Sunday’s Comin’

It’s Friday
The disciples are questioning
What has happened to their King
And the Pharisees are celebrating
That their scheming
Has been achieved
But they don’t know
It’s only Friday
Sunday’s comin’

Over the Easter season we found the above on Facebook (this is just one of the verses) and truly enjoyed the message. This past week has in some ways been a “Friday” experience.

•  An email arrived from a foundation informing us of their inability to fund the VOICE East Africa Values Curriculum production this year
• One of our Lower Primary writers who was here on Thursday had her house broken into and robbed that night.
• Yesterday we learned our helper was unable to continue working due to her physical condition including typhoid fever.

As those lyrics remind us, the events of Friday are not the end.  

• Our colleague Susan, traveled to western Uganda and facilitated an excellent Debrief with more than a dozen Scripture Union (SU) staff and volunteer teachers.
• We had two good meetings this past week with Lower Primary Truth writers and Upper Primary and Secondary regarding the Honesty module.
• We were able to complete the MOU with Scripture Union.
• Today our colleagues Beth and Susan interacted at Scripture Union to pave the way for more test teaching of SU staff next month; even the National Director wants to experience it.
• Today I talked to a “friend of a friend” and we hope to be getting a replacement helper on Friday.

God is working and Sunday’s comin.

Celebrate Jesus!

Easter is probably my (Ruth) favorite day of the year. I love the Biblical resurrection accounts as well as the hymns…and seasonal music. In the Philippines, we often (shame on us, I know) went to an international church on Easter, primarily to enjoy the English hymns and choruses, the pipe organ playing, full orchestra, special music by a huge choir as well as other groups, English sermon…and then the choir and all who wanted to join them would close the service by singing the Hallelujah Chorus…almost without fail causing tears of joy to stream down my face with the anticipation of our Lord’s ultimate and victorious reign. So…we wondered how our first Easter celebration would be here in Uganda.

For obvious reasons, we attend an English service so that “treat” is ours to enjoy each week. Although, as one would expect, many of the other “special” components of the Manila church were absent, God stirred our hearts with that same victorious joy and thrill of Christ’s resurrection. The first song was “Celebrate Jesus” which vibrates with the repeated phrase “He is risen.” I had to smile as I watched our African sisters and brothers truly celebrate Jesus…with hips, shoulders, heads, feet, and hands swaying and dancing and clapping! Yes, He is worthy to be celebrated with all of our being. And I was absolutely delighted that my all-time favorite Easter hymn, Up From the Grave He Arose, was among the hymns…wow, you add African drums to that chorus and it really resounds with victory! Four members of the choir sang a special number—all in Luganda so we didn’t understand any of the words—but their facial expressions and hand movements, as well as the response from the congregation confirmed that they were “celebrating Jesus.” Our Senior Pastor is in the US right now, so the Assistant Pastor spoke and we have to listen a little harder to understand his English. (As we discussed the sermon later, we were able to fill each other in with what we didn’t understand!) It was especially two illustrations that flooded my heart with joy. He shared that in his lifetime, and he’s about our age, he has experienced three dramatic changes in government and remembers each of the resulting victorious announcements—the enemy has been defeated and a new government is in place. The resurrection was the all-time loudest announcement to the world—the enemy has been defeated and a new government is in place…forever! But he went on to say that even though the enemy is conquered, he is still active doing all the damage he can. Which brought the second illustration. In India, a snake got into a house. Someone managed to shoot the snake’s head—killing him—but his body continued to writhe doing much damage including breaking some windows (which makes me shiver thinking how large that snake must have been!). Yes, Satan’s head was crushed at the resurrection, but he is still writhing and inflicting much pain and loss…but the day is coming when all that will stop because he is defeated!

Yes, we serve a risen Savior whether we live in North America or Asia or Africa or wherever! He is worthy to be worshiped and celebrated. “Thank you Lord, for such a wonderful reminder of that during our first Easter in Uganda.”

“Thanks for the Opportunity”

Due to Ruth being gone for 3 weeks last month, we are late getting the Honesty module “off the ground,” especially considering that we’d like it ready to be test taught by the beginning of the second term of school which begins in mid-May. Last Friday, the two of us plus Susan (who hadn’t yet officially begun her new duties) met at our friend, Beth’s, home—in her absence since she’s in South Sudan—to discuss the Honesty module with two writers (both former Scripture Union workers) whom Beth has referred to us for this project. Martha is a German language teacher and Editar is a free-lance Christian Educator who has worked with top writers in David C. Cook, and does Teacher Training for the Church of Uganda. Although we enjoyed the exchange of humor at our meeting, and appreciated their keen insights into the lessons from an East African point of view, our greatest joy was to see their vision and passion to prepare these lessons for the children and youth here in Uganda. There’s Susan, who was under no obligation to be there, and both Editar and Martha whose presence was purely voluntary…but all three so determined to see this developed and taught. In the end, Editar eagerly accepted the invitation to work on the Upper Primary revision and Martha seemed to rejoice at the chance to work on the Secondary…and to push toward completing all six lessons by the end of the month. Later that day, we received a text message from Editar saying how much she enjoyed the meeting and “Thanks for the opportunity.” And today, we received an email from Susan saying she’s delighted to be part of the team. Editar has also given us an artist contact that I hope to meet tomorrow and get a sample drawing. The partnership and investment of these ladies is another encouragement from the One who called us to come here and help in the harvest.