Uganda: Tuesday and Wednesday (Jackson Update)Glen Jackson, a member of the SIFAT board of directors, and his wife Marie are currently in Uganda for a month visiting Agape Total Childcare Center. Glen and Marie have gone on short-term mission trips to serve at SIFAT graduate William Nsubuga’s project for the past two years and are leading a team this summer. They will be sharing their experiences with us as they experience life in Mukono! Click here to read more about SIFAT’s work in Uganda. Tuesday, 2/26: Today we taught in S-1 and S-2 classes for Bible. There are many new students in these classes, and we were so thankful to be able to teach them! We taught from Romans 3, 5, and 6, trying to present a clear plan of salvation. We discovered that words that we easily understand have different meanings to them. For example, demonstrate meant a rebellion to the law. When in the context that we were teaching, it means shows or proves! WOW! What a confusing thing for them! But that is what we need to understand in order to teach them correctly. They are so eager to learn, so attentive and respectful.  Having visiting Americans teach is exciting for the students! Glen leads a Bible class, while Marie teaches music. Uganda: Sunday and Sickness (Jackson’s Update)Glen Jackson, a member of the SIFAT board of directors, and his wife Marie are currently in Uganda for a month visiting Agape Total Childcare Center. Glen and Marie have gone on short-term mission trips to serve at SIFAT graduate William Nsubuga’s project for the past two years and are leading a team this summer. They will be sharing their experiences with us as they experience life in Mukono! Click here to read more about SIFAT’s work in Uganda. Well, Sunday was a wonderful day at Agape Christian Academy! We worshipped the Lord in English and Lugandan and felt the Lord’s presence. Glen and I cried a lot! God was gracious and used us to share our testimony of how the Lord connected us to Agape and brought us here for the month. The children seemed totally engaged, and the new headmistress was deeply moved. God is so amazing! After the service, I was extremely sick and had to return to the hotel. Glen and I spent time in prayer, read Scripture and listened to Praise music. Jesus ministered to us so beautifully, and I had such peace. After a good night’s sleep, I am feeling 100%! We believe that we discovered the cause–however, it could have just been a test of our faith. God is good, and today, it has been wonderful being with the children. The new students are excited to meet us and seem so glad to be here. Tomorrow will begin our teaching classes. I know this is long and does not include pictures, but I am working on it. I will get it done soon! ~ Marie Uganda: The Jacksons arrive at Agape!Glen Jackson, a member of the SIFAT board of directors, and his wife Marie are currently in Uganda for a month visiting Agape Total Childcare Center. Glen and Marie have gone on short-term mission trips to serve at SIFAT graduate William Nsubuga’s project for the past two years and are leading a team this summer. They will be sharing their experiences with us as they experience life in Mukono! Click here to read more about SIFAT’s work in Uganda.  Glen Jackson and William Nsubuga discuss details for the construction project at Agape Total Childcare Center in June 2012. Hello, everyone! We are here!!! It has been a great day already–seeing the children and William. We have already had a meeting with the children. There are around 32 new students attending Agape Christian Academy. Uganda: Agape Total Childcare Center opens school today! Visit to Uganda As many of you may know, Agape Total Childcare Center in Uganda had to move last month from Lugazi to Mukono. Because of unforeseen circumstances, William is forced to open the Agape Christian School now; he has been given one month by the Ministry of Education and municipality authorities to bring the school into compliance with Ugandan regulations. We need your support to open the school immediately, so the older children living at Agape will be able to attend secondary school this year.Tom and Peggy recently traveled to Zambia. While there, they were able to meet the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s team of Engineers Without Borders and spend time on the project site. Dave Barnhart, of Trinity UMC in Birmingham, will be helping lead the first SIFAT short-term mission team later this year. Dave joined Tom and Peggy to visit the site and help prepare for future SIFAT teams to stay in Lusaka. Below, Dave shares about his experience with Tom and Peggy in Zambia.
I’ve had the opportunity to shadow Tom and Peggy the last couple of days to see what goes into laying the groundwork for a successful mission trip. There’s a lot of work that mission teams never see! It’s like putting together a puzzle, fitting resources together with people and organizations to make a big picture. Only in this case, the puzzle pieces keep changing shape, and you don’t really know what the final picture will look like. You simply have to trust that God’s got the picture on the front of the box, and when it all goes together, it will be better than we imagine. When you put together any puzzle, it helps to get the corners and sides done first. EWB and Harbert Construction, the local churches and SIFATÂ have done marvelous work in putting together the first pieces. The past few days we’ve done some networking with WorldVision, Zambikes and other local potential partners. One of the engineering students told me that he was surprised at how much of the work involves diplomacy and learning how to navigate both local culture and our own. I’m only here for a short time. I already can’t wait to come back. See Tom’s photos after the jump! |
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I’ve always been impressed with the impact SIFAT’s short-term mission projects have on the people with whom I travel. When I make comparisons with other mission trips I’ve been on, SIFAT participants learn more, they have a better experience, and they often get turned onto missions both at home and internationally.