Button, Dan & Rosie, Uganda
Prayer Update June 2007
Dear Everyone,
Thank you for your prayers over the last month. It has been quite an eventful month with a lot of comings and goings. The university term has started and so the campus is busy with life again after a short break.
Prayer Requests:
Please pray for the Theology lecturers, especially those teaching the big new first year class. So far the increased number seems to be manageable and all is going well.
Pray for the decision about the replacement for Alfred Olwa as Dean, which will be made soon we hope.
As I write Dan is away in the US at a conference he was invited to attend on behalf of a university discussion forum he is involved in, on Science and Religion. We are thankful for this opportunity for him and look forward to his safe return on 9th June!
Pray for my “Women in Ministry” fellowship as we meet this term – that the sessions would both be enjoyable, refreshing and supportive for the women, and also would help equip them for their future roles in the church.
Pray for our discipleship groups. We have Peter Ackroyd here with his family (on sabbatical from England) for a few more weeks and he is helping lead my group, taking them through Titus, which is wonderful. Pray that these times would be very upbuilding for the students spiritually, especially as for about half the group this is their final term here and they will be heading out to their various ministries at the end of August.
Our final year degree students have a heavy schedule of lectures this term and are completing dissertations too. They don’t have much room to work in their small bedrooms and there is competition for the seats in the library and computer room – please pray for them especially to be able to get everything done in spite of the various obstacles they struggle with.
Abigail and Alex continue to be very well and happy. Please pray as always for their health and for safety as we drive to school.
Highlights:
Dan was invited to preach at St Johns church, Kiwoko, where there is a large mission hospital (its story is told in the book “The Man with the Key is Gone.”) Dan preached at the long Luganda service (being translated by our student Paul Kakooza), and then at the English service. We all went and took the opportunity to stay overnight with friends who we studied with at All Nations, Ken and Judith Finch, who work at the hospital there. It was great to see old friends again. The services were lovely. The church is fairly rickety with lots of missing panes so there were swallows flying round overhead the whole time, and the African singing was accompanied by drums. Although still studying this term, Paul had done his placement there during the September semester last year, and apparently had done quite a bit towards building up the church in a short space of time. It was very heartening for us to see again fruitful ministry being done by one of our students, - we find it a great encouragement in our work. Paul hopes that maybe his bishop will post him there after his graduation later this year. On the way back we visited Paul’s mother in their mud hut home and prayed for her as she has a heart condition which seems to be getting worse. She is still relatively young but has been too weak and unwell to walk to church for the last few months. Having been struck once again, on arrival in their village, by the little that our students’ families have, we left laden with a huge bunch of matooke and a live chicken given to the children. We never get over this, the love of people who have so little materially but are so generous. Abby and Alex loved the chicken and wanted to keep it as a pet… sadly for them and the chicken, it is now in the freezer…
Another highlight this month was my adventure up Mt Elgon. With three other friends I had the chance to hike up this mountain and we all made it to the summit at 4,321 m. It took three days and was quite a trek! But it was beautiful and I enjoyed seeing a new part of Uganda with amazingly different plant life (including Giant Groundsel and Elgon Lobelia), and stunning views. We all felt the altitude to some extent, with a bit of dizziness and on my part shortness of breath (!), but it is not a serious problem there. We didn’t see any other people except for our guides over the whole three days. It was a very refreshing time (mentally at least) of fun and friendship. It was also a great time for Dan and the children of course - as they looked after each other perfectly well without me!
We hope that things are going well for you and we thank God for you and your prayers.
With our love and best wishes,
Rosie Dan Abigail and Alex.
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