Uganda Trip 7

There is something sweet about the gift of returning home to the familiar, to the beloved. But nothing as sweet as Carol’s face, friendship, and partnership. Though we have both grown accustomed to the times I am away, she remains an anchor for my life. Nearly forty-two years she has been a model of love, faithfulness, and a whole lot of fun.

On this my last post of our seventh course, I am quite aware of the many partners that are part of this equation by which the church in northern Uganda is being equipped and entrusted for a new season of fruitfulness, God willing. 

Four Corners Ministry (FCM), headquartered in Alabama has a presence in the Gulu area that is significant. The Pastoral Training Center lead by my now friend Kris Mobbs is the reason (humanly speaking) that we had and have confidence that our efforts will result in new churches planted and existing churches strengthened. They have recruited, housed, fed our forty trainees and provide excellent logistical support from the time we land in Entebbe until its wheels up for our return to MSP. 

The six Ugandan based Lead Trainers have been serving in a significant fashion since the beginning of this endeavor. They have served as TA’s and mentees as those who will carry the work forward (again, God willing) with a new cohort of all Ugandan trainers in January of 2023. Not all six of them will become teachers, but they have served this cohort well and have capacity to move forward. The pastors look at me amazed when I tell them that they are smarter than I am. After all, I am the teacher and do seem to have quite a few answers for their questions. I am not smarter, but I am better resourced. I’ve been given the privilege of a three-year graduate degree and thirty-six years of full time experience. In my teaching them, my less resourced brothers are operating in their second, third or fourth language. I’m humbled by their capacities, their hunger, their hearts. 

Training Leaders International (TLI) has provided a robust, challenging and helpful curriculum that is being used to help pastors better understand and communicate the various genres of Scripture. It is amazing to see the scope and sequence, the cohesion of the seven courses we have taught so far. This Minneapolis based ministry is committed to making the global church more effective as they seek to equip the 80% of pastors in poorer contexts who have no formal training. My dear friend Mike Evans is supported by FCC’s budget and shepherds our relationship with TLI, providing the ongoing support we need to be most helpful. Josh Montague, in the picture that accompanies this post, was this trip’s TLI representative and has talked me into my first BWCA trip this summer.

The St. Croix Valley LEAD Team (SCVLT) of churches in Somerset, New Richmond, Baldwin, River Falls and FCC Hudson have provided teacher/trainers who have made the seven trips to Gulu. These churches have provided the funds to make all this possible. We have been able to bring some goodies (M & M’s etc.) for our Four Corners friends and two books each trip for the Lead Trainers, helping them to develop a solid library for their future ministry. Our little network has allowed pastors time away from the home front to allow gospel expansion to take place. The partnership the SCVLT with have with TLI is unique in their ministry and they both celebrate our approach and hope for others to operate similarly. I am grateful for our sister churches.

Faith Community of Hudson. Much has been given FCC and you have given much. FCC has provided the greatest amount of funding for the SCVLT churches. The staff you support provides critical roles in putting curricular materials in place for each course, resulting in a quality that our Ugandan pastors have never experienced before. The posting of my journaling on FCC’s website. Allowing me to be gone two to three times a year for nearly two weeks. Tom and Becky Karl and Jason and Debbie Schoonover who see that my leadership in the hospitality ministry on the weekends are covered with excellence (Jason even waved to me during the preservice streaming last weekend). There is a small army that is making this all happen from Alabama, Uganda, Minneapolis, the St. Croix Valley including Hudson. All of this so that more and better churches, more and better disciples of Jesus are garnered for the glory of God and the eight people groups that we are training.

Faith Community, I thank God for you. I am humbled to be supported by you for thirty plus years in our partnership in the gospel. I love you and am loved by you. I will not be making the March trip, but in May we will be going for trip number nine, which will include the graduation of the first cohort. Who knows what is next? God does!

Larry Szyman

Pastor for Missional Life

Today is the day I hoped to be my last in Uganda until May. The nine-hour time difference has made my virtual participation in FCC activities less than I had hoped. I had two meetings yesterday (Tuesday afternoon Hudson time) at 10 and 11:30 pm Entebbe time. I started to fade around 8 pm local, so I set my phone alarm for 9:50 to be up for meeting #1. I figured I would get the two meetings in, get back to sleep and start adjusting my body clock to CST. I should have chosen PM rather and AM on my alarm-I woke up at 3 am having missed both!

The scheduled time for my in-room test was 9 am. At 9:30 I called the front desk and asked if they didn’t come by 10, if I could have a ride to an offsite testing site. After a call they said they were on their way (10 minutes away). Forty minutes later the ten-minute ride was completed and there was a knock on my door. The test was done quickly, and I was assured that I would receive email confirmation by 3 pm, plenty of time for the 6 pm checkout (pay for ½ day), grab dinner and head to the airport. I paid for the test (around $55) and when I asked for a receipt got a blank look. The tester said she would return later with it, which she did around noon. 

I walked the grounds (16K steps so far today), did some stretching, finished a book, did some other FCC related stuff. 3 pm came and went. I started getting texts from US and Uganda asking about my 3 pm results… I went online, got the number of the outfit doing the testing and walked to the front desk. I asked if they could call on my behalf and when the call was being placed, I looked down and saw some official looking documents. I paid closer attention and found out it was mine and in bold, glorious letters the word NEGATIVE was stamped on not one, but two documents. The email never came, but I now had two documents. I texted Carol, my family, FCC staff and my Ugandan traveling mates to share the good news. 

I am currently in the Entebbe airport, through security and immigration. The person before me in line pointed out to the immigration official that a carry on was left at the base of the booth she sat in. She didn’t seem very interested. The wife of the one who passed along the information and I took a step back from the bag, we looked at each other and I said “if that’s a bomb, our current social distancing isn’t going to help much”. Her husband came back toward her and she told him to get away, she didn’t want both of their names in the Amsterdam newspaper. If this were MSP, we would have likely been moved out and a dog called in.

It’s funny how security works here. In some ways it seems more serious, and others, more lax.  When we first get in the airport, everything goes through the scanner (we get to keep our shoes on. Once we clear immigration (and the abandoned carry on) we have to go through another scanner, taking our shoes off. As we enter our gated area (enclosed), we will have to take off shoes and scan once again. The carry on is still probably sitting there. Check that, I walked back and looked, and it is gone. 

God willing, I will see Carol’s face around 1:45 in the afternoon and try to stay awake till 9 pm in the hopes of a good night’s sleep.

The picture I enclosed shows men painting the hotel I stayed at. The scaffolding was all metal poles, about five feet in height, one from the next and three feet side to side-and nothing else. They all worked in flip flops or crock like footwear, standing on these poles for an entire shift. Their agility is amazing and an OSHA nightmare. Their end product is looking pretty nice.

Next post will be my final one.

Larry Szyman

Pastor for Missional Life

I am a trailblazer. Turns out that I am the first Training Leaders International (TLI) sponsored pastor left in a country due to COVID. This is not the fame I have been seeking! My last post recounted how I found out I was infected with COVID. There is plenty of good news that accompanies this disappointment. The training and the future of an abiding network of African lead churches continues to be unfolding. There are three days left of training as these pastors are being equipped in other areas regarding life in the church as I sit in Entebbe. The goal of handing this ministry to indigenous leaders in May for them to run with seems likely. This is a great source of hope, satisfaction, and joy. Thank you for making this all possible.

At this point I feel about 85% as far as my health and energy go. There are no guarantees as to how this will go. I’ve been vaccinated and boosted but we all know stories that seem to conflict with conventional wisdom. As I processed my test results with my friends from Four Corners, we decided that I should stay at a hotel in Entebbe, rather than go the relational (and possible transmittal) route back in Gulu: as in seven-hour trip back (only to return later) and near 100 degree heat in Gulu. The hotel that Allen (Four Corners key leader) took me to sits on Lake Victoria (second only to Lake Superior in volume for a freshwater lake!) and is nice. 

This is how first world suffering goes. TLI takes out traveler’s insurance for each of the trips. It makes them a bit more expensive, but as I am finding out now, it is worth it. Because we can afford insurance (unlike almost all the African church), I am now in a very comfortable hotel in isolation. I feel healthy enough to go outside in the 70-degree weather and pursue my daily goal of 11,500 steps a day. I eat breakfast and lunch outside and dinner is delivered to my room. I have a small deck off my room that gives me a view of Lake Victoria, the pool, and grounds as I wait out the governmental requirements in Uganda as they seek to honor US protocols. I will submit receipts and get reimbursed for living larger than I am used to. I have computer and iPhone which will allow me to keep up with some of my scheduled appointments and accomplish other work remotely. Juggling the nine-hour time difference is a bit tricky and my body is in between time zones at the moment.  

I hope to have a plan for departing here later today as I talk with the TLI travel guy. The track record has been sketchy with some of the people who have been here lately. Two people had a positive test only to be tested negative the next day and go on their way. I have decided to wait for the counsel of TLI’s travel guy before moving forward. All this to say, this is not what I had in mind, I sought to operate wisely, and I am probably one of the most fortunate COVID people on the planet today. I don’t want to take that for granted.

Larry Szyman

Pastor for Missional Life

I guess I didn’t study hard enough as I find myself alone in a hotel, having failed my COVID test, not far from the airport that still seems very far away in Entebbe. Not far as I can hear and see the take off and landings, but far away in that it may be seven days before I’m allowed to board a plane home to Carol and my beloved FCC and Hudson. 

Let me tell you how I found out. Friday morning we taught our last session and had a vehicle waiting for us for the seven hour ride across country to Entebbe. The first order of business was to go to a walk-in testing center and get a two-hour test. We would hopefully receive the results with an hour or so to spare to get to the airport for our 10:30 flight to Amsterdam, then to Boston (a four-hour layover would give me a few hours with middle son Nate as he lives there) before landing at MSP Saturday evening, which obviously has already passed.

When we got to the testing center Josh, Stu, Bo (a missionary kid traveling with us to the US to play baseball) and I waited in line about 20 minutes. Allen (Bo’s dad and our handler for the day) got our information and passports to the powers that be. No sooner did the info get secured and the four of us were quickly taken to a room, tested, and sent on our way. We went to a local guest house where we had dinner and awaited the results. We had already decided that if anyone did not pass, the others would go ahead to the states. About 7:15 Allen went down to the office to print the results. 

When he came back the look on his face told us something was wrong. He took his phone and set it in front of me. My test results had a big red stamp on it that read POSITIVE, which was not positive at all. The other three were fine and saddened for me. A wave of disappointment came over me and I (I believe it was the Holy Spirit) remembered a truth we taught our trainees in our very first session nearly three years ago: that God is sovereign, wise and good. It was time to me to believe it and I did (which, by the way, is not always true. I can be afflicted with unbelief like anyone else. I said goodbye to my friends (i.e. close contacts) and watched them drive to the airport. 

Allen, his wife Mallory, and I were left at the guest house. They had already booked a room for the night, and they got a room for me. 

On Saturday morning, we had a long discussion about what to do. I could drive the seven hours back with them and stay at the guest house on the mission compound we had left behind the day before. Or I could find a hotel room in Entebbe and hole up here for the week required by the Ugandan government. My inclination was to go back (by the way, at this point I was feeling fairly normal) to Gulu. The place we stayed at was now inhabited by a man who was teaching for four days and then was off to Zanzibar (I’m not sure where that is either!). I thought to stay in the same place as him would put him at risk. That, plus avoiding two more seven-hour drives and no AC in 100 degree heat, I decided to stay in Entebbe.

In the next post, I will tell (and show) that I made a really great decision. It is 5:30 in the afternoon (0830 Hudson time) and in a ½ hour I will be streaming our worship service. I look forward to singing and worshipping with you. All my love from Entebbe!

Larry Szyman

Pastor for Missional Life

It’s Thursday night, and God willing, 25 hours from now I will be on a plan to Amsterdam! With the current COVID protocols, we need a negative test one day before takeoff. We will leave Gulu town around 10 am (after our final session) and hit the road for what we hope is only a seven-hour ride to the test site and a negative test. I don’t have to teach tomorrow; I’m studying for my COVID exam. Carol has been very accommodating, having picked up the virus while I was gone and hopefully happy (and healthy!) to receive me later Saturday evening. Timing is everything. As always, I check the county COVID stats and see the significant spike that is occurring. 

If I don’t get a negative result, I will be having an extended stay in Uganda. I love the country and its people, but I am always ready to come home. Having Carol to come home to makes it very, very easy. 

Today was an important day. We finished our first-time formal evaluations of the Lead Trainers (LTs) that we have been working with. They are the leaders who will carry forward, God willing, the vision of an abiding network of Gospel Centered, Bible Saturated, African Lead churches. They are critical in the African lead part of the equation. We met with each of them over the last two days. We gave them feedback (after asking theirs first) on four areas inside the classroom:

• Classroom management
• Grasp of curriculum
• Delivery of content
• Theological accuracy

This is the area we were most involved in.

We also discussed two facets of their development outside the classroom:

• Communication (with the broader team and their trainees)
• Commitment (how are the sizing up to the promises we made each other)

While all six of our LTs are not ready for prime time, there is still confidence that the building blocks are in place for a January 23 launch of the next cohort with nobody from the US traveling over to teach. Exciting, biblical stuff!

The hospitality here at Abaanah’s Hope remains incredible in this home away from home. I had fun introducing Kris and his family to two new games that became part of our pandemic life: Just One and The Game. Both are cooperative in nature and kids eleven and over were effective participants. I (all of us who have traveled over) have come to love the Mobb’s family and it will be a bittersweet day in May when we say goodbye to them and cohort one of the Living Stones Pastoral Training Center.

Larry Szyman

Pastor for Missional Life

Our first two days of lessons have gone well. I think Monday is the best day of teaching I’ve had so far in my trips out here. I had good energy, used the classroom time well, the pastors seemed to grasp the content and I had a good sense of being connected with them. I have worked with this learning group of thirteen for five trips, so we are becoming old friends. 

Tuesday was a different story. Certainly not a nightmare, everything was more laborious. Part of it is probably due to jet lag and two miserable night’s sleep in a row. The trainees sleep in dorm style settings and they seemed to be dragging a bit as well. So far, we have worked through an introduction to the prophets and given them tools to help them more accurately understand and communicate prophetic writings. We are focusing on passages in Isaiah, but the tools are transferable and should result in being able to help the interpretation process of any prophet. It is amazing how much of Isaiah is found in the gospels, demonstrating a remarkable cohesion between multiple authors over hundreds of years. Teaching these courses are good for my heart and reinforce the divine nature of Scripture.

One of the two Lead Trainers that are assigned to me and my group, Pastor Sunday taught his first lesson in this course today and did a real solid job. He is demonstrating capacities to help continue the trainings at this Pastor Training Center once this cohort is completed and another one begins (Jan 2023). He is a natural leader, well prepared and has the respect of his fellow Ugandans. The future looks good with him and the others we are prepping to ensure this becomes an African lead adventure. 

One of the side joys of these trips is getting to know the families who live here year-round. The Mobbs’s and the Corbin’s have established themselves as serious players in kingdom advancing work in this area of Africa. They are hardworking and given to the task before them-it’s amazing to watch them navigate the cultures around them as they lead a church, a school, a clinic along with vocational training for women, both domestic and on the farm. We have dinner with them once every time we come over. I brought the game “Just One” that Carol and I have been playing as of late. They really liked it, so I gave them the game and will pick up another one when I return.

Today’s 106 degrees should be our last over 100 for the week. One interesting note: our leaves fall when it starts to get cold. The leaves here fall during the dry and hot season. During this time of year, all the local animals are free range, meaning they can go anywhere to eat. This is a favorite place for animals, since the care that are shown the facilities here is really good. Kris Mobbs tells the story that the first year after they built their church building with the sides open. They had to create a fence of sort on the side as they got tired of cleaning up all the dung from the church floor. That’s one area Josh and Donna don’t have to contend with at FCC! 

We only have three more nights crashing here, and one on the plane (I don’t mean the plan crashing!). These trips are both a delight and a grind. A good night’s sleep should help put a little more life in me. The most interesting time in our trip should be Friday, when we must do same day COVID testing, and hopefully not have to stay put and quarantine.

Larry Szyman

Pastor for Missional Life

According to my weather app, there was only a 102-degree difference in our high temperatures in Hudson and Gulu today. Without A/C, things can get a little sticky. So, wherever we go in the guest house (where we are staying) we are each carrying a personal fan and plug it in before we sit down.

Saturday was a mixed bag. It is one of the most crucial days for the week as we meet with our six lead trainers and prep them for the teaching ahead of us. I was responsible for prepping three of them for two lessons (numbers 8 & 9 of ten) they will each deliver. We asked them to come with a decent knowledge of their material, which they did. As I sought to move them through the material, it was obvious that the material was not landing on them. I’m sure it was twice as frustrating for my Ugandan friends than for me. We slogged our way through the day, and as I debriefed with Josh, Stu (my American co-leaders) and Kris Mobbs, our host, we realized that we had failed in a key matter. Because the materials build on one another, they should have become acquainted with all the lessons that preceded lesson eight. The material hung together for me, as I have been through all the curriculum twice in prepping for this week. I went away from the day a bit down, having not equipped them for the task. A key part of our mission is to train these men who will be leading the next cohort: an abiding network of African lead churches. 

The good news is these guys don’t teach till Thursday, so they have plenty of time to prep for their lessons and they will sit through lessons 1-7 before they teach. My hope is that this will provide some “back fill” in order to prep them for their turn. You can be confident I will be checking in with them between now and Thursday.

This morning we attended “Living Stones Church”, the fellowship associated with the Pastoral Training Center we are serving here in Gulu. They are doing a solid job and we saw five people baptized in their service. The service was only an hour and a half. We spent the afternoon/eve studying for our lessons for tomorrow. An afternoon nap was a welcome gift as I try to shake jet lag.

One small scare today…we woke up with no power. With 100+ degree days in the forecast, I got a little nervous. It turns out we have (and tested!) a generator and are good to go. As I carry my fan around the house, it would be nice to have power!

Larry Szyman

Pastor for Missional Life

The rest of our trip from Amsterdam was fairly uneventful. Josh, Stu and I all got a bit of sleep on our last eight-hour flight and arrival in Entebbe, Uganda. On my last trip, my time at the Entebbe was challenging. It was their first day of new protocols which included getting tested for COVID and waiting nearly two hours before moving on. Testing was still required, but once we took our test and cleared customs, we were free to move on with the test results to be emailed to us. If we tested positive, we had to follow quarantine guidelines on our own. Stu got his results Thursday am. Josh got his on Friday am. As of now, I am still waiting on mine. Every time I cough more than once in a ½ hour time span, I wonder if I got the virus. It’s not worrisome, it just crosses my mind and I do some calculations about how that would impact my week and my return home. We probably made it out of the airport and to our sleeping accommodations in Entebbe in about 20% of the time it took me the trip in November. I got into my bed about 12:30 am and sought to sleep until our 6 am breakfast the next day. I didn’t mind the early call as I only slept from 2:30-5:00.  Our driver wanted to get on the road to avoid the morning rush hour. We ate our breakfast on a second-floor patio with fragrant flowers giving us a welcome early morning greeting. 

We hit the road early Thursday and found out it would be a warm one, as the expected high was in the mid 90’s and the AC in the vehicle was not operating. One stop included pork cooked over a charcoal fire on a stick (a favorite of our driver Stephen). Being the dry season, this meant that at about the five-hour mark, we saw about 40 baboons (I think-they were monkey like). They tend to congregate by the road along the Nile looking for handouts. They’re always fun to watch. We all had a nice case of the sweaty backs when we arrived at Abaanah’s hope, 40 minutes north of Gulu, a seven-hour affair including pit stops. We spent the rest of the day getting settled in and doing a little bit of study as Saturday is one of the most crucial days of our time here.

Friday we up on rest. I was in bed from 10-12 and 2-6, which is a nice sleep as the body is adjusting to time change and new surroundings. We spent a fair amount of the day studying, making sure we have a handle on the curriculum. We managed to play some basketball in the afternoon and we were all grateful for the cloud cover. The leaders at Abaanah’s hope to play more basketball next week. I hope we can avoid the day with 107 degree forecast. 

This trip we are focusing on how to understand and communicate prophetic books, working through various passages in Isaiah. I always feel a bit anxious if I can do well enough, but the feedback I have received would say don’t worry. I believe there is a lot at stake. Our goal is an abiding network of gospel centered, Bible saturated, African lead churches. We hope to see churches strengthened and started. 80% of the pastors in Africa have no formal training. If we can up the quality of their handling of Scripture, we can create a healthier church culture in Northern Uganda and the eight different people groups that make up this cohort. Please pray that we serve them well. 

Tomorrow (Saturday) things get serious as we meet with the six Lead Trainers who share the teaching load with us. I will spend the day with three of them, making sure they are adequately prepped for their teaching time. I will go through their lessons with them, give some suggested approaches and answer questions they have. These six are key in the African lead portion of our vision. That is because in January of 2023 they will start another cohort with all African teachers! This means the work will continue (God willing) for years after we finish this May, and they will continue to see the health of the church in Northern Uganda increase.

I went to bed at ten and woke up at 11 and decided to give this update. The picture was taken during our Thursday drive across country.

Larry Szyman

Pastor for Missional Life

Thankfully, our getting off the ground at MSP was not all that difficult, although the paperwork was fairly extensive, including:

• Passport
• Negative COVID test. We took the test a 9 am for our 1 pm departure from MSP. Thankfully they came back negative (and only $200!).
• E-Visa to Uganda (for those who remember my last trip, we made sure we had this before getting to the airport.
• A pre-registration for a COVID test to be taken upon arrival in Uganda. 

We had an incredible agent named Montreal who helped us get checked in and made sure we had all our ducks in a row before heading through security.

The team for this trip includes Josh Montague, who serves with Training Leaders International (TLI), Stu Dix, interim pastor at FCC New Richmond (and veteran Uganda traveler) and myself. The three of us were together once before in Uganda and Stu and I tortured Josh by singing every chorus over twenty years old that we could think of (turns out we remembered a lot). 

For the last five trips we have been working on understanding and communicating different genres of Scripture. This trip we are looking at prophetic writings focusing on Isaiah. I look forward to growing with the friends we have developed over the last few years. One thing I am not looking forward to is the weather. The forecast high for next Wednesday is 107! Escaping the “dry heat” will not be easy as we won’t have access to air conditioning. Could be the beginning of a weight loss program for me! Stay tuned…

Larry Szyman

Pastor for Missional Life