Well, this post is going to be the opposite! We really want to share where we're at with the School Discipleship ministry (click here to follow the link to the ministry description), but we don't have any pictures! So here's a personal challenge to those of you who struggle with getting through blog posts without pictures (like I personally do!).
So the basic idea of the School Discipleship ministry is to build up existing structures in schools that look after the spiritual lives of the students (for example, school clubs like the Scripture Union and the Young Catholic's League) so that they will move beyond evangelism activities and help students grow strong in their faith. We envision doing this through training teachers and club leaders in discipleship methods, linking schools with available discipleship materials (like Alpha, Understanding True Love, etc...), and linking churches with schools so that there are permanent relationships that will help feed into the club leadership.
The Ugandan school year begins in February and ends in December. The first term is just coming to an end. Last year, two secondary schools had indicated their desire to offer the "Understanding True Love" (UTL) course to their students, so that is where we have started. We have met with the administration from both schools, and a strategy has been put together, unique to each school. The teachers who will be trained in leading the course have been identified, and they have been given sets of the UTL materials so that they can read them over the 3 weeks of school holidays before 2nd term begins. The plan is that in the first 1-2 weeks of second term, we will go to both schools for a full day of training. Preparing materials for that training is what we are working on now. The training will include the basic principles under-girding the UTL course (with fun, participatory activities), discussion-based teaching methods (drawn from our experience in the CHE Ministry), and then introduce them to the UTL teaching guide (which we are currently developing).
In addition to preparing to launch UTL at these two schools, we have been working on translating our English Youth Alpha manual into Acholi (which is already done, but now needs editing). Furthermore, we have begun consultation meetings with the Diocese to see what synergies there may be with other activities that are already happening within the Diocese of Kitgum. One interesting opportunity that we may become involved in is that the Diocese has a manual for how to train school chaplains. They have invited us to take part in those trainings. Perhaps this may also provide in-roads to schools where currently we have no formal relationship or entry-point. Lastly, we have also finally bought the voltage stablizer that we need to use the new projector which was generously donated by a team from Ryerson University last year, that will help us bring some A/V life into these teachings when we go into the schools for special conferences and school-wide training days linked to the Understanding True Love course.
So there you have it! That's where things are at with School Discipleship. And you made it to the end of the post. Congratulate yourself for enduring a post with no pictures!!
(As an aside, one reason our posts have been so sparse is that the internet has been quite poor since we got back to Uganda this year...and the hope of uploading pictures on some afternoons has been nearly impossible, since the blog development page often won't even load for us. Let's hope things get better, so we won't have too many more "Wordy Wednesdays!).