When
an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. The alien
living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him
as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt.
Leviticus
19 : 33-34
Good
morning from a beautiful sunny Ugandan morning – after a week of
heavy rain.
Answers
to prayer from last month -
Stan's
tooth is no more, surgically extracted with much drilling, stitched
and protected with a laser dressing, which he was very impressed
with. The dentist was a very gentle Korean lady and those of you who
know Stan 'faints at the dentist' know this was very important!
Anyway he was very brave, didn't faint, and dressing and stitches are
now gone and he can eat again – but not popcorn!
All
the students (apart from a small handful) are now back, and it is a
joy to be amongst them again.
Engola
Arnold is back at school after what he has described as the joyous
burial of his mum.
Thank
you for your prayers.
We
have been busy with visitors this month –
First
visitors were Mubiru Chris, a regular visitor and great supporter of
the students with his visiting team from Wototo church. This time he
was accompanied by Daniel Brandel – author of books about playing
fair in sport using biblical themes, and representing Sports
Ambassadors. They did basketball coaching, not just about rules and
game play but also about playing in the 'right way', on Saturday and
on Sunday Daniel spoke in the WTA church.
Our
second visitors, and still here as we write this, have been Roger
Savill, one of the first team to visit WTA on the old site, so he has
seen great change since he was here. He has been accompanied by
Ethan, who has devised a PE afternoon programme for S1 which has
included basketball, netball and football, and has been greatly
enjoyed. It also meant we have had the exciting spectacle of Roger
and Stan refereeing netball – and pretending they know the rules!
In
addition, for the first week, Roger and Ethan were ably assisted by
Claire (British but living and working in Kisoro, in western Uganda),
Richard and Fortunate (lovely name, lovely girl). Richard and
Fortunate were both students of Claire, a PE teacher in real life but
currently running a church guest house.
In
the mornings, whilst Roger played in the garage, designing and making
gym equipment (think plastic water bottles, tubing and cement), the
others were teaching in the Bridge – which involved learning maths
by playing lots of games!
Oh
– and in their spare time they have marked out the basketball court
(in yellow) and have also included netball markings (in white). The
paint is for road markings, so not only do we expect it to last a
long while it has the added bonus of glowing in the dark!
We
are delighted (and a little bit sad) that most of the Activate
lessons are now being taught by the school. Charles felt it was time
for the school to take ownership so we feel that is a really positive
step. The new Activate teacher is Kato Patrick, the bursar, who has
taken over from us in the past when we have had to be elsewhere –
and he says he is loving it! He has a real heart for showing the
students where they can find the answers to their questions (The
Bible), and his themes for this term are what the Bible says about
electioneering, fair voting, discipline and loving each other. We
have hung on to S5 and S6 for now, so we are not completely
Activate-less.
The
building work is almost completed, all the new rooms are in use, just
a few bits and pieces to finish.
And
- Stan had a birthday!
Almost
forgot about more visitors this week – three very important looking
men from Umeme – the electricity suppliers – came to look at our
meter which hasn't worked for some time. After great deliberation and
discussion they all agreed that the reason it is not working is that
it has been struck by lightning – so they have gone away to
'consider what to do next'!
And
now we are going to break that rule about never talking about
politics or religion – and talk about them both.
Our
only source of information about the referendum has been BBC World
Service on the radio, and it seems from the reports that they think
most over 60's voted to leave along with most of the country outside
London and the affluent south because they wanted to 'keep the
foreigners out' and that became the main focus for leaving. If that
is true, that is very sad. As a couple of oldies, including one
northerner, we buck the trend it seems. The nationalism bottle, once
opened, as any student of history will tell you, can be a toxic
drink. A scapegoat must be found.......so which minority is next?
We
mention it as very welcomed and loved 'aliens in a foreign land' who
this week have had to answer questions from the students who have
been following the news on their (illegal!) radios. The question that
has been asked again and again is, '' why are the British people
judging which man is better than another when we are all God's
children and should love everyone'', and we are struggling for an
answer. Have to say feeling a little ashamed of the country we love
this week.
However,
what we are also reminding ourselves is of the greatest commandment,
so when we come back to the UK we will be trying to show love to
51.9% of the population we don't agree with! What is done is done –
now we must pull together.
Prayer
request this month is a little different. We are usually asking you
to pray for people and situations here, but this time the students
have asked us to pass on the fact that they will be praying for the
people of the UK that they can learn to love one another and live in
harmony. We are often humbled by what they say, and sadly, this is
one of those times. Love and blessings from both of us.
Sue
and Stan xx
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| The Bridge |
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| new student at The Bridge |
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| start of term |
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| teachers and askari ready for registration |
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| old friends return |
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| preparing the new timetable |
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| A Level students enjoying their new room |
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| building work almost finished |
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| washing time |
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| Precious and Stan 'on the phone' |
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| guard dogs on high alert |
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| lovely head girl Shamim |
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| prize giving |
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| very quiet and formal (!) WTA church |
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| trying to get BBC World Service for the football! |
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| Birthday tea |
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| Stan pretending to referee netball |
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| a visitor |
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| testing Roger's home made gym equipment |
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| marking the basketball and netball court |
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| the only way to send a text |
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| Daniel teaching basketball fair play |
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| the team |
