Crosslinks In Depth August 2007 |
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August 2007
ELEVEN GO TO UGANDA
"Gap years are brilliant times for teenagers to spread their wings,
experience other cultures, and have a bit of breathing space before heading
off to University to study." - writes Katie Wharton
Gap years are brilliant times for teenagers to spread their wings,
experience other cultures, and have a bit of breathing space before heading
off to University to study. However, they can be a mixed blessing
spiritually, especially where travel to foreign climes is involved as they
end up without any contact with other Christians or Bible teaching for long
periods of time. With this in mind, several years ago Sam Owen set up the
Iwerne Gap Scheme through Crosslinks which has been based in The Gambia.
This year a new trip, organised through Crosslinks and Lymington Rushmore
Holidays went to Uganda. I had the privilege of co-leading (with Giles
Witchell from St Nick's, Sevenoaks) a team of nine gap students.
From a leaders' perspective, the aims of the trip were to give the team an
opportunity to serve Christ and his local church in a different culture, and
to teach and equip them so that they can hit the ground running in terms of
Christian service and evangelism when they get to University in the autumn.
This worked out through opportunities to serve in the schools, at church and
through teaching them the Bible in the evenings.
We arrived in Kampala in late January and were taken to our lovely
accommodation that Chris Jennings had set up for us. The first week was all
about finding our feet in Kampala, experiencing the roads and the drivers,
learning some Lugandan and visiting the schools that the team were going to
be teaching in, and then it was down to business.
The team were split into pairs to teach in four primary schools, two in
slums in Kampala and two in villages on the outskirts. It was a two hour
trip on awful roads to the furthest school and often they were thrown in at
the deep end with the teaching with notice of only a minute or so. However,
there were amazing opportunities for the Gospel. In each school they were
able to assist with or set up Bible Clubs at lunchtime. There is immense
freedom in Uganda for Christ to be proclaimed and no social awkwardness
about talking about Christian things, and yet sadly in many cases there is
very little Bible teaching. The children learn by rote so can repeat back to
you that they need to be saved from their sins but have little understanding
of how and that it is only through Christ - many would say they are
Christian but also go to the local witchdoctor. So it was exciting to be
able to teach them the Gospel week by week and to see some beginning to
understand what it means to trust Christ. It was also a brilliant
opportunity for the team to learn to teach the Bible in a simple and clear
way (which often had to be translated in Lugandan) and to be bold in
evangelism. We are praying that these clubs are being continued by Christian
teachers in the schools this term.
The culmination of the spiritual work in the schools were two-day holiday
clubs which we repeated in each of the schools. This was a great opportunity
to show Christian love to the children in providing good food for them (many
cannot afford to eat lunch) alongside giving them lots of fun (sports, arts
and crafts, music and drama) and explaining the Gospel from Jonah to them.
It was incredibly hard work, but praise God, there were some professions of
faith and we are hoping that the 'new' idea of holiday clubs might take off
and be repeated.
The other area which we got involved in as a team, was street kid's ministry
at Calvary chapel. Each Sunday morning between 15-25 young boys living on
the streets would come to church for a Bible study, a game, tea and a bun.
It was a privilege to take it in turns to study 1 Peter with them and to
encourage them to have a future hope, even if life is tough now and
thrilling to see some boys professing faith. On Friday evenings the boys on
the team went out onto the streets to chat to and befriend the street kids,
and to encourage those who had just appeared that week to return home. This
is an amazing ministry which we are hoping to continue to support and I
think deeply moved many of the team.
As a team, we studied Mark's Gospel, did a Bible overview, read Cross
Examined (which has lots of Uganda illustrations!) looked at some areas of
doctrine and some Christian living seminars. It was brilliant to be able to
have four months to disciple hungry teenagers and Giles and I were often
found pouring over Grudem's Systematic Theology to work out the answer to
today's tricky question! We also gave the team the chance to take it in
turns to lead a prayer meeting and it was exciting to pray together for the
work we were involved in, as well as things back home.
I think the highlight of the trip for me was watching one or two of the team
evidently growing massively in their love for the Lord Jesus and taking
every opportunity to make him known - including leading a child to Christ
when waiting for a boat to take us on holiday! It was also exciting to see
some get really excited about the riches of God's word and realising they
needed to take it much more seriously. Living as a team occasionally had its
moments but striving to put what we were learning into practise with each
other was invaluable!
After sad farewells to the friends made, we come back with a wealth of
experiences - from a seven hour long engagement ceremony in searing heat
culminating in the arrival of a veiled cow, to learning how to kill a
chicken we'd been rearing, to honing bartering skills and fitting unfeasible
numbers of people into a taxi, to seeing some of God's amazing creation on
safari and the sheer power of the Nile as it is squeezed through Murchison
Falls.
Please join with me in praying that the team members would go off to
University, standing firm in Christ and be those that in the future, by
God's grace would be used to bring others to know Him.
includes material taken from Emmanuel Church, Wimbledon Enews July-August 2007 - with permission.