Hello everyone.
Sorry there have not been any recent updates. Our internet access has been non-existent. Here are some updates from the past week.
On Saturday July 31st I met with all of the coaches and leaders of the soccer league for the second time. There are two leagues, 8 teams in a 10-14 league and 6 teams in a 14-17 year old league. Games started on Wednesday and there will be one game every day till late August. Then there will be a tournament (all mzungus will be back in USA by then). They would then like to make an all star team and go play against Kapelebyong. The idea then would be that the league would start over.
On Sunday August 1st we started a prayer ministry after the service very similar to how we do things at The River. All of the prayer was done by the local people with our support. Jaynie and I were a team with Pastor Emanuel and a few other women. There was also a 12 year old boy who layed hands on and prayed for everyone along with us. Eventually he even wanted to be prayed for. While praying for him I saw a very clear vision of a knight surrounded by fire slaying a dragon. The boy was the knight. Jaynie also had a vision of a soldier. Pray that this boy grows up to be the warrior that Janyie and I saw in him.
On Tuesday August 3rd the Youth Association of Oditel hosted a farmers training day. They were expecting upwards of 200 people from all over the region. Some traveling up to 15 miles one way to be here. I will be providing lunch for everyone as a way to encourage people to come. I preached for about 30 minute to start off the training. I spoke on the value of community and used many biblical reasoning's to support my claims. The response from the pastors present and from all of the people was very encouraging. Everyone that attended felt empowered. The training was practical and hands on using the skills that they have learned in creating and maintaining the garden that Luke and Adam put in. The idea is that these people will use the skills they learn to train all of the people around them.
On August 5th I was reading a chapter from the book When Helping Hurts. The chapter that I happened to be reading was on Asset Based Community Development. One of the things discussed in this chapter was taking an inventory of all of the skills and abilities that people in the community had. At the time I read it I didn't think much of it but later in the day it turned out to be extremely helpful… I was walking around Oditel during the time that the orphans are being fed at the carepoint. I ended up finding one of the pastors who was at the farming training and we chatted for a little bit. During our conversation I presented him with the idea I had read about that morning in my book. I suggested that they take an inventory of the skills and abilities that all of the people in the community have. Then group people with similar interests and skills together. So now rather than people being scattered all over trying to work alone, they could band together and share knowledge and possibly send one person to receive training and then come back and teach the rest of the group and hold a conference similar to the farming training to share their knowledge with the rest of the community. They are fully embracing this idea and making it their own. This has great potential to bring the community together and increase the quality of life here.
Currently I am in Soroti at the Elotu Josephs house with Jaynie while the rest of the team is back in Oditel. We arrived last night and had a great time visiting with Amelia and her friend from Gulu. We will head back to Oditel tomorrow morning. We probably will not have internet for a while so don't expect too many more updates from me.
Brian
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