On Sunday afternoon we traveled to Kuffu for a week of
mission. Now you’re probably wondering why we went on mission when we’re
already on mission, but this was an intense week out in a rural village during
which we taught bible lessons to the children every day and showed Christian films
for the whole village in the evenings. It was absolutely exhausting but a great
experience.
We didn’t quite get the huge number of children that we had anticipated but we still had a good number and this meant that we were able to teach them much more affectively. We taught from the book of Joshua – a different part of the story each day, and we were encouraged to incorporate the salvation message into each lesson too.
I was part of a team teaching the 5-7s and our lessons included a water fight at the Jordan River, 7 paper trumpets at the walls of Jericho a ‘bear hunt’ and Finch, dressed as a spy, literally climbing (or half falling) out of the window!
What was really great this week is that we had a prayer chain during the time when the children were being ministered to, so each person would be given an hour during which they would stay at camp to pray. Lots of people commented on how much they enjoyed it and I think that it made a big difference to the mission.
We stayed in tents which is probably part of the reason why everyone is now so exhausted. After two sleepless nights directly on the ground sheet, I improvised a mattress out of banana leaf mats and all of the clothes that I had brought with me! The evenings were great as we shared fellowship around a fire. Each evening a film was shown but as it was translated into Luganda I only went to see one of them, so the other nights I stayed at camp with some others and sang and chatted until the others came back from the film. Then we would share evening devotions and tea together and most nights I ended up staying up pretty late just spending time with good friends.
Being in a village we had a much more traditional African experience – including showering with a bucket in a half finished building (the boys made themselves a little cubicle outside out of banana leaves but we weren’t allowed to share), fetching water from the bore hole – on one occasion I went with two of the guys and 5 jerry cans, all on one bicycle. I really don’t know how you’re supposed to balance on the crossbar of a bike without holding on! We also learnt not to use long drop toilets in the mid-day heat!
On Saturday we were able to offer Sunday School Teacher Training for some of the people from the church who are going to start a Sunday School and then we went to their first ever Sunday School class on Sunday to support the new teachers.
We’d been a little worried about food as we’d been told that we would only be having one proper meal a day, but that is by African standards and we actually had a huge breakfast every day – usually chapattis, boiled eggs and African tea, then porridge for lunch (maize flour mixed with water), jackfruit in the afternoon, a big meal in the evening (often rice or posho and beans which we love!) and then African tea again before bed. So in my opinion we ate pretty well!
I must admit though, that we treated ourselves the evening that we got home to hot chocolate and toast with chocolate spread and marshmallows (rations sent in the post from the UK!)
We didn’t quite get the huge number of children that we had anticipated but we still had a good number and this meant that we were able to teach them much more affectively. We taught from the book of Joshua – a different part of the story each day, and we were encouraged to incorporate the salvation message into each lesson too.
I was part of a team teaching the 5-7s and our lessons included a water fight at the Jordan River, 7 paper trumpets at the walls of Jericho a ‘bear hunt’ and Finch, dressed as a spy, literally climbing (or half falling) out of the window!
What was really great this week is that we had a prayer chain during the time when the children were being ministered to, so each person would be given an hour during which they would stay at camp to pray. Lots of people commented on how much they enjoyed it and I think that it made a big difference to the mission.
We stayed in tents which is probably part of the reason why everyone is now so exhausted. After two sleepless nights directly on the ground sheet, I improvised a mattress out of banana leaf mats and all of the clothes that I had brought with me! The evenings were great as we shared fellowship around a fire. Each evening a film was shown but as it was translated into Luganda I only went to see one of them, so the other nights I stayed at camp with some others and sang and chatted until the others came back from the film. Then we would share evening devotions and tea together and most nights I ended up staying up pretty late just spending time with good friends.
Being in a village we had a much more traditional African experience – including showering with a bucket in a half finished building (the boys made themselves a little cubicle outside out of banana leaves but we weren’t allowed to share), fetching water from the bore hole – on one occasion I went with two of the guys and 5 jerry cans, all on one bicycle. I really don’t know how you’re supposed to balance on the crossbar of a bike without holding on! We also learnt not to use long drop toilets in the mid-day heat!
On Saturday we were able to offer Sunday School Teacher Training for some of the people from the church who are going to start a Sunday School and then we went to their first ever Sunday School class on Sunday to support the new teachers.
We’d been a little worried about food as we’d been told that we would only be having one proper meal a day, but that is by African standards and we actually had a huge breakfast every day – usually chapattis, boiled eggs and African tea, then porridge for lunch (maize flour mixed with water), jackfruit in the afternoon, a big meal in the evening (often rice or posho and beans which we love!) and then African tea again before bed. So in my opinion we ate pretty well!
I must admit though, that we treated ourselves the evening that we got home to hot chocolate and toast with chocolate spread and marshmallows (rations sent in the post from the UK!)
Thank you for your support. It’s been a really successful
week and we had so many people come forward to get saved. This week we’re going
back to school to plan for the coming term so I would really appreciate prayer
for...
- Our planning at school. That we would be able to
plan really well in the best way to teach the children the best that we can.
- Thanksgiving for a successful mission.
- Energy!
- Health and safety.
And a few people have
asked for my postal address which is...
Lorna Randall
PO Box 5895
Kampala
Uganda
East Africa
PO Box 5895
Kampala
Uganda
East Africa
Thank you so much
Lorna x
Lorna x
