Report from Ernie Bayton on this year’s conference including the Children’s Holiday Club and Bible College Modules:
We are grateful to the Lord for the blessing resulting from this year’s visit to Luwero, Uganda to speak at the annual Pastor and Church Leader’s Conference. In parallel with the Conference a Children’s Holiday Club and training modules for the International Christian College, Uganda (ICCU) were taught. It was a busy week and there are reports of people making first-time commitments to Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour, people being strengthened and helped in their Christian faith and healing and reconciliation taking place between some who had been in dispute with others.
The five-day residential Pastor’s Conference adopted the theme ‘Preparation and Establishment in Ministry’. Throughout the week my colleague Stuart Smith and I covered 22 of our planned 24 sessions. Fifteen sessions of teaching from John 1-12 (The Public Ministry of Jesus) shared between Stuart and myself were taught in addition to which Stuart addressed the subject ‘Build your Church’ focusing upon the Church at Antioch, and I delivered a series on ‘Elijah’, as he met God, the enemy, himself and eternity. Notes outlining the week’s teaching in both English and Luganda were distributed to all delegates as well as Bibles being issued. The outline teaching notes are an important part of our strategy in that, having taught the sessions and armed pastors with outline notes, they are empowered to go and teach others (2 Tim 2:2). In addition to the plenary sessions, workshops, some individual counseling and other activities took place. All teaching was translated into Luganda. Other speakers came from Kenya and Tanzania. Some 350 delegates registered at the conference. Children from the Holiday Club joined the conference one day to show some of the things they had learnt during the week.
During the week three modules were taught to 28 students who attended ICCU. The modules related to the Trinity, Christian Leadership, and World Religions and Early Church History. The students (some pictured below) had previously undertaken, at weekends throughout the year, nine other modules in the same programme devised by the Dochas Trust. They have now completed all 12 modules. Previously all modules had been taught by UK/USA visitors but this cohort of students was taught by local African teachers using the material handed over to them. It realised one of our core aims that, having been trained and provided with the resources, Africans would teach Africans. Other potential modules from various Bible Colleges, etc. are being considered for developing the range of modules available for teaching at ICCU.
Each day (Monday to Friday) a daily average of 500 children attended the Children’s Holiday Club which ran between 9.00 am and 2.00 pm. The programme, led entirely by Ugandan young people, included numerous activities such as singing, games, sports, Bible stories, memory verses, crafts, bouncy castles and refreshment breaks. Children were divided into groups which rotated during the day allowing the children to participate in the various activities. Some children made professions of faith.
Other parts of the project – the church, schools (kindergarten, primary and secondary) which, in total, have approximately 800 pupils currently in attendance, clinic, farm, and orphanage continue to develop. On the final Saturday of our visit, time was spent at the farm, some 220 acres purchased two years ago. It is developing well. See the August newsletter for more details.