Rainy Season

It’s June now and dry season, (HOT and dry has begun). Rainy season this
year was short lived so we are back to soaking the gardens daily to keep the soil from hardening like cracked pavement.

When our partner Moses wanted to be more consistent in his walks AND he also
wanted to raise funds for Phase 2 for a Children’s Hall at his church plant in Buloba, we suggested we could combine two desires. Our daily walks, in preparation for our fundraising “Walkathon” event now begin predawn trying to finish our workouts in the cooler morning temps under the beautiful star lit sky.
Physical training for an event like this is something unheard of in western Uganda. People here work the soil daily and it’s hard work . They often walk 4-6 miles each way to their farms. They call it “Digging” which means hoeing, planting and harvesting the land. So it’s not like they don’t exercise.
They work hard to feed their families, to build or repair a home or pay their kids
school tuition…..not because they are fitness nuts like we are in the states.
The idea of something like a walk-a-thon isn’t something they can wrap their heads around!

Moses had participated in some 5k runs but nothing like a walk-a-thon. Pledging money is normal for weddings or burial expenses. But pledging to support a cause was unusual. Both Sarah and Moses were willing to give it a try so Paul and I took up the idea and the four of us have been faithful to stick with our training plan for the last 3 months. Next week we’ll test ourselves (along with a number of students and villagers) at the 1st Annual Walk & Not Faint 20k/15k Challenge!
Along with increased endurance and strength for our bodies, we’ve seen additional benefits. Paul and I have both lost some weight, gotten stronger, and we’ve had more time to invest in our friendship with Moses and Sarah. At times the walks have also allowed each couple to have “date” time away from the distractions and interruptions of life in a small village…………….especially a pastors life!

Our physical training also provided analogies for life here. The Bible verse “….let us run the race with perseverance, the race marked out for us”, (Hebrews 12:1b) has challenged us to focus our ministry goals too. God has set many courses for us over the years but has a specific course for us to “run” here. In sync with these goals, we’ve just wrapped up 3-modules of training in Kiburara. Teaching leaders Inductive Bible Study over the last 9-months. Like our physical training, this required endurance and focus.

Our leaders were excited to find they could learn so much from the scriptures with the right tools. Our discussions went deep and we learned a lot as we saw
how the people in the Bible dealt with some tough situations, cultural
craziness in the times they lived. The political and culture wars of our day pale in comparison to theirs!
During our final study of the Book of James, we began to visit home group meetings to see how they were understanding and incorporating the training.….so we held our breath in anticipation. The first home meeting, lead by Medius, was a group of mostly mothers and children. We met on the dirt patch in front of a small four room mud home, on chairs, benches and blankets. Worship and prayer were lively and expressive, with an accompanying drum to help keep the rhythm. Many in the group couldn’t read (just like in the early church), so Medius did an excellent job of investigating and sharing the “context” from her reading of the scripture (Who
wrote it? When? Why it was important to the church receiving the letter, etc.).

Here in Kiburara, there’s a genuine desire to apply what the Bible says, but if we don’t
understand the setting, background or culture at that time, things can easily be
misapplied. Context information is key to correctly discerning meaning and application of any text, even the newspaper.
This is especially true when we live thousands of years after the original text
was written……in completely different cultures!
As we visited the home meetings, we saw each leader own style shone through, and
we could see the four tools of context, observation, meaning then application
were being used. All the groups had good discussions and the group was interested to learn more from the Word! At our final leaders training, Medius (the first group we visited) told us that a number of neighbors, not part of the church, had begun attending their outdoor meetings because they were so interested. The churches they attend don’t encourage reading the Bible. One neighbors even volunteered to host the group so she could invite more of her friends to come! They had never heard the Bible explained in plain language, simple enough to understand, and then a discussion seeing new things!

Amazing how God will get His message out right?? Paul uses the same inductive method of study to prepare his Sunday Bible studies and we’ve also seen a ‘trickle down’ as other teachers are making context the first part of their sermons or teaching. What a difference that makes as the whole church benefits more and more as the congregation is engaging with scripture in a deeper way.

As God has woven our bible study training into our more recent 20k training, He’s
helped us fix our eyes on the goal. The Walk & Not Faint Challenge adopted the title
from Isaiah 40:31 “….they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”

Since last September, we, at times have felt weary or weak. We’d set goals but wondered if there’d be measurable results from our investment. Per usual though, God has taken our small investment and used it to create something good!
The “Lord’s Ask” for all of us is that we remain faithful and committed to the process,
then trust Him for the results. Ultimately He is both the race designer and the coach
running beside us to the finish line. We continue to pray that more and more will come to know Christ as Savior, enter the race and in the end, cross the finish line with us.

Your support is so important to our finishing well! Blessed to be ‘running the race marked out for us’!
Paul & Mary