Dan and Rosie Button - Uganda |
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Prayer Update May 2008
Dear Everyone,
With the university term ending mid-April, this has been a month of hospitality and farewells. We had a lovely group of students, whom we had grown quite close to, over for supper, to talk and pray with them before they left: an Ethiopian couple, Nebiyou and Hewan, a Malawian called Hillary Jaffu, and Shearsby from Zimbabwe. We talked about their future ministries in Egypt, Malawi and South Africa, about the future for Africa, about Christianity being the only hope for Africa, and about the great need for clergy to be teaching the people in a deep way from the Bible, and modeling lives of integrity and true faith in action, not just a veneer of Christianity over a system of cultural values and traditions. Do please pray for Nebiyou and Hewan especially. Nebiyou is apparently the first Ethiopian Anglican ever to be ordained. They are going to be pastoring the English-speaking church in Cairo. (Egypt and Ethiopia are part of one (geographically) huge diocese). They will be working mostly with ex-pats, in a mainly Muslim country, having to learn Arabic as well as work mainly in English (Hewan came here three years ago not knowing any at all, and has done amazingly well learning it here in that time.) Please pray that they will settle quickly when they move in June, that they will make friends and gather a support system quickly, manage the languages, and that God will bless their ministry there. Please also pray for Shearsby’s family as they move to South Africa later this month. He has already started in his new parish there at the beginning of May. They don’t face as many challenges as Nebiyou and Hewan, but do pray for their settling in and their new work. Hillary is going back to his diocese in Malawi, where they are having difficulty with the election of a new bishop, so he does not yet know where he will be posted.
We also entertained another very international group who are connected to our US mission, Global Teams. They were using UCU as a base for a meeting of their Africa country leaders, and so they came for a meal with us – eleven clergy from Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Congo, Ethiopia, Rwanda, and the American GT director Kevin Higgins. Large amounts of beef, rice, pumpkin and green beans followed by pineapple and cake were put away, and there was a great deal of laughing, joking, comparing food cultures, and some serious talk as well about mission being done by Africans to other parts of Africa and elsewhere. It was good fun and also very uplifting to see this group of dynamic and godly men and women involved in and passionate for mission. It was an encouraging reminder to me that God is doing His work here, in His way, even though the news from Africa is sometimes more on the negative side...
We had a farewell for the group of American students who come every term for a “semester abroad”. This term one stream of these, a group of twelve, did a purely missions track, - they stayed with local Ugandan families for the whole three months they were here, and Dan and I co-taught them a “Foundations of Missions” course.
We also loved having to stay for a few days an English CMS couple who work with Bishop Joel in Arua (in northwestern Uganda). Allan Lacey partly teaches Theology at one of the regional colleges linked to UCU, called St Pauls, Ringli. Ann is a nurse tutor at Kuluva Hospital. They were here for some workshops, and some UCU business, as well as some Kampala shopping.
Although for the second half of this month the students have been away, we have not seen much of a change of pace. In fact for Dan it has been busy as his Foundation Studies department has had to compile and distribute exam and coursework marks for several thousand students, organise lecturers and tutorials for next term, interview and hire new tutors, and revise and get printed hundreds of workbooks for next term. He has an excellent administrator called Amos Turyahabwe, who is a good friend of ours. Dan is hoping to hand over more of the responsibility for the department to him over the coming term, which would be a great thing to pray for.
Abigail and Alex are both well and enjoying life as ever. Please continue to pray for their health and for safety traveling to school, and for patience for me as the traffic continues to get worse!
Thank you for your prayers. Just to let you know a great answer to prayer from last time – the university was given a waiver for the new tax that had been threatened – that came as a huge relief.
With our love and prayers,
Rosie Dan Abigail and Alex.