Uganda Trip 9

May 13, 2022

Time to Teach: Trip #9

Friday, May 13

Thursday and Friday were our first two days of teaching for this course. We go from 8 am to 4 pm with two breaks at 10:00 am for breakfast and 1 pm for lunch. Each course contains ten lessons, and the plan is to complete two lessons a day over a five-day period. It was good to see all the trainees, but it is especially good when we break the cohort down to our three learning groups and I’m with the twelve guys in my learning group. They are the ones I have spent most of the time with in the six courses I have taught.

Thursday I was a bit of a disappointment. I didn’t seem to connect with my group and I want to serve them well. I got through the content fairly well and there was decent participation, but it didn’t seem to “click”. I got through the day hoping for a better Friday, day two of five. Because this is the last trip here and we are having a graduation ceremony on Saturday the 21st, we are on a different schedule. We usually teach Monday through Friday, this trip is Thursday through Monday…it feels very strange. The hope is tomorrow will be better. When I reported my lackluster first day, both Mike Evans and Kris Mobbs (our partner on the ground in Uganda) told me that is what I say every trip and I am more upbeat as the week continues.

Today (Friday) was a new day. I felt vitally connected to the material and the group. They were really dragging in the afternoon in the 90 degree heat and no fans or AC. It called for drastic action. I asked them all to stand and follow me. We walked around the Pastoral Training Center and sang a song and they were sufficiently revived to make it through the rest of the day. I felt very good about the day. There is a special joy when you are able to share not only Scripture, but your experiences, and the pastors are on the edge of their seats not because of spellbinding teaching, because of the intersection of theology and pastoral leadership. We were all better off for the day.

What’s not better off is my sleeping. Last night I was up from midnight to three and thankfully got nearly three more hours in before getting up. Tonight I went to bed at 8:30 and at 11:30 I gave up and caught up on email before this post. I’m tired and frustrated, but I am not questioning the worth and the privilege of being here. With the warmer temperatures in Hudson, I expect a very green and alive atmosphere when I return-including the development of my very own Kwik Trip right across the street from the church building.

The picture is taken from my learning group. The man standing is Sunday, who will be part of a team leading future cohorts. Ugandan pastors leading Ugandans!

Larry Szyman

Pastor for Missional Life

May 11, 2022

Cross Country: Trip #9

faithhudson Blog, Uganda Trip 9

Wednesday, May 11

We arrived in Entebbe on time, and we all had our documentation correct to move through the immigration line quickly. Unfortunately, they weren’t ready for us to move through the immigration line quickly. You could tell the westerners in the crowd. They were regularly switching lines to find a more advantageous route through things-like we (at least I do!) do in a grocery line. Not much help there.

Joel, Mike and I were joined by Allen Corbin in Amsterdam for the last leg to Entebbe. Allen is a missionary with Four Corners, one of the partnerships that is making this all possible (I will probably do a separate post on partnership later). Because Allen has a work permit in Uganda, he went through a smaller line quickly only to have to wait for us anyway. It was about 12:45 am when we got to the guest house where were to spend the night. There is an eight-hour time difference between Hudson and Gulu, so my body said it was 4:45 pm and was not interested in sleeping. That’s the bad news. The good news was there was a hot shower and wi-fi, so I got cleaned up, caught up on email, and studied some of our material for the week ahead before getting a whole 1.5 hours of sleep for the night (Monday night). Tuesday, although not stellar, was better. I got up twice during the night, did about an hour’s work and went back down.

It’s always fun having a first timer on the trip. This is Joel’s first time in Africa, and it is fun watching him observe the world and pointing things out. He’s experienced crazy driving before in other parts of the world, so he wasn’t afraid (or if he was, he didn’t show it). The drive across country can be 6.5-9.0 hours depending on traffic. We made it in 7.5 which included a stop at a rural Ugandan drive through (see the picture). We had some goat roasted on skewers and chapati (which is tortilla like). In these “drive thrus” you pull over and 5-10 people run to you, offering their items, which included warm sodas (no thank you) and pineapples (yes, please) and many offering their roasted meats.

We tried to catch up on sleep on the way. I got about a ½ hour in, Mike Evans did much better. We made it to Abaana’s Hope, which houses the Pastoral Training Center that we are here to finish the last course in this, the first cohort. Usually, we have a day to study before we meet with the Lead Trainer’s, indigenous leaders with whom we share the teaching load and will lead the next cohort on their own in January. Not this time. We are meeting today to go through the lessons they will be teaching and help them be prepared for their role in the week ahead. More updates coming.

Larry Szyman

Pastor for Missional Life

May 10, 2022

Cast of Characters and a Surprise: Trip #9

faithhudson Uganda Trip 9

Sunday, May 8

This is a bit different than posts I have written for past trips, as I am writing for churches in New Richmond, Somerset, Baldwin, River Falls and Hudson, rather than the usual Hudson only. I’m Larry Szyman one of the pastors of Faith Community Church-Hudson (FCCH) and this is my seventh trip to Uganda regarding our current cohort of trainees, and my fourteenth trip to this nation. My writings will be a combination travelogue, history lesson, humor (at least in my mind) and whatever else may come to mind.

I am writing to y’all because this is The Final Journey for our group to Uganda. We all contributed to make this happen and I wanted to make sure you had a front row seat to all that goes on in this trip.

I am currently sitting in the plane on my eight-hour flight to Amsterdam and we have already had a setback. Our plan for the team on this trip to Gulu, Uganda includes Mike Evans who works for Training Leaders International (TLI), which provides the curriculum that we will be teaching from. Mike is the former Lead Pastor of Faith Community Church of New Richmond (FCCNR) (which I affectionately refer to as THE Faith Community) and a dear friend. He has been a central part of these trips to Gulu and is a wise and gifted teacher.

Also coming on this trip from TLI is Joel Dougherty, who is the curriculum director. He is going to monitor our teaching as our course for this trip is the capstone course “Doing the Ministry of the Word”. This course summarizes courses one through eight and seeks to apply them in such a way that it transfers to the ministries of our forty pastors who have been taking the training. Usually, TLI only sends one person to hold our hands, but this course has not been field tested yet, so we are the guinea pigs. TLI’s vision includes helping pastors serving in under resourced places to understand and communicate God’s word faithfully. Our brothers in northern Uganda are godly, teachable, humble and under resourced. We come to help equip them to be more effective in their respective ministry throughout Uganda representing eight different people groups. It’s not that we’re smarter-we are simply better resourced. It’s an incredible experience. I’m grateful there will be two TLI guys to answer all my questions before I teach!

Now for the disappointment: Stu Dix. Let me rephrase that. Stu Dix is a disappointment. Never mind. Stu is a dear brother and along with Mike we have been planning teaching this final course together so that we could share it together and share in the graduation of this cohort. Sadly, Stu tested positive for COVID and could not come. This means there will be a humor reduction of about 70% in his absence. I have so come to appreciate Stu, and along with Mike we have experienced some riches that I have had with few others. Stu has done an outstanding job as he has served in Uganda, and his learning group really loves him. They will be bummed he is not with us. I am bummed and am grieving his absence: for his sake, his learning groups sake, for my sake. This means that Joel will be not merely observing but doing some teaching. Apparently, God had our back on this one.

Then there’s me. You’ll learn about me and my many quirks as these posts come. I plan on 10-15 of them for the entire trip. So that’s our cast of characters.

Now for the surprise. I sit down at my seat (I always seek out a left side aisle seat), look to my left and there is Andrew Riedel. Andrew is the Meghan loving, Judah raising, bass thumping player for FCCH. It’s one thing to be on the same flight with someone you know to Amsterdam, but to sit right across the aisle. The selfie is proof. He is on a work-related trip to Germany.

That’s it for post #1. I hope to help you understand what is taking place and how you have played a part in the strengthening and starting of churches in Africa.