May Update, Pallisa Training

Dear Friends and Family!

Well this time being away from home has been a wonderful lesson of how God goes before and prepares the way! Moses says in Deuteronomy 31:8, “Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the LORD will personally go ahead of you. He will be with you; he will neither fail you nor abandon you." (NLT) He definitely has gone before us in preparing the way for our training. We had a successful TOT1 for the past 5 days, in a place called Pallisa, which is found in the North Eastern part of Uganda. For those who may not know what TOT1 means, it stands for Trainers in Training, and 1 meaning it’s the first training we had with this group. We normally like to do 4 trainings to get through all the lessons we think are necessary for them to be officially trained in CHE.

Trainees meeting to discuss issues in their communities!

This is the vehicle we used to get there and the training was done in the building just to the left!

Me teaching a lesson on different roles of the CHE Committee

Some very special to CHE is that we as teachers/ facilitators must sit! Because we want to be on the same basis as the learners! Because we want everyone to be on the same level and also, we are all there to learn from each other!! I like this ALOT!

I want to share a few of the things that Jesus blessed me with through this experience. This was not my first training but it was here in Uganda. I felt so encouraged with the participation of our trainees. They were very excited about the training because many of the participants were anxious to learn the lessons we had prepared and many were just curious because they did not know very much about what CHE stood for in the first place. It took awhile at first for them to get going but we think they caught on and were getting the point of the training. One of the main points we hope we were able to get across was we want them to be doing development and investing into people lives. We desire for them to pursue spiritual growth and not just physical. After the training, I think it is easy for them to point out the ways that they need to grow physically, maybe health wise, in sanitation and hygiene, because the people here have many needs. But when you think about helping them spiritually there are many things that may discourage someone from sharing with others about what following Jesus means and looks like. At the end of the training, we believe they understood what the point was for us to come, but now the implementation is what we will wait to see. Some of the trainees were pastors so they were already involved in encouraging people in their walk with the Lord, but others we weren’t sure where they were in following the Lord. So please pray for this group of 25. They were fun to be with and I had a wonderful time getting to know them!

The classroom we met in and some of the attendants!

Some of the attendants to the training!

The Groups combined list of all the attributes of what a good trainer should do!!! They are pretty good at writing their own ministry description :)

One of the other facilitators, I call her my Aunt Beth Muehleisen. I enjoyed getting to be with her and her husband, Uncle John. They are great people to learn from and work beside :)

I want to share about a one of the lessons we taught during our training that seemed very impactful. Its main purpose was aiming to show them that their reliance on outside help was not helping them permanently, but instead was crippling them. So we used the story involving three people, an outsider visiting the village, and two villagers, to teach them this lesson. We had them act out the drama. So it starts out with the outsider and the villager crossing the river. In our imitation of this drama, we had the people imagine that the road was the river. 

The villagers knew some of the rocks to step on but needed the help of the outsider to attempt to even cross the river. So the outsider together with the first village man worked on crossing the river and together made it to the island in the river. Then the outsider went back and showed the second man how to walk across. 

We see that all three made it to the island. Then from the island the outsider took the first man and went the rest of the way to the other side. 

The outsider once reaching the other side of the river then left the villager to help his friend to get safely to the other side safely. Once they both reached the other side they were very happy. The man that the outsider taught first was happy because he now had the confidence to go across himself and show others now that he could do it himself. So slowly this man was empowered and many more were then able to cross the river without drowning. And the outsider left this community and moved on to another to help more people.

This is a simple story but it does not only pertain to them physically, it can also be used to reach them spiritually. The outsider can come in and share how to lead people to Christ, and many will come to know Him, but then the local people are able to go out themselves and be teachers and preachers of the Word! Just this simple act of teaching and empowering gives the people so much more faith and are then able to go out and do it themselves.

Uganda is a very blessed nation is so many ways!!! As you can see it is very lush!!! The colors are so vibrant and I just love to  see how well they keep their gardens!!

Some more of our attendees, just a wonderful group discussing on ways to help their communities!!!

A sweet boy who was around during the training!!

One of the trainees, a lady brought her little boy! he was a joy to see everyday! Just a delight!!! His smile would light up the room even when he was sleeping :)

I think he just woke up from a nap but look at his sweet eyes and smile :)

This sweet lady was a blessing to all of us, she was one of the cooks and had previously not been a Christian before helping us with the food for the training. On the Sunday Morning service she came up and asked if she could give her life to Jesus! Precious lady! We praise Jesus her soul has been saved!! In the picture she is cleaning through the rice! that is what she is flipping in the air, with such ease :)
 

I cannot thank you enough for all your prayers in lifting us up this week. We definitely appreciate them and most of all we thank Jesus for all the ways he helped us trainers through this time. He is such a faithful Father in going before us and preparing the Way! I pray you know He is using you in whatever aspect of work you are in! I am thankful he chose to use

me here in Uganda!