 acres 50 years ago.  He has 5 sons.  His 10 acres get divided up between the 5 sons, so each son has to make a living with only 2 acres.  Then each son has 8 children, and has to divide the land once again.  You can see the problem.  It's forcing parents to have to choose which children they are going to pay for school for.  Pray for wisdom for Ugandans and for us as we talk to them about this hard issue.

Visiting Emmanuel in Anyara

Recently, we and Emily went to visit our friend Emmanuel and his church in Anyara, near Lira.  He is both a former student from Pentecostal Theological College, and currently one of my TLT students in Kaberamaido.  We wanted to do a post about it because we greatly enjoyed their enthusiastic worship, which you get just a taste of in the video below.  Ugandans do get hot too.  Most of these folks were dripping with sweat by the end of singing time.

I preached and Sara gave a short talk about why people don't have to be ashamed to be farmers.

After church we went to Emmanuel's home but it had rained recently and we ended up getting stuck on a muddy bridge.  The bridge was very soft, and part of it was made out of an old stump that was never removed.  We ended up having our tires sink into the soft soil and the middle of the car was propped up on the stump.  We had no idea how to remove it without ruining the vehicle underbelly.

Even with a few passersby and a car full of people to push the vehicle, we could not get it to budge in either direction.  We tried digging with hoes and putting down bricks, and even tried using the jack.  Still didn't budge.  We kept collecting more and more good Samaritans.  So finally they said, "let's try again now that we have more people!"  With 15-20 people pushing the car it finally moved!  Praise the Lord for his provision!

Emmanuel generously gave us two chickens (one was for Emily, but she left it at our house), a bunch of bananas, and a goat (or ram? - we haven't seen it - it is staying there in the village).  We are stunned by such generosity.  We graciously accepted the gifts even though we know it was a huge sacrifice for him and his family.  But as the Bible says, "it is more blessed to give than to receive" and we want to allow Emmanuel the joy of giving instead of refusing the gifts he offered.

Boating in Uganda

In her guest post, Marissa mentions a trip we made across Lake Kyoga to visit a friend's church on the other side of the lake from Soroti.  Anthony and I had visited this place in 2010 when we were teaching at Pentecostal Bible College in Mbale.  One of our students (at that time), Silas, is a pastor there.  And we were able to go back and visit him again.  But this time, instead of driving all the way around the lake (it took us 9 hours the time we went from Mbale and Soroti is even farther away), we decided to take a boat.  Now, by boat, we don't mean a ferry or riverboat or anything like that.  We mean this boat, below.

It looks quite small because it is.  I think it could safely hold around 20-25 people.  Somehow, however, they managed to carry 19 head of cattle across the lake before we got on the boat.  You can see the animals in the picture below.  I still don't understand how they did it.

The boat can even carry motorcycles (they put it on a little canoe to get it to the bigger boat).

Yeah, so this is the boat that held 19 cattle on it:

It was a beautiful trip - the boat ride took about an hour.  Much better than traveling 9+ hours around the lake.

Anyway, we made it across the lake and to Silas' church, where we spent the night.  The next day, there were lots of people outside preparing lunch because there was not only going to be a church service that Sunday, but also a wedding during the church service.

Girls cleaning rice (a very important task because no one wants to bite into a rock when they're eating their rice).

Signing the ubiquitous guest book.

Since it was the Sunday before Christmas, Anthony preached about slowing down and being quiet as we contemplate Jesus' birth and the meaning of Christmas.  It was especially appropriate because we were kept up all night by loud music coming from the youth of the church singing and dancing in the church for an overnight!

Like me, Marissa also studied Environmental Science, and she has been working at A Rocha (a Christian conservation organization) in Kenya, so we taught together about why and how Christians can take care of God's creation.

After church, we entertained hordes of children by sitting on a bench and doing strange things, like pretending to run after them, throwing an orange up and down, etc.  At one point, we counted 70 kids!

Then, we took the boat back to Soroti.

Entering the landing site:

Christmas in Uganda (guest blog post by Marissa)

I got the privilege of staying with Sara and Anthony over the Christmas Holiday. Not only did they welcome me with good food, they actually made it feel a bit like Christmas in this 90 degree Ugandan heat. They are both pretty intentional people so we had everything from an advent wreath to a “Home Alone” viewing! Each tradition that we participated in here had a little piece of Uganda added to it. The advent wreath was laced with Bougainvillaea flowers and our Christmas tree was an orange tree cutting. We dyed our Christmas cookie frosting with Moringa and Malabar Spinach seeds and our stockings were filled with fun/weird Ugandan (but actually Arabic) candies- like cardamom/coffee gum and tamarind gummies. Of course we had a turkey for our Christmas meal, but we butchered it ourselves!

(We also butchered a chicken)

We only traveled once and it was over the weekend to a church across Lake Kyoga. I had been living on the coast in Kenya about a month ago, so it was nice to see some water and palm trees again.  Despite a few hitches, the hour boat ride definitely beat driving in a car for 9 hours around the lake. The Nile River travels through Lake Kyoga and the whole thing was lined with bushy Dr. Seuss looking papyrus! I grabbed a few reeds and tried my hand at making paper so I could bring back a fun gift for someone. Unfortunately the reeds didn’t stick to each other like they were supposed to after soaking them. I also couldn’t get them sliced as thin as was necessary so my attempt at papermaking wasn’t very successful.

Papyrus!

Despite our busy schedule of cooking, baking and general Christmas activities, I truly had a chance to rest. I was safe and in one place for more than a few days (traveling for months at a time can be exhausting). I got a chance to read “The Last King of Scotland”, brushing up on some of my Ugandan history. There was even time for morning runs and afternoon naps.  Christmas is truly restful in Uganda.

Here are a few more highlights from my Ugandan visit:

-Carrying a live chicken like a football on a half hour motorcycle ride while sitting on fresh fish

-Selling said chicken out of the window of a car to a group of drunk men

-Visiting the Marisa Café

-Drinking a cappuccino at the Marisa Café!

-Receiving a hand sewn “gathering apron” for Christmas from Sara (with support from Anthony)!

-Trying to keep a fire going in Sara’s recently constructed cob oven for 3 hours and then satisfyingly baking pita and loaves of bread

-Anthony’s Christmas Sunday sermon at the church across the lake

-Simply looking at Sara’s beautiful garden and eating yummy veggies everyday

-Rolexes (egg wrapped in chapatti)

-Taking their dog Caleb for late day walks

-Caleb also was neutered while I was visiting and I got to watch the operation as Caleb was injected with horse tranquilizer while I stood under the shade of a mango tree (Not necessarily a highlight, especially for Caleb, but it was interesting getting a chance to watch)

-Talking with the church about Creation Care with Sara

-Entertaining a group of children by gargling water, bouncing an orange on my elbow and catching food in my mouth. (see panoramic photo below)

-Going for a hike in Mbale

Wazungu are apparently very interesting

This is what success looks like.

Merry Christmas!