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The following article was originally published on Harding University's Center for World Mission Website which can be found at: http://www.harding.edu/cwm/index.htm. The original Jinja mission team attended Harding University and were mentored by Dr. Monte Cox. Tusangaire. Tusangairinho. Tusangaire okubabona. We are glad. We are very glad. We are very glad to see you. The words of welcome surrounded me as I stepped from the truck into the middle of yet another Busoga village. How many times I had heard those words, seen the smiles and laughter that invariably accompanied them, and laughed in return. Over the previous weeks I had grown to love those words, their meaning, and the people that greeted me with them. Today was my last day to hear them. I was in the village of Ndalike for the Sunday morning worship service. Our six-week internship was drawing to a quick close, and I wanted to savor every minute that was left to me. The lesson that morning was on seeing with God's eyes rather than the world's, on reinventing reality, understanding it from God's perspective as much as possible. John Barton had chosen to use the Nicodemus story and a pair of plastic, neon green, toy glasses to illustrate his point. As he taught and the Ugandans giggled at the glasses, I looked around at the people surrounding me, striving to see them from God's perspective.
I remember the elderly muse, the grandfather. Although he could barely see, he never stopped smiling. Laugh lines creased his tough, weather beaten face and crinkled at his eyes, making him beautiful. And his wife, also full of joy, who could do no more than greet me, but made me feel as if I were her beloved granddaughter just the same. I remember the sleeping infant I held in my arms, four days old. Her mother had doused her in baby powder before she let me hold her, and the poor child was streaked like a skunk. Her mother kneeled on the mat with the other women, all keeping an attentive eye on me, grinning whenever I looked their way. Time and again I looked around the circle of faces gathered under that mango tree, my brothers and sisters, and marveled at the love, joy, and excitement that surrounded me.
Excitement. It was a prevailing emotion of the summer. Everywhere we went, the Christians were excited to see us, to see the men we were with, to hear the news they brought, and to learn about the God they serve. For, our God is an exciting God, and because of Him the Jinja mission team has an exciting ministry. They have truly learned the art of reinventing reality, of seeing from God's perspective, of refusing to be limited by what is, but rather seeing what could be in each situation and individual.
Background Information on Uganda, Busoga, and Jinja:
Uganda is located in Eastern Africa. It is bordered by the countries of Kenya, the Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, and Rwanda, and is often referred to as the Pearl of Africa. In total, the country is slightly smaller than Arizona, but its landmass is only about the size of Kansas. 23 million people live in Uganda, and over 50% of the population are under 15 years of age. This is largely due to the devastating effect the AIDS virus has had on the adult population of the country. As it is, the average life expectancy is only 42 years and approximately one out of every ten children dies in infancy. The primary occupation in the country is farming. Each family has its own plot of land where maize, cassava, sweet potatoes and bananas are grown, but over half of the population lives below the poverty level. Uganda is still one of the poorest countries in the world.
The country is inhabited by numerous different peoples. One source reports that there are 55 distinct ethnic groups in the country, though others report between ten and fifteen groups. The Jinja team works specifically among the Soga peoples. This group lives in the southern part of the country, separated from their neighbors by the Nile River on the east, Lake Victoria to the south, and a marshy region full of papyrus swamps to the west. It is believed that the Basoga came from neighboring tribes, especially Buganda, and have, over time, become a distinct, relatively cohesive group. Jinja however, as the second largest city in the country, is still a melting pot. Therefore, although Lusoga is the language of the Basoga, English, the official language of the country, is widely spoken in Jinja and in other large towns.
Statistics indicate that the country is highly Christianized. However, as is the case in many animistic cultures, Basoga religion is largely syncretic and has roots in traditional beliefs. There is a belief in a creator god, but it is believed that he created the world and then moved far away from the people. He is accessible through his mediators. An evil being, rather like Satan, is the spirit which intercedes with god on man's behalf; he is reached through the lesser spirits of the ancestors who have the power to rain down plague, sickness, and draught if they are forgotten or mistreated. People therefore continually try to appease these spirits of their ancestors so that they and their families may not be cursed. When a Musoga is asked to describe god and his relationship with him, he chooses words like fear, scared, anger, pain, hurt, and dread. Traditionally, there is no concept of a loving, forgiving, righteous, reliable God, much less of the fact that He desires a relationship with each individual. For this reason, the gospel is revolutionary to the Basoga. But, change, trust in God, and freedom from the fear of the spirits are slow in coming. It is an uphill battle for the churches. In one village, for example, a young couple, pregnant with twins, began attending church. When their daughters were born, they decided to take a stand of faith, refusing to perform the traditional ceremony to protect the twins from death by appealing to the spirits. The congregation celebrated, rejoicing in their expression of faith. Approximately six months later, one of the girls died. On his next visit to the village, the missionary noticed an amulet of protection tied securely around the surviving twin's waist. It is not easy for these Christians, even the most earnest ones, to conquer their fear of the spirit world.
Information on Missionaries:
In 1994 the first five couples left their homes in America and traveled to Jinja, Uganda. These were John and Sara Barton, Brent and Heather Abney, Deron and Becca Smith, Greg and Jill Taylor, and Mark and Marnie Moore. Later they were joined by Clint and Briley Davis and Bret and Johnna Raymond. At the moment, the Jinja team is made up of six of these couples, Dr. Mark Hall, and Betty Davis, who runs a school for the missionary children and other English speakers in the community. In October, the Abneys returned home after six years in Jinja. In January, Danny and Lanny Hardman will be joining the team, and Rebecca Dalstrom and Erika Pierson will join in June when Betty Davis returns. The team has been in place for six years now, and although the first couples are beginning to return, plans and prayers are being made for the continuation of this work.
Philosophy on the Work:
When discussing the team's approach to mission work, John Barton has a wonderful illustration. Imagine the playground toy where there are four seats in a square arrangement, balanced on a spring in the middle. The four seats represent the four areas of mission work: rural vs. urban work, and development vs. evangelism. The forces holding them together are those of kingdom presence and the movement of the churches. The ideal, healthy mission strikes a balance between these four, striving that no one area should attract more or less attention than any other. This balance is not easily obtained, so the team has developed several principles, which guide them in deciding if the team should participate in a particular project. The project must address the felt needs of the community. If the people do not feel that the product or service being provided is necessary and applicable, they will never view the project as their own. The project must be sustainable and reproducible. That is, the project must rely on resources and training that are accessible to the people being served. If it relies on resources that are too elite, the project will not be maintained once the missionaries and their resources have left. There must be a transfer of ownership. The project cannot remain the missionary's idea. It must become the idea of the community. It must become their project. Otherwise, the missionary's project will leave with the missionary. There must be an element of shared responsibility. Once again, if the people being served have nothing staked in the project, they will have little incentive to make it successful. However, once they have invested some small part in the project it becomes their responsibility to encourage success. There must be an element of inevitability. If something is inevitable, the missionaries should take advantage of the opportunity to introduce the product or service in a wholesome, Christian manner. However, if there is no need for a particular product, the missionary should be reluctant to introduce it to the culture.
Projects:
When the Jinja team first set out to work in Uganda, the goal was to engage in rural church planting. That was their sole aim. As they grew to understand the people, their culture, and their needs however, they realized that an effective long-term ministry would have to reach the cities and would have to minister to the immediate development needs of the people. Now, the team has a thriving urban work in addition to its rural churches and is engaged in numerous development projects.
Urban works:
When the mission works of the churches of Christ worldwide are considered, there is a noticeable paucity of successful urban projects. While we, as a movement, are flourishing in the rural setting, our urban works have a tendency to atrophy. Mark Moore believes that this is due to the lack of a holistic approach to mission work in the cities. Often, the job of caring for the physical needs of people has been left to governments known to be corrupt, callous, and irresponsible, while the church tends only to the spiritual complaints of her members. However, this is not the model seen in the early congregations, as reported in Acts. From the outset, the church has taken care of the physical needs of people. This is the model the Jinja team has striven to follow in setting up their urban ministry.
1: Jinja church: The Jinja church of Christ has about 30 members and meets on Sunday mornings on the church's Plot 20 Main street property, behind the cafe and resource center. The members of the church come from various areas of town and outside of town, and transportation tends to be a problem for the members. The church has therefore begun meeting in homes around town on Friday nights to make it easier for people to gather and study. There are currently 13 cell groups meeting, but they hope to have 20 meeting by the end of the year. The church has not appointed elders yet, but has elected a general ministry board to make decisions regarding the church and her ministries. No missionaries are on this board. Rather, it is composed completely of mature, national Christians who work diligently to serve the church. Further, Deron Smith is highly involved in discipling members of the congregation, studying with them and providing insight and training so that they, in turn, will have the knowledge to lead and to mentor other young Christians. This is a vibrant, growing, excited church, full of people just glad to know Jesus and be together.
2: Source Cafe: Through relationships with friends in town, the team unexpectedly gained ownership of a cafe. The current building is located on Main Street in the middle of town. The cafe is operated by members of the church, though jobs are not necessarily limited to church members. The cafe serves many typical Ugandan foods such as chipatis (a tortilla-like bread), and fried chicken, but they also serve their specialties like chicken kabobs and fried potatoes. It is one of the few places in town that sells ice cream. Richard, Idah, Irene, and several other women cook, serve, and run the cash register. There is also a small gift shop in the cafe that sells handmade cards, batik wall hangings, hand-woven cloth, and specialty desserts and coffees. The proceeds from the cafe go to pay employee salaries, purchase supplies, and to support the other ministries of the church.
3: Source of Life Resource Center: The resource center is housed in the same building as the cafe. It was begun with the idea of providing what the average person is looking for: not a church, but answers, ideas, help, and education. With this in mind, it is home to the only lending library in town, with both written materials and video services. English language classes, business training, and computer training are all provided. Members pay an annual fee, which goes to support the operation of the center and to support the other ministries of the church.
In June, the ministry board decided that the demand for computer training warranted a greater investment. Therefore, they have partnered with NCR, a company from Kampala that offers the best computer training available in the country. They are providing several computers, training materials, and course curriculum. Several of the employees at the center have been trained by NCR and will instruct the classes.
In addition to computer training, the resource center provides Internet access to the town. There are only three ISPs in all of Uganda. The main access is provided through an agency in Kampala. However, it requires a highly expensive long distance phone call to dial this ISP from anywhere else in the country. When the missionaries saw the inevitability of the Internet, they decided that, rather than waiting for someone else to bring it to Jinja, they would be the first to provide Internet access to the community and thus have some measure of control over its introduction to the culture. Further, they are able to provide this service to the community at a rate that many Ugandans can easily afford. They have now been contacted by World Bank International about providing Internet services to several of the schools in town.
Clint Davis is in charge of the town works. The Hardmans will assist him when they arrive in January. He is in the process of training several people to take over the accounting and business aspects of the cafe and resource center. They just hired a new full-time employee to assist in managing the accounts.
One of the most valuable aspects of the resource center is the role it plays in the life of the church. It has become a gathering place for Christians from across the country. It is a place where they can stop and know they will be welcomed, helped, and comfortable. The facility is also used for meetings, public service and leadership-training seminars, and worship on a regular basis. Previously, visitors to town were dependent upon the hospitality of the missionaries when they came to town. Now they have a place of their own to visit.
4: Media Services: A final area of development is in print and video services. When the missionaries first came to Jinja and began learning Lusoga, they realized that the language had no written materials. In fact, it was not written at all. Those who could read had to read Luganda, a similar language spoken by the neighboring Buganda peoples. The members of the team are the only Americans that speak this language. Consequently, as they learned the language they began to develop an English-Lusoga/Lusoga-English dictionary, to aid them in learning Lusoga. This has become a valuable tool for them and for those Basoga who are hoping to learn English. In addition, they have been instrumental in translating the Bible into Lusoga. The first Lusoga New Testament was published in 1998 by the Bible Society of Uganda. And, since there are no written materials in Lusoga, the team has undertaken to print several pamphlets on issues affecting Christians. These include Lusoga tracts on Acts, Sin Traps, In His Steps, Walk Through the Old Testament, Simple Weddings, and the church newsletter Mukago. The newsletter has become indispensable in keeping the church community connected. It is a way to remind local congregations that they are not isolated, to keep them informed of opportunities and projects, and to keep them accountable. Whenever a congregation is in default on a loan or has excelled in a particular area, it is published in the newsletter for all to see.
In addition to the print services, the missionaries have branched into the film making business. The Jesus film is commonly shown, but it is in Luganda, which is not understood by everyone. They therefore decided to produce a Lusoga film. The first movie ever made in Lusoga was The Death of Samuel Tenwa, addressing many of the social problems facing Christians today. It is a cross between the Scrooge story and It's a Wonderful Life, and has had a wonderful reception. It was sent to Good News Productions in Nairobi for editing. Several months ago while visiting a village, Mark Moore was approached by several young children who hailed him as Arnold Schwarzenegger. He and the rest of the team realized that, although they did not like the idea, Hollywood was coming to Uganda, and it had a receptive audience in the large adolescent population. After this incident, the team decided that they should attempt to counter the negative influence of these films. They found it was just as cheap to purchase their own video and digital editing equipment as it was to have their movies edited by the professionals in Nairobi, as they had for the first film. Therefore, they have purchased the necessary equipment and are now outfitted to begin production of more Lusoga films.
Rural works:
As in the approach to urban work mentioned above, the team is striving to approach their rural ministry from a holistic point of view. The rural communities have different needs from those felt in town, and so, while many of their projects do overlap, they have branched into some slightly different areas in their village work.
1: Churches: There are currently 40 congregations meeting in the region. Early in their ministry, the team developed a system of classifying these churches into five maturity stages, ranging from a preaching point to an adult church. Currently, they are working with congregations in all of these stages. This summer, Nakalongo was the first of the adult churches to select elders. Several others are preparing to take that step. Meanwhile, the missionaries go daily to village churches to visit and teach. On Fridays, Sara Barton and Johnna Raymond go to the villages, teach the women different skills, and have Bible studies with them.
The most notable characteristic of these young Christians is their joy, excitement, and wonder at finding themselves redeemed. At one meeting in the village of Bulongo, Joshua decided that he wanted to be baptized. The entire congregation, led by Peter, Joshua's brother, accompanied him to the water hole, about a quarter mile away. The celebration of the group attracted many others in the village, who followed along in order to find out what was going on. After the baptism, the church returned, singing and clapping, to the mango tree where they met. The members stood in a circle, singing praises and laughing, while Peter and Joshua danced together in the middle, unable to contain their enthusiasm. These churches are thriving, and it is refreshing to see their zeal in worship.
2: BBS: The greatest felt need among local congregations is that of training. One year ago, Busoga Bible School began to meet this need. Classes are taught in Lusoga in one-week long intensive seminars, enabling people to attend the school without having to worry about providing for their families while they are away for an extended period of time. John Barton has developed the training curriculum for the school and served as the director during the first year, but a national director has been chosen to lead in the future. The school is an extension of the Nairobi Great Commission School in Kenya. In order to support the cost of the school, each attendee is required to pay an entrance fee. Also, the school has purchased a coffee plantation on the banks of the Nile to provide a source of income to support the school. The attendees will often go to classes all day, and spend the evenings working in the fields to assist in covering the costs. As a teaching tool and learning experience, the attendees of the school take faith trips once or twice a year. On these trips, team members and church leaders visit different areas of Uganda or other countries in order to see firsthand the blessings and wealth that the Busoga have. This experience serves to stretch the worldviews of these village men, who have often never been outside of the region and have little concept of life elsewhere.
3: Micro-loans and Micro-grants: micro-loans are loans of small amounts of money made to churches and communities in order to provide them with the capital to begin income-generating projects. The project is now under the direction of national leaders, and is progressing well. Micro-grants, or peace projects, are small grants made to fund development and evangelistic activities. In 1999-2000, these grants included mosquito nets, tree grants, child-safety stoves, and rabbit projects. In order to receive these grants, the recipients had to fill out applications, attend training, provide plans and/or supplies, and agree to use the product once it was supplied to them. In this manner, individuals and churches are provided opportunities and resources to improve their situations, but are still held accountable for how they use those resources.
4: Health Care: Two years ago, Dr. Mark Hall joined the Jinja team with the intention of working in preventative health care. The typical approach to providing preventative care is to train people to train people to train village health workers. However, in practice this approach rarely succeeds. Too often, the system breaks down before anyone has been trained to do any actual work. Mark has decided to avoid this downfall by directly training village health workers who will go out and work in their villages. To that end, he is currently training three people in the village of Budoola: James, Margaret, and George. All three are mature members of the church, respected leaders in their community, educated, and English-speakers. Mark's primary emphasis at the moment is on educating them about the germ theory of disease and on training them to identify several common diseases and their symptoms. He hopes to reach the point where these three will be able to gather information on the immunizations the people in their villages have had, to keep this information up to date, and to provide basic immunizations to the community. The idea is that the church will be used as the vehicle by which this information is gathered and vaccinations are dispensed. Mark is also working on providing these villages with a clean water supply by protecting their water sources. A vast majority of diseases are caused by drinking dirty water. In early June, George's village located the head of the stream which supplies their water. They cleared the area and contributed to the cost of building a protective shelter. Mark assisted them in building a concrete shelter over the spring, protecting the water from animals, disease, and general contamination. They also directed the water out of two pipes, rather than letting it flow across the ground. This makes it much easier for the women to gather water, as they only have to place their jugs under the spout to gain water, rather than having to scoop it out of the muddy streambed.
Aside from his work in training village health workers, Mark is involved in curative medicine. Though he does not have an official clinic in town, he provides medical services to those who come to his door. He can usually be found under the mango tree in his front yard, examining his friends and acquaintances. He also assists in relief work. There are numerous refugee camps in the northern and western regions of the country where people have fled with nothing, and many of these refugees are in serious need of medical attention. Mark does what he can to meet their needs and the everyday medical needs of the people he comes in contact with every day.
Conclusion: When the Jinja team first set out to work in Uganda, the goal was to engage in rural church planting. That was their sole aim. As they grew to understand the people, their culture, and their needs however, they realized that an effective long-term ministry would have to reach the cities and would have to minister to the immediate development needs of the people. Now, the team has a thriving urban work in addition to its rural churches and is engaged in numerous development projects.
Urban works:
When the mission works of the churches of Christ worldwide are considered, there is a noticeable paucity of successful urban projects. While we, as a movement, are flourishing in the rural setting, our urban works have a tendency to atrophy. Mark Moore believes that this is due to the lack of a holistic approach to mission work in the cities. Often, the job of caring for the physical needs of people has been left to governments known to be corrupt, callous, and irresponsible, while the church tends only to the spiritual complaints of her members. However, this is not the model seen in the early congregations, as reported in Acts. From the outset, the church has taken care of the physical needs of people. This is the model the Jinja team has striven to follow in setting up their urban ministry.
1: Jinja church: The Jinja church of Christ has about 30 members and meets on Sunday mornings on the church's Plot 20 Main street property, behind the cafe and resource center. The members of the church come from various areas of town and outside of town, and transportation tends to be a problem for the members. The church has therefore begun meeting in homes around town on Friday nights to make it easier for people to gather and study. There are currently 13 cell groups meeting, but they hope to have 20 meeting by the end of the year. The church has not appointed elders yet, but has elected a general ministry board to make decisions regarding the church and her ministries. No missionaries are on this board. Rather, it is composed completely of mature, national Christians who work diligently to serve the church. Further, Deron Smith is highly involved in discipling members of the congregation, studying with them and providing insight and training so that they, in turn, will have the knowledge to lead and to mentor other young Christians. This is a vibrant, growing, excited church, full of people just glad to know Jesus and be together.
2: Source Cafe: Through relationships with friends in town, the team unexpectedly gained ownership of a cafe. The current building is located on Main Street in the middle of town. The cafe is operated by members of the church, though jobs are not necessarily limited to church members. The cafe serves many typical Ugandan foods such as chipatis (a tortilla-like bread), and fried chicken, but they also serve their specialties like chicken kabobs and fried potatoes. It is one of the few places in town that sells ice cream. Richard, Idah, Irene, and several other women cook, serve, and run the cash register. There is also a small gift shop in the cafe that sells handmade cards, batik wall hangings, hand-woven cloth, and specialty desserts and coffees. The proceeds from the cafe go to pay employee salaries, purchase supplies, and to support the other ministries of the church.
3: Source of Life Resource Center: The resource center is housed in the same building as the cafe. It was begun with the idea of providing what the average person is looking for: not a church, but answers, ideas, help, and education. With this in mind, it is home to the only lending library in town, with both written materials and video services. English language classes, business training, and computer training are all provided. Members pay an annual fee, which goes to support the operation of the center and to support the other ministries of the church.
In June, the ministry board decided that the demand for computer training warranted a greater investment. Therefore, they have partnered with NCR, a company from Kampala that offers the best computer training available in the country. They are providing several computers, training materials, and course curriculum. Several of the employees at the center have been trained by NCR and will instruct the classes.
In addition to computer training, the resource center provides Internet access to the town. There are only three ISPs in all of Uganda. The main access is provided through an agency in Kampala. However, it requires a highly expensive long distance phone call to dial this ISP from anywhere else in the country. When the missionaries saw the inevitability of the Internet, they decided that, rather than waiting for someone else to bring it to Jinja, they would be the first to provide Internet access to the community and thus have some measure of control over its introduction to the culture. Further, they are able to provide this service to the community at a rate that many Ugandans can easily afford. They have now been contacted by World Bank International about providing Internet services to several of the schools in town.
Clint Davis is in charge of the town works. The Hardmans will assist him when they arrive in January. He is in the process of training several people to take over the accounting and business aspects of the cafe and resource center. They just hired a new full-time employee to assist in managing the accounts.
One of the most valuable aspects of the resource center is the role it plays in the life of the church. It has become a gathering place for Christians from across the country. It is a place where they can stop and know they will be welcomed, helped, and comfortable. The facility is also used for meetings, public service and leadership-training seminars, and worship on a regular basis. Previously, visitors to town were dependent upon the hospitality of the missionaries when they came to town. Now they have a place of their own to visit.
4: Media Services: A final area of development is in print and video services. When the missionaries first came to Jinja and began learning Lusoga, they realized that the language had no written materials. In fact, it was not written at all. Those who could read had to read Luganda, a similar language spoken by the neighboring Buganda peoples. The members of the team are the only Americans that speak this language. Consequently, as they learned the language they began to develop an English-Lusoga/Lusoga-English dictionary, to aid them in learning Lusoga. This has become a valuable tool for them and for those Basoga who are hoping to learn English. In addition, they have been instrumental in translating the Bible into Lusoga. The first Lusoga New Testament was published in 1998 by the Bible Society of Uganda. And, since there are no written materials in Lusoga, the team has undertaken to print several pamphlets on issues affecting Christians. These include Lusoga tracts on Acts, Sin Traps, In His Steps, Walk Through the Old Testament, Simple Weddings, and the church newsletter Mukago. The newsletter has become indispensable in keeping the church community connected. It is a way to remind local congregations that they are not isolated, to keep them informed of opportunities and projects, and to keep them accountable. Whenever a congregation is in default on a loan or has excelled in a particular area, it is published in the newsletter for all to see.
In addition to the print services, the missionaries have branched into the film making business. The Jesus film is commonly shown, but it is in Luganda, which is not understood by everyone. They therefore decided to produce a Lusoga film. The first movie ever made in Lusoga was The Death of Samuel Tenwa, addressing many of the social problems facing Christians today. It is a cross between the Scrooge story and It's a Wonderful Life, and has had a wonderful reception. It was sent to Good News Productions in Nairobi for editing. Several months ago while visiting a village, Mark Moore was approached by several young children who hailed him as Arnold Schwarzenegger. He and the rest of the team realized that, although they did not like the idea, Hollywood was coming to Uganda, and it had a receptive audience in the large adolescent population. After this incident, the team decided that they should attempt to counter the negative influence of these films. They found it was just as cheap to purchase their own video and digital editing equipment as it was to have their movies edited by the professionals in Nairobi, as they had for the first film. Therefore, they have purchased the necessary equipment and are now outfitted to begin production of more Lusoga films.
Rural works:
As in the approach to urban work mentioned above, the team is striving to approach their rural ministry from a holistic point of view. The rural communities have different needs from those felt in town, and so, while many of their projects do overlap, they have branched into some slightly different areas in their village work.
1: Churches: There are currently 40 congregations meeting in the region. Early in their ministry, the team developed a system of classifying these churches into five maturity stages, ranging from a preaching point to an adult church. Currently, they are working with congregations in all of these stages. This summer, Nakalongo was the first of the adult churches to select elders. Several others are preparing to take that step. Meanwhile, the missionaries go daily to village churches to visit and teach. On Fridays, Sara Barton and Johnna Raymond go to the villages, teach the women different skills, and have Bible studies with them.
The most notable characteristic of these young Christians is their joy, excitement, and wonder at finding themselves redeemed. At one meeting in the village of Bulongo, Joshua decided that he wanted to be baptized. The entire congregation, led by Peter, Joshua's brother, accompanied him to the water hole, about a quarter mile away. The celebration of the group attracted many others in the village, who followed along in order to find out what was going on. After the baptism, the church returned, singing and clapping, to the mango tree where they met. The members stood in a circle, singing praises and laughing, while Peter and Joshua danced together in the middle, unable to contain their enthusiasm. These churches are thriving, and it is refreshing to see their zeal in worship.
2: BBS: The greatest felt need among local congregations is that of training. One year ago, Busoga Bible School began to meet this need. Classes are taught in Lusoga in one-week long intensive seminars, enabling people to attend the school without having to worry about providing for their families while they are away for an extended period of time. John Barton has developed the training curriculum for the school and served as the director during the first year, but a national director has been chosen to lead in the future. The school is an extension of the Nairobi Great Commission School in Kenya. In order to support the cost of the school, each attendee is required to pay an entrance fee. Also, the school has purchased a coffee plantation on the banks of the Nile to provide a source of income to support the school. The attendees will often go to classes all day, and spend the evenings working in the fields to assist in covering the costs. As a teaching tool and learning experience, the attendees of the school take faith trips once or twice a year. On these trips, team members and church leaders visit different areas of Uganda or other countries in order to see firsthand the blessings and wealth that the Busoga have. This experience serves to stretch the worldviews of these village men, who have often never been outside of the region and have little concept of life elsewhere.
3: Micro-loans and Micro-grants: micro-loans are loans of small amounts of money made to churches and communities in order to provide them with the capital to begin income-generating projects. The project is now under the direction of national leaders, and is progressing well. Micro-grants, or peace projects, are small grants made to fund development and evangelistic activities. In 1999-2000, these grants included mosquito nets, tree grants, child-safety stoves, and rabbit projects. In order to receive these grants, the recipients had to fill out applications, attend training, provide plans and/or supplies, and agree to use the product once it was supplied to them. In this manner, individuals and churches are provided opportunities and resources to improve their situations, but are still held accountable for how they use those resources.
4: Health Care: Two years ago, Dr. Mark Hall joined the Jinja team with the intention of working in preventative health care. The typical approach to providing preventative care is to train people to train people to train village health workers. However, in practice this approach rarely succeeds. Too often, the system breaks down before anyone has been trained to do any actual work. Mark has decided to avoid this downfall by directly training village health workers who will go out and work in their villages. To that end, he is currently training three people in the village of Budoola: James, Margaret, and George. All three are mature members of the church, respected leaders in their community, educated, and English-speakers. Mark's primary emphasis at the moment is on educating them about the germ theory of disease and on training them to identify several common diseases and their symptoms. He hopes to reach the point where these three will be able to gather information on the immunizations the people in their villages have had, to keep this information up to date, and to provide basic immunizations to the community. The idea is that the church will be used as the vehicle by which this information is gathered and vaccinations are dispensed. Mark is also working on providing these villages with a clean water supply by protecting their water sources. A vast majority of diseases are caused by drinking dirty water. In early June, George's village located the head of the stream which supplies their water. They cleared the area and contributed to the cost of building a protective shelter. Mark assisted them in building a concrete shelter over the spring, protecting the water from animals, disease, and general contamination. They also directed the water out of two pipes, rather than letting it flow across the ground. This makes it much easier for the women to gather water, as they only have to place their jugs under the spout to gain water, rather than having to scoop it out of the muddy streambed.
Aside from his work in training village health workers, Mark is involved in curative medicine. Though he does not have an official clinic in town, he provides medical services to those who come to his door. He can usually be found under the mango tree in his front yard, examining his friends and acquaintances. He also assists in relief work. There are numerous refugee camps in the northern and western regions of the country where people have fled with nothing, and many of these refugees are in serious need of medical attention. Mark does what he can to meet their needs and the everyday medical needs of the people he comes in contact with every day.
Conclusion: Tusangaire. Tusangairinho. Tusangaire okubabona. John Barton once asked us what reaction we got when we replied to these words of greeting with the proper Lusoga response. More often than not, the Musoga we were greeting would break into a huge, toothy grin, laughing in surprise, happily caught off guard. Of all the responses we could have made, the proper one was least expected. And how they would laugh. Just as Abraham and Sarah laughed when they were told they were to have a child. Just as the psalmist in Psalm 126 laughed at returning to Jerusalem. Just as the woman in Proverbs 31 laughed at the future. Just as numerous people throughout history must have chuckled at God's goodness. Not a laughter of derision, but of surprise, of joy at encountering the unexpected in life, in our God. For God is truly unexpected, and He longs to surprise us with His goodness. Before we left this summer, John challenged us to live lives full of laughter, anticipating the future God has in store for us, thrilled with the present He has blessed us with.
This mentality characterizes the members of the Jinja team. They live each day, hoping to be astounded by God, hoping to be co-conspirators with Him in His work. A ministry can be no more alive than the people who are behind it. The work in Jinja is firmly based on a living, exciting God. It is led by men and women who thrill to His voice. And consequently, it is thriving. What else is to be expected from people who greet their God every morning with We are glad, We are very glad, We are very glad to see You.
Bibliography - Barton, John. A Team Proposal for Development. Jan 1996. Unpublished.
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- Jinja Mission Team: Rural and Urban Ministry Efforts. Jinja missionaries. June 2000. Unpublished.
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- Serving with the Poor in Africa: Cases in Holistic Ministry. Monrovia, CA: MARC Publications, 1996.
Monrovia, CA: MARC Publications, 1996.
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