A Visit to the Birthplace of AIDS - February 19, 2010
We are making a brief stop in Kyotera again, back from an early morning visit to the birthplace of the AIDS virus, a small fishing community on Lake Victoria called Kasensero (Kah-sin-say-ro). There is a potential partnership opportunity we were exploring there: a small church which is operating a school for several hundred children as well as running an aids clinic. As a fishing village, the community is mostly transient with very little health or educational infrastructure (the school we visited is one of two for the estimated 2,000 children in the village). 40% of the village population has AIDS. There are already connections between the people of Ddwaniro and the church in Kasensero, making it a natural possibility for expanding OJM's work. We'll see where the Lord leads. We will also be visiting a school in Masaka tomorrow on our way back to Kampala.
The Simply the Story training has gone phenomenally well. Braumell, the Kenyan leader of the training has said he's never been in a place as rural and with such a high percentage of illiteracy as Ddwaniro, which is exactly the type of place the oral evangelism training is designed for and it is exceeding all expectations. On the first day of training, he said an old man, 100% illiterate, heard a story read to him and within 10 minutes had memorized it and repeated it to the group perfectly. Braumell said he wanted to cry -- the program was working exactly as designed! Each day of training has had its own successes and overall, we are thrilled with the results. Also, because of the success here, STS has called down their translation facilitator, Jesse, who will run a clinic to begin working on narrating the film "The God Story" in the village languages found in Ddwaniro (Luganda, Rutooro and Ruyankole). This is an amazing partnership the Lord has brought together. I'm thankful for Ted Manning's work on behalf of OJM to facilitate it.
We have our final two meetings today, the Education Sub-committee and the General Board. Paul and I have made it through all the current proposals, made revisions and action steps and work is moving forward. There is much to do, which is evidence of the growth of the community. Each success brings new capacity-building and development challenges -- signs of progress.
John and Kelly are well, though they've each had to deal with stomach "issues" (thankfully, I have been clear so far). They have been awesome assistants, learning the language, loving the people, doing computer and health training, and assisting me where needed. Yesterday, they did the bulk of the processing of 398 PenPal students, a seven hour job in a hot little office.
Tonight we "rest" a bit and tomorrow we leave for Kampala early in the morning. We will visit with Sharon and Michael Mbabazi, family friends of mine in the city, and then head to Paul's. Sunday morning I'm preaching at the morning service at Glory of Christ Kampala (the service begins at 6:30 AM!), then we will do a bit of souvenir shopping and board our flight home in the evening. Please keep up the prayers, especially for the community as they continue the work after our departure.
I may be able to post one last summary before heading for the States.