John Patterson - Uganda |
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Prayer Letter April 2008
Dear Friends,
Hello again. I have spent most of the last week doing a round trip to Kabale in southern Uganda on TEE business. The trip was fine, and it’s nice to be back home again. Here in Hoima I rarely put a sweater on, but the cooler temperature of Kabale, sometimes called ‘Little Switzerland’, needed both sweater and jacket one evening. My reading during about twenty hours of travel on public transport was Frederick Forsyth, to whom I am relatively new, but I am not surprised that so many of his books have become best-sellers. I was so engrossed in ‘Avenger’ that we were almost home before I realized we were anywhere near Hoima.
Talking of TEE, the end of the road is in sight. Our ten remaining students are now working on their final assignments. They sit their last exams in August and, barring any failures, will then have finished. I am grateful that we have got this far and pray for a good finish.
I mentioned last time that, with the end of TEE on the horizon, I was wondering how best to use the final year or so that remains of my time here. I also mentioned that I was interested in helping to form a development plan for the Diocesan Training Centre (DTC). I will write about this at some length this time so that you have the background.
The bread-and-butter work of the DTC is the training of Lay Readers (still called that here rather than just ‘Readers’). A parish here might easily have fifteen or more smaller churches within it. The Lay Readers, after two years’ training, will go and be responsible for running many of these churches. The diocese commissions about twenty Lay Readers a year, and they form a key layer of church leadership.
The DTC has a spacious site in a quiet, leafy corner about two hundred yards from the cathedral. Some of its buildings are fairly recent. Other parts of it, however, such as the main administration block, are in poor condition and probably not worth repairing. It is also short of some facilities, for example accommodation for women, and classrooms. I asked the Bishop if I could be involved in forming, with others, a development plan for it and he has agreed.
The Diocese is short of clergy, and with the funds available, can only afford to send a limited number of ordinands away for residential training. So, in addition to the ongoing work of training Lay Readers, the Bishop wants facilities where he can also run three-year residential training courses for ordinands. The idea is that, as those training to be Lay Readers leave for their holidays, those selected as ordinands would come for their courses, and this alternating programme would be called upon whenever the clergy numbers needed boosting.
It is an exciting and challenging opportunity, and the Bishop’s plans for the DTC are more ambitious than I expected. The first step will be to review the suitability of the present facilities and decide what is satisfactory, what can be improved, what should be replaced and what should be added. After that we need to decide the order in which the work should be done. Once the first two steps have been taken, and the final plan has been agreed by the Bishop, I think we could reasonably seek funds from potential donors. The plan would then be implemented stage by stage as money became available. The building might take several years to complete, but that would not matter once the plan was in place. I am grateful that Crosslinks has approved this change of focus for me as TEE comes to an end.
Please pray that God will lead us step by step. The DTC has a Board of Governors and their input and cooperation will be essential. As a project within a project, I hope to be able soon to begin buying new books for the library with money already donated.
Now to other things. I am due to arrive in the UK for leave on 4 June, returning to Uganda on 3 July. I hope to spend time in Buckinghamshire, London, Cheshire and Crosby. I look forward to being at the morning service at St. Anne’s Church, Aigburth, Liverpool, on 22 June, and at the evening service (6.30pm.) at Moor Lane Methodist Church, Crosby, on the A565 Liverpool to Southport Road, right on the corner of where I used to live at Moor Coppice, on the same day. It will be a pleasure if you can come too. While on the subject of visits I am delighted that Darren and Jennie plan to visit me here in Uganda in January 2009. I am also starting to think about what I should do when my time here is finished and value your prayers for that. Although I will have completed the years needed for a full church pension by the time I finish this assignment, (with some leave added on), I will need to work for a further three years after that before I can draw the pension at 65. Wisdom, please, and your ideas and suggestions are welcome.
In my last letter I asked your prayers for Kenya. It is a relief that the situation there has cooled down. Please pray that the issue of disputed election results will be solved peacefully and that in the meantime new power-sharing arrangements will work satisfactorily.
I hope that your receipt of this prayer-letter works well. I am grateful to Crosslinks for printing it and to Mrs. Marian Palin for distributing most of the copies. Thanks also to those of you who make a point of responding. If you have any requests concerning its distribution, please contact Marian at 141 Brownmoor Lane, Crosby, Liverpool L23 9SF. Tel. 0151 931 1669. This one has come a shade earlier than usual so that I can give you information about my time in the UK.
The small local church that I attend when I have free Sundays is called St. Luke’s Hospital Chapel, so called because it serves the local hospital as well as the local community. We begin our first Alpha course later this week. Although we will be well into it by the time you receive this letter it runs till 27 June. I hope that it will go well and that the church leadership will get a taste for using the course regularly. Take-up of the courses across the diocese has been slow, and I hope we can find the reason for that and put it right. I am grateful that the cost of printed Alpha materials is much lower than it was and we press on with trying to get the key materials translated into Runyoro.
I continue to enjoy my time at the local Teacher Training College, and mounting a Confirmation course and service will be one of the tasks in the later part of the year.
I look forward to seeing some of you before the next letter is due. Thank you again for your support.
God bless,
John
For Thanks
- The Sherlock family have settled well nearby
- For continued safety and good health
- For a more peaceful atmosphere in Kenya
- For the help of Vincent, who stays with me
- For a positive response from the Bishop about the DTC.
For Prayer
- For greater uptake of Alpha, and our own course
- For continued safety and good health
- For the students, & Confirmation course at Bulera
- For spiritual fruitfulness
- For progress with the DTC Development Plan,including the library