We are at capacity!

This course has been absolutely excellent…but we are now at capacity! We have taken on board and inwardly digested a huge amount of material over our 10 weeks here and it has been great! Two weeks back I was nearly converted to being a development project manager! We spent 2 full days in small groups pouring over large sheets of flip chart paper,’ post-it’ notes and log frames working out how to plan and execute a ‘children at risk’ development project in Burundi. (It has inspired me to maybe try and develop a more coherent structure for the education project we will be involved with in Ibanda, Uganda…) Aside from his studying… Andy has also enjoyed a taste of victory on the All Nations footie team and was even awarded the prestige award of ‘man of the match’!

Overall, it is difficult to summarise our experience here – suffice to say that we both feel more equipped practically, more affirmed in our call to go and now ready to face the challenge of settling into Ugandan culture, with the Lord as our guide.

Thank you for your prayers during this period. Please pray that we’d be able to adjust to the transition of leaving college and going between family and friends during the holidays. Please also pray for Sunday 7th December – we are speaking at St Mary’s Church, Radcliffe on Trent and also at ‘Nightbridge’ (Holy Trinity’s youthgroup).

Now that's trust...

Last Friday I cut Andy’s hair and the Friday before that he cut my hair! There have been lots of comments around the college about Andy’s smart new hairstyle – but to be honest they haven’t got close enough to see the rather large ledges left in the back of his hair! It turns out that hairdressing scissors are actually pretty sharp as well – my fingers testify to this! Well, this is an example of the practical side of our course. Andy has also been learning the basics of car maintenance and loving the opportunity to sit and play with ‘toys’ in the workshop.

A flavour of week 6...

So we are just over half way through our course and it definitely feels like the end is rushing towards us.  Recently we have been challenged quite a bit as well… for example we have been discussing and attending lectures in areas such as ‘Culture Shock’, ‘Expectations and Boundaries of working abroad’ and ‘Stress vs. Burnout - overseas'.  On the one hand we feel privileged to be in a safe environment at All Nations to prepare for what lies ahead, but on the other hand we feel like there is a lot to process and to take in at the moment.  Please do keep us in your prayers (if that is your thing) and in particular we’d like prayer as we think through what our specific roles might be in Ibanda and at NMS (the school).  We hope to email the school with our ideas, but we are aware that there may well be a difference in the levels of expectation from them or us.  Away from the classroom Andy is busying cleaning his footie boots for a match on Saturday and I am getting surprisingly excited about the hairdressing course on Friday… we’ll let you know how they go!