Mawanga, Uganda. [Join] the Community

  • Mawanga is a remote village of 5,000 people located 3 hours east of Jinja in the Bugiri District. Partnering with the local pastor and community at large, we empower and assist the underserved who experience economic, physical, spiritual and social barriers to become self-reliant and strong believers in Christ

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Sat.& Sun, Jul 13 & 14, excerpt from Steve Van Horn

Sat night Jul 13, a report from Pastor Steve Van Horn
Hi everyone,
It is Saturday night about 9pm and the team from the California church which has been out of bed for over 48 hours is now heading for bed. So I'll make this brief and get to bed also.
This has been a day for me to have fellowship with long time friends and to make a new one.
OLD ACQUAINTENCES: LAZ AND JULIUS
This morning I spent time with Dr. Lazarus Seruyange. He picked me up and the airport last night and took me to the guest house where I spent the night. Lazarus and I did our masters work together around 1980. He is with Campus Crusade and became the principal of the Nairobi Intl School of Theology in the 1980s. Brenda and I started supporting him back then and have been friends ever since. He is the one who pestered me over the years about coming to Africa to teach. As most of you know, it was in 1997 that he asked me again and led to my first trip to Africa to teach at the school in January 1998. That got it all started and, as they say, the rest is history.
Actually, before Laz showed up for a visit, Julius Twongyeirwe, his wife Grace, and two of his four children. Julius was in the first class I taught in January 1998. He was a pastor from here (Uganda). We became good friends quickly and began working together at pastors seminars in 1999. He's been to the States a few times and has a degree now from Western Seminar in Portland. Julius is back here in Uganda pastoring a church and he heads up his own organization, The Proclamation Task. He, too, is training pastors.
I have included pictures of these people in today's collection of pictures.
My contact here in Uganda picked me up at the guest house around 12:45 and we headed to the airport to meet up with the team arriving from the US, and to pick up Joe Michael Kamau. Joe Michael is with e3partners, the church planting group that is considering ITEM as a ministry partner. They plant churches. We train church leadership.
A NEW ACQUAINTENCE
Joe Michael and I got acquainted and found that we have a lot in common. He is here to take part in our training as one of the trainees and is expected to report back to the e3partners leadership in the US.
A LITTLE CULTURAL ENTERTAINMENT
The team was packed onto a bus with their luggage and brought here to a guest house run by a Christian group. After settling in the team was treated to some singing and dancing performed by a group of elementary children. It was a cultural show, if you will. They were excellent and fun to watch. They sang some of their cultural songs, danced some of their cultural dances, and sang a couple of Christian choruses. They were a blessing.
I've also included a picture of them in today's collection.
Then it was dinner and time for bed.

TOMORROW IS ANOTHER DAY
Tomorrow we'll rise early, have breakfast, and head to our ministry locations. The seminar will be about 2 hours from here. The rest of the team will be another couple of hours beyond that.
I hope to be able to send this Sunday night. I am hoping an internet café will be open Sunday night. If I can't find one then I'll have to wait until Monday.

PRAYER
*My back seems to be doing better. Keep praying.
*Pray for Pastor Wayne, Chris, Dan, and myself as we give the lectures to the pastors. Chris and Dan are not pastors but are accomplished teachers. *Pray that they will be able to relate to the pastors.
*Pray, of course, for our health and welfare. Especially for the team who will be in a village sleeping on mats.
*Pray for the receptivity of the pastors who will be in attendance. We are praying for 150 in attendance. If they show up it will be our biggest seminar yet.
*Pray for schedule coordination. We have two sessions going on side by side and Wayne and I flip flop back and forth between the two tracks of lectures. We need to finish at the same time so we can flip flop without holding things up.
*Pray that Joe Michael (and Joseph from Uganda, also an e3partner church planter) will see clearly if/how this training fits into their church planting program. (I'll introduce you to Joseph after I meet him.)
Well, that is about as short as I can keep it and still cover the day.
Thanks for the prayers and the support.
By His grace,
Steve Van Horn

- - - - - -
SUNDAY JULY 13, 2008

It is now Sunday, about 4:45pm, 6:45am PDT.
TRIP TO JINJA, UGANDA AND THE WEEK AHEAD
This has been an on schedule day. I won't get detailed at this point. No reason to. Breakfast 7:15, team meeting 8:15, left Kamapla at 9:30, arrive in Jinja 11:30. Had lunch with the entire team. The men who will be teaching at the seminar stayed here at the Zamo Hotel (where I've stayed during my two previous seminars here in Uganda), and the rest of the team jumped back onto the bus and headed to Mawanga village where they will be sleeping in tents all week and doing various odd jobs to build up the village. They have construction, medical, widows, orphans, and families to be involved with for the next 5 days.
While they are in tents I am at a nice hotel (more like a large guest house) with a TV in my room that gets BBC news. It won't be like this in about 10 days when I arrive in Nigeria so I'll enjoy this now.
MY SITUATION IN JINJA, UGANDA
There are five of us men staying here. I was given the single room by the team of men. I appreciated that because I am usually so busy when I am on trips I like the privacy so I can think and plan.
THE UPCOMING SEMINAR: MAYBE ITEM'S BIGGEST
Our seminar this week might be the largest ITEM has ever had. It is certainly the first time we've run simultaneous seminars. It is the first time we've offered everything we have at one time. We are running one track covering the basic and advanced seminars (18 lectures). We are also running a second track covering the ITEM church growth (spiritual growth is the emphasis) and Pastor Wayne Wilson's inductive Bible study course. Those two together will also include 18 lectures. Wayne and I will be involved in both and will flip flop back and forth. The two men
from Wayne's church will concentrate on giving some of the lectures in the basic/advanced seminar. . . . . . .

By His grace,
Steve Van Horn