|
| |
Reports
from Friends and Volunteers in 2009
June 10
Ian is writing up his travelogue from his journeys through Southern Africa.
These are not a report on his work, but just a review of his adventures. The
first part is below - if
you're interested in reading the second part, you can
download the pdf here
June 2010 Prosper's Opportunity
Prosper has had the opportunity to go down to do a short volunteer contract
with Viva network in South Africa. He is involved with
a kids programme in the townships while the world cup is going on.
He writes:
"Its a holiday programme called '
Keep Them
Safe' for all children -
80 thousand are expected altogether. Its to take
place in 13 different townships. Hundreds of kids per project
are to be taken through different activities and
workshops in the four divisions
1. Culture and performing Arts
2. Art and crafts
3. Sports
4. Entrepreneurship .
I am kind of in a supervising role, so
I get to go around all the projects
(which are quite
far apart) ensuring that all is running smoothly. Some project
facilitators do not have prior experience in this sort of thing.
At the end of the month, the different projects will all come together
and compare the different creations. We will
also have a performing arts show off and presents awarded to the
best. I will also come in in the third week as a skilled facilitator in
different projects to assist them to polish up
their presentations for the final performances."
We are hoping he will be able to travel back
through Zimbabwe and follow up all our new contacts there from the
training Ian did.
Tuesday 18th May 10 - report on
minibus accident:
"Firstly all seem to be well. Ray has a bit of backache. I spoke to Carol
this morning and she is tired and resting but otherwise ok. Nelson is staying
with us till tomorrow when he will head back up to Kakumiro. He is ok. The wound
on his leg is quite minor and is healing well. He does not appear to have any
other ill effects (except tiredness).
The accident happened on a new piece of road not far out of Mbarara. They were
travelling on good straight tarmac in a steady line of traffic at around 80km
per hour (50 mph) They had recently stopped for a break and the bus seemed fine.
In a matter of seconds various things happened. The car behind started hooting.
Ray looked behind to see what was up and heard a noise as if they had been hit
from behind or a tyre had burst (neither had happened and the tyres all had
pressure even after the accident). The bus then seemed to swerve around and he
could not control the steering. It began to cross over the road and he had to
fight it back. It then seemed to lock up and turn about resulting in them
hitting the nearside bank and hedge pointing back the way they had been coming.
He reckons all this took place in a matter of 15 to 20 seconds.
He and Carol were belted in the front but Nelson was in the back unbelted and
sleeping. He was thrown out of the side window when the bus turned which is how
he damaged his leg. Fortunately he landed in soft mud and bush.
From those who saw it happen and from Rays point of view it would appear
something went wrong with one or both back wheels causing them to lock up thus
losing control. The bus had been fully serviced the day before they left for the
trip. It had been working fine in all respects. It is permanent 4WD so we are
wondering if this in some way malfunctioned. While up country they were mostly
on bad, muddy and rocky tracks (quite normal for here) but this could have put
a strain on components that broke when they got on to good road and picked up
speed.
The bus is damaged badly down the whole drivers side. It is hard to determine
what the next move is just yet. Ray is going to head back to Mbarara on Saturday
with our usual mechanic to see if he can firstly diagnose what went wrong and
also to give us an opinion of repairability."
Ian
April 10
Ian is writing up his travelogue from his journeys through Southern Africa.
These are not a report on his work, but just a review of his adventures. If
you're interested in reading this, you can
download the pdf here
Monday 15th March 10 - message
from Ian on his travels north
Hi,
Well I last emailed from Masvingo on my last day with Brett and Odette...
Took a ragged old bus from Masvingo to Bulawayo. Overloaded with everything and
stopping in every village it struggled its way through and disgorged us in a bus
yard way out of the city centre. With no idea of my bearings and needing to get
to the railway station to book my ticket..... the 1st people I stopped for
directions turned out to be youth from Bulawayo Baptist church who knew Asafa
(and the way to the station)
I got my ticket ($7 for an overnight sleeper) to Vic falls and then killed time
all afternoon exploring Bulawayo. I found an excellent Coffee Shop...
The train left on time and trundled through the hot night down to Vic Falls. I
slept pretty well and shared the compartment with a friendly Zimbabwean and an
equally friendly Zambian. The latter gave me vital onward travel info.
I met up with Brett and Odette's sister in law in Vic Falls and had a most
comfortable night in her thatched cottage with a sundowner trip to the boat club
beside the Zambezi.
I almost forgot: Vic Falls is INCREDIBLE. Just visit. I wont try to describe it.
The following day I took one of the worlds most spectacular border crossings
from Zim to Zam.......across the Zambezi gorge bridge with the spray from the
falls drifting across.
Polite and organised Zambia welcomed me. I spent a night at the backpackers then
yesterday took a new air conditioned bus up to Lusaka.
Lusaka is a useful truck stop. I am catching up on communication and have booked
an overnight bus tomorrow to Mpulungu (southern tip of lake Tanganyika). This
will get me there on Wednesday morning so I have a couple of days to sort out
the un-bookable ferry to Kigoma. I made a room booking just now in Mpulungu and
the lady on the phone seems to think getting a birth on the ferry "should be no
problem"!!!
Chat soon and if you want to call me try +260 964 139912
God bless
Ian
Tuesday 2nd March 10 -
message from Ian in Zimbabwe...........
I am having a very productive and interesting time here in
Harare. Not much time to explain a lot now so that may need to wait till I meet
up with Steve in Burundi in a couple of weeks. Arrived on Friday afternoon and
got stuck in straight away by meeting up with 2 youth groups at Central Baptist
Church. Then had an all day training in Foundations of Youth ministry with about
40 youth leaders from the various Baptist Churches from the greater Harare
district. This was very well received and it would appear from the feedback so
far that the training we are offering is both new and needed. Yesterday I got a
grand tour of the city (exhausting) then met the Central Baptist youth team for
an evening training session. In this time I did a focussed youth ministry clinic
looking at the issues/challenges they have with the work they are doing and
looking specifically at how to make their work more youth friendly. Central was
originally a traditional, conservative, white church. It is now about 80%
African but still has a fair amount of left over tradition. The encouraging
thing is the obvious desire to change and grow, especially noticeable when
talking with Asafa who is both pastor and president of the Baptist Union for
Zimbabwe. He and his family are hosting me.
Today I will be meeting with a group of seminary students
who are involved with youth ministry.
Jan 2010: A Small Rant from
Ian..................
Everyone comments on the road outside our house. Many
photos have been taken of it. Arguments have raged about it. Long and intense
discussions have taken place about it.
But it remains a muddy, wet, dirt track….
Well, remained! It has just gotten a whole lot worse. And
typically on a day when we had a team of guests arriving.
Mid afternoon I returned home from Entebbe to find multiple
piles of dirt, big ones, in regular heaps along the entire stretch outside our
compound, with our gate in the middle. An hour later I went out again, in our 4
wheel drive to pick up a group of guests.
On return we found that the heaps had been spread, not with
a grader, not with a roller, but with a small mechanical digger!!!
Even in 4WD and low ratio and diff lock……. We failed to get
through.
The neighbours delighted in seeing all the luggage being
heaved over the wall and a bedraggled group of bazungu (plural
for white people) getting
plastered in mud on their way into my house.
Today the boys have spent 5 hours with hoes and shovels
trying to sort the mess out. Result? Well almost…..I just about got in this
afternoon in 4WD and low ratio and diff lock…….Yup! An improvement!!
But now its raining………………………………..
|
A Day in the Life of Ian
Often I get asked “What is your typical day?” Amazing how my mind goes
blank and I mutter something about not having “typical” days. Not a good
answer.
I
guess the problem is, deep down, I only feel like I am doing our ‘real’
work when it is something that has appeared on the program on our
website and blog…..
So,
here is a real life, typical account of a day that never gets on to the
program:
06:15. Tumble out of bed, switch on computer and go to make coffee… It
is just getting light. The dawn chorus of tropical birds, FM radio,
Taxis and crying babies is just starting up outside. It is still cool
after a night of rain. Maybe more relevant to me at this point is that
it is early enough that the internet will give at least acceptable
speed. For the next couple of hours I will try and get up to date with
admin, general correspondence and attempt to get my sleepy brain around
different exchange rates as I check my accounts.
08:30. Shower and a quick breakfast. By 9am other YEA team members will
be invading the office, and my shower room is an annex to the office…….
09:00. Meetings with Collin (to make sure we both know whats happening
today) and Ray (to discuss the campsite) and Eugene (to discuss the
fundraising event) and I am ready to go out for the day.
10:00. First stop is to catch up with Prosper. The Coffee shop set up is
in full swing and we need to go through the accounts to make sure we are
sticking to budget and also decide what work to do next. This leads into
a rush to the bank to access money and to the paint store. By now I
realise I am getting late as the Kampala traffic makes ‘quick’ things
‘slow’.
12:00. Meeting with programme committee for Uganda Youth Forum to start
work on the plans for the January National conference.
13:30. Quick snack and read the local paper….
14:30. By now the heat is building and any sensible human would be
planning a siesta. Instead I am chairing a meeting for the UYF
conference. It is evident that we are all lethargic. We sluggishly
respond to the minutes of the previous meeting and try and get our
brains connected to the matters in hand. The ceiling fan is a multi
directional one. This means that every 30 seconds you get a little
respite of cool air. It then moves on to revive your neighbour. The
meeting ends at 16:00 hrs with a surprising amount planned, all things
considered.
16:00. Before leaving the UYF I have a brief meeting with the 1st
ladies PA. 10 minutes of discussion on how to set up national
consultation on youth issues. Something as potentially important as this
squashed into a sound byte. I go on my way with ideas buzzing in my
mind!
Not
the best time of day to cross town. Too much traffic and searing
afternoon sun. Stuck in the jam in Wandegeya my right arm and right side
of my face gets toasted. I am offered the usual intriguing selection of
street trade. Baskets of oranges and carrots, ‘made in China’ toys,
ornately framed mirrors, a set of garden shears. For the thousandth time
I try and convince a young guy that I only need 1 car phone charger so
don’t need the one he is dangling through my window!
17:30. Meet with VOW leaders to plan the upcoming mission to Mwanza in
Tanzania. We conclude its best for the team to go across the lake by
ferry to avoid the 2 days of bus travel. The more we discuss the more I
feel I want to be part of the team. The trip is at Christmas. Do I want
to spend Christmas at a youth conference in Tanzania?? I’m too tired to
make that decision today.
19:45. Home at last and time to cook supper and relax…..
A
typical day?? Well yes actually.
|
Burundi - Report from Collin
VISION CASTING FOR THE FUTURE
Our recent trip to Bujumbura-Burundi was to have vision casting
meetings with key church leaders and NGO leaders about who we are as YEA
and how we would like to respond to issues facing youth work in Burundi.
Critical for the development of this small, war ravaged African
country is the development of a new generation; a deliberate investment
in the future i.e. the children, teenagers and young adults.
Unfortunately, investing in youth is a very new concept in this
country. In the local churches, the older church leaders are scared that
youth will hijack their leadership once trained and developed. On the
streets, thousands of young people hang doing nothing. |
Coming out of a brutal civil war hasn’t
helped as the majority of people are more interested in how they will
benefit. A prominent international child organization has recently had
to pull out of working in Burundi after failing to find credible local
partners. Yet we are convinced that God wants us to work in this
country in helping build the future (the teenagers and young adults)
through partnering with the local churches there.
We had vision casting meetings with a variety of key church leaders
from the Anglican Archbishop to local church pastors and youth leaders
as well as heads of key Christian organizations.
From these meetings, viable relationships and partnerships for YEA
have started. Credibility as an organization has been created and a wide
range of ministry opportunities opened.
"You’re welcome to Bujumbura", said the Anglican cleric.
Now that we are welcome, we are ready to avail ourselves for ministry
and let God use us in Burundi starting with July-2009. |
| WAYS YOU CAN
HELP Pray: For Burundian Christians and Church leaders
recovering from decades of brutal civil wars, and for our team as we
help rebuild the future of this country
Give: Visit our just giving page to support the
Burundi work
Get involved: Discover how you, your family, your church etc can
help in rebuilding the lives of thousands of young people in Burundi
|
Lira (Dokoro) Mission Trip Story
February 2009
by CelestineHello to all of you dear
readers, my name is Celestine and I am a volunteer with Youthworx East
Africa. I’m so privileged to have been given the opportunity to serve
Jesus with this Christian based organization. Getting to the point; On
Thursday the 19th Feb Prosper and I were sent to Lira
district, located in the northern part of Uganda, about 250km away from
Kampala.
Our journey was an exciting one, especially for me! In the bus, I sat
near a man of about 48 year who kept me entertained throughout the
journey. This guy was actually seated between Prosper and I. Prosper,
though sounded like he wasn’t amused with this man’s funny stories and
sense of humour.
We got to Lira at around 3:45pm. I suddenly felt lost! Everything was
new, the smells, sounds all looked really different to me, what kept me
going was the fact that I had come to serve God in this place.
|
Pastor Alfred Obote, our host, was
really welcoming and very excited to meet us. He then took us to the
place where we spent the night. The following morning we were to start
our journey to Agwata, 40km from Lira town, in a new district called
Dokoro. Our night in Lira town was fine; the beds too were okay though
the nearby bar was really noisy. I endured the journey to Dokoro. I have
never been on a journey as dusty as this one was. We traveled in a small
5 seat car which had 8 people in it!
Anyway, we managed to get their safely although very dirty. We then
checked into one of the local lodges and then headed off to the church
where we were supposed to have the conference; luckily, this was just a
ten minute walk from the lodge. We got there at about 10am and found
just two people, this to me didn’t really surprise me, but what
surprised me is that when everyone had come (after about 1 hour), the
majority were youth workers, 40 years and above and just about three
youth! Their explanation was that most of the youth were back at school.
In the 2 days we covered a lot of teaching, 5 X 2 hour sessions based
around the theme.
The theme for this conference was "The leadership Call and His role",
it was got from Jeremiah 1:4-11. We spent two days here and headed back
to Kampala on Saturday 21st, we got into Kampala at about
11:45pm . I felt a lot of satisfaction from what God had used us to do
in Agwata. I pray and believe this is just the beginning.
So dear reader, that’s all I’ve managed to summarize from the Lira
mission. |
Masaka District Compassion Discipleship.
6th to 15th January.
This programme was targeting young people in the projects aged 13 to
18.
- The aim of our programme was to enable the young people to be
clear minded in developing Christian Character.
- Recognize and acknowledge they are people of dignity and purpose
because they are created in the image of God.
- To realize the importance of being a Christian in all their
relationships and decision making.
The Compassion Projects around Masaka have been helping young people
who have been through a lot of struggles in their lives. Many of them
are orphans living with Grand parents; others are living with step
parents in difficult conditions. Compassion International, apart from
helping them with school fees, is also giving them a Christian
environment outside of the home. This is where we are coming into
partnership with them.
In the recent visit we covered the following topics in a discussion
format, helping the youth to understand and make personal decisions
about how to live their lives. This is very important in East Africa
where most teaching is imparting knowledge rather than engaging the
intellect.
- Who God is and therefore how we should see ourselves.
- Both living and passing on Christian Character.
- Setting Goals in our lives
- Value of Education
|
Most Young people we meet have a wrong picture of who God is. To
them He is distant, formidable and religious. Through a proper Biblical
understanding of who God is they are able to build a genuine
relationship based on love, trust and a desire to serve. Our teaching
on Christian Character development is vital if the church is going to
grow into healthy body. In up country areas exemplary Christian
leadership is scarce so it needs to be taught to the youth so that they
can be the ones setting the example. 1 Tim 4:11-12.
Setting goals and education work together and complement each other.
Many young people we work with have 2 generations behind them who have
remained illiterate and do not value education. Therefore it is not
enough just to send a young person to school by paying their fees’. They
also need to grasp how this experience will change their potential in
life.
All this work is not without its frustrations. Time keeping is a big
problem. In a rural area the youth come from far and most have farm work
and other responsibilities in the home before they can attend the
sessions.
Also the team noted that the young people in this area are still
struggling with big self esteem issues that we need to find an effective
way to address. This is especially so with the girls who have been
raised to believe they have very limited value in the
family. |
Hoima 25 - 30th
January 2009
Ian, Prosper, Carol.
It is a common occurrence for Church of Uganda Diocese’ to do staff
re-shuffles. We are used to this and often find ourselves re-aligning to
new Reverends, Youth workers etc. We arrived in Hoima in the middle of a
change around affecting the key people we work with. We were concerned
this would damage the work we went to do, but fortunately a quick
salvage plan saved the day.
The original plan was to train a team of young potential Youth
Workers then travel with them to run 3 village Youth Conferences. The
team we met was small, 6 people, but proved to be excellent. The 2 day
training went well and we really felt we had a group of young people who
had a heart for the work. We concentrated on teaching them how to
understand the youth they would be working with and how to communicate
with them in the most effective way.
The 2nd village in the planned conferences called to say
they were not yet prepared. Villages 1 and 3 remained.
|
Day One, Village One: We arrived to find nothing happening. Long
discussion between Innocent (the leader of our Hoima team) and the
Pastor, Youth Leader etc of the village confirmed that the information
had not been passed on to them effectively but they were determined we
should be back the next day and they would have a good group of youth
ready. We were doubtful but agreed. The next day we found they had
lived up to their promise. A great group of about 45 young people were
eagerly waiting for us. The day was a success. The teaching, discussion,
games etc all very well received. The time was short because we had lost
a day but there is now a commitment to continue this kind of event in
the future.
We debriefed with the team we had trained and agreed that they were
both equipped and confident to run the conference in Village 3
themselves so we headed back to Kampala early.
In the course of the week we were able to meet with John Kitalibara,
the incoming Diocese Youth worker who is committed to the work we have
been doing in the area and is keen to partner with us. |
Volunteer Team Training Weekend.
6th to 8th February 2009.
In the course of 2009 we will be meeting with our volunteers for 4
training weekends. The Youthworx team is growing and we want to ensure
that we keep a level of training throughout so that we can give more
responsibilities to team members. Also we are gaining new volunteers who
need the opportunity to really understand our work and get to know the
existing team.
This weekend was hosted at our own campsite and 14 volunteers
attended. A few were unable to come because of other commitments but we
will catch up with them individually. Some of the weekend was spent in
prayer and Bible study but most of the time was used looking at the
following topics through discussion and small group workshops:
Exemplary Leadership and Discipleship as a team member: Led by
Ian. If our volunteers are not walking the talk they will not be
effective. This session, based on the relationship between Paul and
Timothy is foundational to who we are as an organization. We are
concerned that each volunteer representing us is being discipled, held
accountable and aiming to set a Godly example in the way they live their
lives. We stressed that our Christian walk is 24/7 and we are not just
asking the team to "be good when on YEA business".
YEA Mission and 2009 work areas: Collin led this session aimed to
be an envisioning forum to help the team see the scope of our work, the
aims for the year and grasp a clear understanding of our vision. He
challenged the team to buy in to this vision, taking ownership of the
different areas of work so that we can concentrate more on oversight and
team building. |
Contracts and Roles: We have written up a volunteer contract
so that all team members know what they are committing themselves to. We
ran through this document in detail and discussed the expectations we
have both ways in terms of commitment and accountability. All the
volunteers went away with a copy of the contract. The next stage will be
for us to meet with each volunteer separately to agree roles/time
commitment etc and for them to sign. Self motivation and thinking
outside the box: Collin took us through an exercise in thinking
beyond the obvious…….. Need I say more?
Principles of Project planning: This was a practical workshop to
help all our volunteers to take an active role in planning and leading
the work.
How to prepare a Youth targeted talk or sermon: This workshop led
by Ian explored different means of communicating apart from the
traditional stand up and talk mode. The volunteers were challenged to
look for new communication methods in small groups, and then we came
back together to share our ideas.
Sunday morning we also studied Hebrews 12: 1-13 about our need
for the Lords discipline in our lives if we are to finish the race set
before us.
By the time we left the campsite it had been raining for about 4
hours so 4WD and Diff lock was needed to get back to the main road. The
joys of Africa
|
|
