Up to now, the centre of interest has been in the Masaka and Rakai districts where our schools are located. It seemed that for the past few years Kampala city schools were difficult to mobilize and did not realise how much more effective their schools could be with input from ACSI. There are many "Christian" schools but most are Christian in name only, with very little biblical integration in the curriculum, policies or practices. We prayed for a breakthrough and our Kampala region committee worked very hard recently to contact schools. They explained our vision for a network of effective Christian schools that could share ideas and cooperate to train teachers in Christian philosophy and methods of education. We were planning for about 100 participants and were thrilled to have over 160 come….and then 80 teachers also came for another two days to be trained as teacher trainers! We also had the Dean of Education from Uganda Christian University join us, one of the directors from the government Directorate for Ethics and Integrity, a Christian professor from Makerere University, as well as a faculty member from the Baptist seminary. There are many leaders who are recognising the potential for Christian education to transform Ugandan society and it is exciting to be a part of what God is orchestrating at this time.
One of our main presenters was Dr. Samson Makhado, African Director for ASCI. He has visited Uganda and our schools in Kibaale, Rakai several times and is always very well received by teachers because of his godly wisdom and his knowledge of educational issues in Africa.
The director of our Kibaale Community Centre, Peter Ochulu, also gave an excellent presentation on the holistic approach to Christian education. God has given him such a passion for helping others become effective Christian teachers and he speaks from the rich experiential background of working for several years in our Kibaale schools.
We were happy to have two of our Canadian board members for Timothy Centre/Kibaale Community Schools with us for a few days last week, and it was very good to have them join conference for a short time to catch a glimpse of what God is doing in Christian education in Uganda.
It is very rewarding to see how some of the seeds planted in Kibaale many years ago have grown and multiplied. The vision for Christian education that God gave to us (and others working in the field of education) in the early 1990s is coming to pass. We are seeing the fire burn brightly now! Christian education and teacher training is one of the effective tools God is using to raise up the next generation in Uganda, a generation with genuine hope, love for God and humanity, integrity and justice.
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