Button, Dan & Rosie, Uganda
Prayer Update September 2005
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At the wedding (see below)
Click on any picture to enlarge |
Dear Everyone,
Sorry we are sending out our bulletin a few days late this time. Thank you for your continued prayers, and financial support. We are very grateful to you for it all, and we depend on you – so, thank you!!
It has been another busy month – with much to thank God for and some prayer needs as well:
Looking back:
The Crosslinks team from Ireland evidently had a wonderful as well as challenging time on outreach in Western Uganda. We were grateful to Off Tu mission for taking very good care of them and giving them this experience. They spoke at many schools and villages, and they were very positive about their time here. We enjoyed hosting them at the university and they left in good spirits, promising to come back again! We thank God for their safety and for the opportunities they had to share their faith, and to learn from Uganda.
The students survived exam week and then travelled home at the end of the month. We have heard from some by phone or email, which is encouraging. The Theology students will be back in January for their next semester – this semester, from September to December, they will all be doing placements in local churches. Please pray for them as they do these placements, that it will be a very useful and fruitful time for them and the churches.
We had a most enjoyable and interesting time at Patience’s wedding in her home village, in an area called Rukungiri in the far south-west of Uganda. It is a beautiful mountainous green part of the country. We were as they say here “deep” in the village, ie quite far off the nearest tarmac road! Since we arrived after dark on the Friday evening it was an adventure finding the place. Patience had asked us to host a couple she knows from England, who had come to attend the wedding, so they travelled with us. We all stayed in her neighbour’s compound, which has solar power, so we were spoiled in that respect! There was a big, delicious meal on the Friday night, of chicken (one was killed especially for us then, but many more the next day for the wedding lunch – twenty, in fact) and matooke (the banana staple), millet porridge, cabbage, red beans, small green aubergines, rice, peanut sauce, - with watermelon and pineapple as dessert. We were amazed watching the preparations, all very organized – about one thousand guests were expected on the Saturday, so on the Friday night the people doing the catering worked through the night, killing and cutting up ten cows, several goats as well as the aforementioned chickens, chopping enormous panfuls (four foot in diameter) of potatoes, onions, tomatoes, and cabbage, and preparing bunches and bunches of green matooke – two vast vats of it were steamed on the Saturday morning.
All this took place in the rather muddy yard behind Patience’s parents’ house, and the cooking was done over charcoal fires. A carved-out tree log was in the yard, empty now but it had been used to make a local drink out of millet. We drank some but it has quite an unusual taste if you haven’t been brought up on it! The “wedding” was actually a traditional ceremony called a “Give Away” which is followed by the wedding the next day. It took place on the Saturday afternoon, in an open grassy space on a hillside – such a beautiful setting. (There were marquees and microphones and amplified music – so it wasn’t wholly traditional.) At the Give Away, the two families meet and sit opposite each other, with many other members of the community all around, and the head of the bride’s family formally gives her to the family of the groom. (This has been preceded by the payment of bride-price after much negotiation.) It was very touching and a bit sad in a way. The children of Patience’s family sang a plaintive, traditional song about how they had asked each family member if Patience could leave to get married, and each had said they didn’t want her to leave, but if she must get married then they would let her go. Poor Patience cried through the whole song! Patience and her bridesmaids were in traditional flowing dresses and looked beautiful. There were many speeches in their language Rukiga, so we just got the gist of much of it, but it was very special to be part of it. I also attended her church wedding, in All Saints Cathedral in Kampala the next weekend. It was interesting to see the same bridesmaids and friends and relations, many now in western dress and in such a different setting! Patience and her husband Luke now live near Kampala but she will continue to lecture here, which we are glad about! Do pray for her and Luke as they begin married life.
We have had some new arrivals recently, come to teach at the university. One is a young woman called Brooke, from Arizona, who has come to work with the students across the university who live on campus, and she will also be tutoring in the Theology department. Also a couple called CV and Ammu Matthew, from Kerala in southern India. CV will be lecturing in the Theology Dept and also teaching the core course “Forming a Christian Worldview” which every student has to take – this will be a huge help and we have been looking forward to their arrival. They stayed with us for a few days at first and I introduced them to the markets and shops – it has been interesting seeing Uganda through the eyes of a different culture to my own. Please pray for them as they adjust and settle here.
We had our annual Graduation last Friday. It was lovely to see our students once again who left in May, although the proceedings didn’t leave much time for actually talking to each other! It is a great day of rejoicing for these students, most of whom have struggled to find the fees and to support their families and live during the three years of study. With only a very few universities in the country, it is a real achievement for them to have attained a degree. So it is always a happy, if long and hot day!
Abigail and Alex have gone back to school and are very happy, thankfully. Abigail is now at school until three o’clock each day. She is coping with the longer day very well, and even asked if she could go on Saturday! She loves her teacher, Lizzie Malcolm (from England) whom some of you know I believe. So that is a real answer to prayer. Alex is now at the same school, in kindergarten, for four mornings a week. He is also enjoying it and says “I love school!” Alex has started asking deep and meaningful questions such as “How do people make cars?” and “Does God know what we are going to say?” and the most tricky one “Do flies have ears?” (Any answers?!!)
Looking forward:
As I mentioned above, this term we have no Theology students here as they are all on placement. We could well still be involved with teaching the core courses which all students take, but we have decided to take some time to make a “homeleave” visit to the US. We haven’t visited America since Abigail was a baby, five years ago (though we have seen Dan’s parents several times since then.) As well as seeing family, we plan to visit some churches and hope to link up with one which can be a church base for us there. (We will take the rest of our
home-leave next year in England – we decided to visit the two countries separately as otherwise it is an exhausting undertaking for the family!) We are not leaving here until late October, but would value your prayers now as we plan the trip and make contact with people we hope to see.
Dan is still in the middle of making the timetable for the term which is about to begin. It is a huge and complicated job. Please pray for him as he has had many short nights recently - for rest and refreshment when it is done!
Up until we leave we will still be involved in preaching, teaching Sunday school, children’s library, and the various other commitments we have.
Please continue to pray for safety on the roads as I drive the children to school.
Thank you again for your prayers and interest. We hope you are all well. We hope to see those of you who read this in America in the not too distant future!
Rosie Dan Abigail and Alex.
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