Update from Uganda - January 2024
Justin Wani Amadi who is a Pastor in one of the churches in Adjumani coordinated the mobilization and the Discipleship training. This training involved some Pastors, key church key leaders, Youths and other church members and we had an average of 32 active participants but there also non active participants who included old men and women and children. However it was discovered there was a great need of Discipleship in this part of Adjumani. I and Stephen set of on the 21st Jan 2024 for the long trip and arrived safely before the 22nd when the training was supposed to take place. The participants came from a cross section of churches in the refugee settlement.
The facilitators made a time table for the training which guided the implementation. So the training kicked off on the Jan 22, 2024 with a devotion and then sessions. The general lay out of the time table was in such a way that devotions would start off the day, then sessions and then memorization exercises and then Bible study every day before breaking off. The last item on the time table was that the participants would sit for a group exam in groups of 4 each to show how they learnt they concepts of the training. Lastly, the marking exercise was done successfully and awarding of the marks. The performance was good because the last group got above average.
The participants were very attentive and were following every bit of the explanations. They were excited because this was the first training they were getting in a church setting. However, they were also given opportunity to participate in the discussions which they did actively. They also asked questions for clarity which showed that they were following closely.
Challenges:
The materials were in English and so there was need to interpret for some participants who do not follow English and this would consume some time allocated for sessions.
Even when the mobilization had been made, the expected number was not met because others didn’t turn up.
Because some participants would commute from far, they would arrive late for class and actually drag the class to begin late than the anticipated time schedule.
Some participants were not active especially old men and women together with children who just attended like for normal church services which was still ok for them because they would grasp one or two things.
There was a brief meeting for the facilitators and a few Pastors together with Justin who suggested that we come up with a schedule of the next trainings for other manuals. A tentative program was as follows: Book Two Training will be 20th – 24th May 2024, Book Three Training will be 9th – 13th Sept 2024, Book Four Training will be 20th – 24th Jan 2025, Book Five Training will be 19th – 23rd May 2025 and Book Six Training will be 8th – 12th Sept 2025. However, this is on assumption that the Lord provides the funds.
Justin and the team of Pastors made a commitment to continue supporting the team to work through the memory verses and be available for any questions from the participants. They also committed themselves to get their members that failed to turn up and help them catch up with Book one before the scheduled training for Book Two.
We take this opportunity to thank the Director, Discipleship International, Mr. Travis and James for the Big support for the funds which enabled this training for Book One. May God richly bless you.
Mwesigwa Gerald
DI – Uganda
