Catching Up!

It has been many weeks since we have been able to publish a new post....a combination of a very busy schedule, the theft of our laptops and camera in a break-in, etc. but we should now try to bring you up to date on some of the happenings in our lives here at UCU (and beyond!)

Karl had a full couple of months in March and April conducting Farming God's Way training workshops in many places throughout the country, including projects near the Timothy Centre (Masaka) area and culminating in a week long training of trainers at a site near the university.  This was for Church of Uganda workers country-wide.  Karl's "right hand man", Stephen, who is being mentored as a trainer was able to assist in some of these trainings.

Arleen's biggest focus was on the Faculty of Social Sciences and last week she conducted a four-day intensive training for the lecturers, helping them to apply principles of faith and teaching integration to their social science courses.  At the conclusion, one of the lecturers said,  "This was a tough nut to crack, but we did it!".  In the past, many lecturers have seen faith and teaching integration as a mysterious, difficult concept. Thankfully they are beginning to understand its importance and relevance in a Christian university...and are taking steps to move ahead and apply what they are learning in their course planning.  We had some lively times of discussion in last week's workshop and lecturers were eager to work together to improve their course outlines in terms of faith integration.

There is much more to report, and so we will endeavour to hit the highlights in the next few blog posts.  We thank you so much for your prayers!

Go Light Your Candle

 

On Friday morning we celebrated part four of the 14th graduation ceremony with a commissioning service for 459 students from Uganda Christian University.  It was a very uplifting service with much singing and jubilation, the theme being, “Determine to live in peace with each other”. (Hebrews 12:14)

UCU sends its students out with strong encouragement to take seriously their responsibility to be change agents in Uganda, in whatever career they are entering.  We pray they stay true to their commitment they made at their graduation ceremony to serve God and His people faithfully wherever they are placed.

The  closing hymn, “Go Light Your Candle” summed up the commissioning well:

There is a candle in every soul

Some brightly burning, some dark and cold

There is a Spirit who brings a fire

Ignites a candle and makes His home

 

So carry your candle, run to the darkness

Seek out the hopeless, confused and torn

Hold out your candle for all to see it

Take your candle, and go light your world

 

Frustrated brother, see how he’s tried to

Light his own candle some other way

See now your sister, she’s been robbed and lied to

Still holds a candle without a flame.

 

We are a family whose hearts are blazing

So let’s raise our candle and light up the sky

Praying to our Father, in the name of Jesus

Make us a beacon in darkest times.

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DRY SEASON TRAINING

Since returning to Uganda at the beginning of this year from our Christmas break, I have been preparing for upcoming Farming God’s Way workshops. The best time for agricultural training in Uganda is in the dry season, before the planting season. In this way farmers can implement what they’ve learned as they prepare their fields and plant their crops.

The rains usually begin towards the end of February through to the middle of March in most places in Uganda. That gives us about 2-3 months of training from December onwards.

A lot of the prep time involves not only making sure one’s tools are in top shape, and seeds and fertilizer have been purchased, but community leaders, churches, and NGO’s (non government organizations) have been contacted to set up schedules and venues for the training. In order to see lasting change, we commit to train in a community for 5-10 seasons (Uganda has 2 seasons a year). During this time, faithful men and women can be identified who will continue to pass the word around and train others in their community.

In Lwengo district, close to the Timothy Centre near Masaka town, two such individuals are now sharing FGW principles with their neighbours and friends. It’s taken about three seasons, but their neighbours are noticing the difference in crop yields and are now beginning to adopt more productive farming methods.

In the past few weeks I’ve done several training workshops, with several more to come before the rains start. In future blogs I’ll give updates on these trainings and how people are being impacted.

I appreciate your prayers as Stephen Bwogi (my associate trainer) and I travel the country sharing how the kingdom of God impacts the agricultural domain in Uganda. Our desire is to see not only land become productive again but lives transformed by the power of the gospel.

Can anything good come out of Rakai?

 

Today was a day of thanksgiving for all the good things God has done in using a very small place in a very large way.  The small place is the village of Kibaale in the Rakai District of Uganda.  Twenty years ago it was considered ‘the armpit of Uganda’, and was a place people avoided because it was undeveloped, arid, remote, and decimated by disease.  Whenever you mentioned to the ‘city folks’ in the Kampala education offices that you lived in Rakai, many eyebrows were raised, and sometimes people would wonder what you had done wrong that you were sent to Rakai!  It was most well known for ‘exporting’ HIV/AIDS and witchcraft.   Now, however, it is becoming known as the place where Christian education is flourishing.  Rakai is ‘exporting’ Christian education training and students full of hope and character.  The director of Kibaale Community Centre, Ochulu Peter, has a passionate heart and well developed skills for training other educators in the principles, values and practices of Christian education.  He learned and developed these skills in Kibaale Community Schools many years ago and has shared them with many teacher training colleges throughout Uganda (with the tutors’ training programmes organised by the Directorate for Ethics and Integrity).

When the Dean of Education form Uganda Christian University visited Kibaale Community Schools a couple of years ago to observe the way in which faith and learning integration was taking place, he felt these things needed to be shared at the university as well.  So…we invited Peter to join me in facilitating a workshop for the faculty deans and heads of departments  and today Peter had a chance to share his experiences.  He explained the dramatic change in his approach to teaching as he the Lord transformed him from a compartmentalised person (a ‘teacher’ and a ‘Christian’) into an integrated person (a Christian teacher).

Teachers of character and integrity are the change agents for society.  Peter is a great example of a faithful Christian teacher who has made a big difference… and his example encourages the instructors here at UCU to implement authentic Christian education at the higher levels of learning as well.

A Great Team

This past weekend, the Integration of Faith, Learning and Service committee here at Uganda Christian University attended a planning retreat in Jinja (near the source of the Nile).  Our retreat hotel was beautifully situated near the edge of the river, but unfortunately this was a work weekend and we had a lot to discuss… so we’ll have to go back at some point to enjoy more of the scenery.  Our committee works very well as a team and I appreciate each of them for their commitment.

Medard (Dean of Education and Arts), Fred (Child Development and Ministries Dept. Head), Michael (Dean of Science and Technology), Rosette (administrative assistant), Michael (Dean of Science and Technology), myself, and Amos (Foundation Studies Dept. Head)
Each member shared a presentation on the status of faith and learning integration in their respective faculties/departments and this gave us a good overall picture of what to focus on in the year ahead.  I also had the chance to share some insights as we are all learning together as a committee.  It was helpful to spend some time on our action plan for 2014-2015 as well....time well spent!

More Teacher Training at Timothy Centre

Now that I am based at Uganda Christian University, we are relying on other volunteer teacher trainers to facilitate the teacher training module at Timothy Centre.  Today is the last day of the January module on biblically-based curriculum planning which began January 8.

Last Saturday Karl and I drove to Entebbe picked up our two Canadian colleagues who had just flown in Friday night to help teach this module.  Jill and Claudia had quite a time trying to get to Uganda because of the flight cancellations in the eastern U.S. with all the winter storms, but finally arrived and were ready to start after weeks of preparation and planning.  Thankfully, Lizabee (the director of education for Kibaale Community Centre and Timothy Centre this year) was able to fill in for the first three days of the module.  It was good to be able to spend some time with Jill and Claudia on the drive down to Masaka where the Timothy Centre is located and then to help answer some questions, find teaching materials in my office, etc. as they ‘stepped into the saddle’.  Jill and Claudia are seasoned educators and quickly built rapport with the teachers in the class. 

Karl and I were able to stay until Monday morning so this allowed us to participate in their Sunday morning worship service and provide some more support during the Monday morning teaching sessions.  Well done, Jill and Claudia! 

  

The Bread of Kingdom Education

 

While thinking about how to describe the concept of integrating faith and teaching at the university, the parable comparing the kingdom of God to yeast (Luke 13: 20-21) came to mind. So, as part of my preparation for a pedagogy workshop presented to the teaching staff last week, I decided to head into my kitchen and start baking. I baked two loaves of bread using the same ingredients….except that I didn’t knead any yeast into the dough for the second loaf. Instead, I sprinkled some dry yeast on top once it was baked. It was a rather unsavoury product!

Then at the workshop, as we were discussing what true integration of faith and teaching looks like, we examined the two loaves of bread and talked about what made them so very different, even though they essentially had the same ingredients.

The lecturers picked up quickly on the main point. The kingdom of God penetrates into every part of our lives, thinking, and study-- just as yeast (when properly kneaded into the lump of dough) penetrates the whole loaf and produces ‘real’ bread. The biblical worldview needs to be the foundation and heart of all of our teaching in an authentically Christian university. This takes some hard thinking and prayerful preparation of courses and lesson plans, but results in true nourishing of our students’ minds and hearts and prepares them to be transformers of all sectors of society. The temptation as Christian educators is to be lazy in our thinking and simply attach a scripture verse or prayer on top of an otherwise secular approach to the content and methodology. This leads to a very unsatisfactory result, as does sprinkling yeast on top of a loaf of bread rather than kneading it into the whole lump of dough.

In all the faculty training we do in the Institute of Faith, Learning and Service here at Uganda Christian University, we will be challenging ourselves to thinking creatively about Christian higher education and the ways in which a biblical worldview will transform all we do in our teaching and learning.