Receive greetings in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Many thanks to Him for His protection and gift of life.

I would also like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the Director, DI, for the great support—both financially and in other aspects, such as prayer—that enabled us to implement Book 3. Withut this support, it would have been difficult.

After the completion of Book 2 in May 2024, the Coordinator of the Discipleship Program in Adjumani, Justine Wani Amadi, together with the team of pastors and facilitators, agreed to schedule the next training session for Book 3 from 9th to 13th September 2024. However, this training ended up being held from 16th to 20th September 2024. This change was due to an engagement by one of the facilitators, Mr. Ozelle Stephen, who had prior commitments at the originally planned time. We had 35 participants for this training.

As a result, I contacted one of our graduates from DI’s first cohort, by the name of Nalumoso Peter, who expressed his willingness to accompany me for the training. He is also one of the children and youth workers in a Compassion Assisted Project in Nsiika CDC (Lyantonde District), located beyond Masaka. We set off from Masaka on 14th September 2024 and spent the night in Kampala, as we were scheduled to leave at 6 a.m. on 15th September 2024, which was a Sunday. We travelled and reached Adjumani at 6 p.m. on 15th September 2024 and stayed in Adjumani Town after meeting Justin. The following day, the training day, we travelled to Ayilo 1 Refugee Settlement, which continued to serve as the training ground.

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE TRAINING

The facilitators created a timetable for the training, which guided its implementation.
The training commenced on 16th September 2024 with a devotion, followed by a recap of Book 1 and Book 2. The recap included:
- Reviewing the Assurances, especially memorizing the verses.
- Reviewing the goals of Book 2.
- Memorizing the topics and verses of Book 2.
- A general overview.
The daily timetable was structured so that each day began with devotions, followed by sessions, memorization exercises, and then Bible study before ending the day.
Participants were introduced to Book 3, along with an outline of the sessions.
There was a harmonization of Bible study questions before the start of another session after devotions.
Each day included scheduled breaks (for breakfast and lunch).
On Thursday, 19th September, participants were given the opportunity to go into the neighbourhood to practice sharing Christ using the Bridge illustration.
The final activity on the timetable was a group exam, where participants, divided into groups of five, demonstrated their understanding of the training concepts.
Finally, the marking exercise was successfully completed, and marks were awarded on Friday after lunch.

SUCCESS STORY

When participants were given the opportunity to share Christ with the neighbourhood, six people gave their lives to Christ and were brought to church to be prayed for. This brought excitement to the participants. The church made arrangements to baptize them.

EVALUATION OF THE CLASS

The participants were very excited because this was their third book of the training in a church setting, and they were optimistic about completing the entire Discipleship training. They had grasped the concepts and principles of scripture memorization. They were also given the opportunity to participate in discussions, which they did actively. They asked questions for clarity, showing that they were following closely. This time, we used one language, English, because all of them could understand and communicate well, except for a few who were unable to write in English.

CHALLENGES

We missed a few participants who had attended the previous books due to various reasons, especially students who had returned to school.
We received some new participants, and the pastors reported that they had helped them catch up with Books 1 and 2. When we tested them on some concepts and memory verses, we saw that they had grasped the content.
Five participants didn’t take part in the exams due to various challenges, which caused them to leave before completing the course.

WAY FORWARD

There was a brief meeting with the facilitators, participants, and Justin, where a tentative schedule for the next training (Book 4) was suggested. The proposed dates for the Book 4 training are 27th–31st January 2025.
Justin and the team of pastors committed to continuing their support by helping the participants work through the memory verses and being available to answer any questions.

CONCLUSION

We would like to take this opportunity to thank the Director of Discipleship International, Mr. Travis, and James for their generous financial support, which made this training for Book 3 possible. This includes funding for manuals, transportation for facilitators, meals, and other logistics. May God richly bless you.