Winnipeg Discipleship Training School

As the DTS has been in Jinja and Kampala with little to no internet access, we have not had an update on their last week or so.  However, last night they arrived back in Winnipeg safely to begin the their final week of debrief before heading home.  I promise to get an update onf their last few days in Uganda up later this week.  Until then, I thought you would all be happy to know they arrived back in one piece.

Previous Post - Outreach Update 3 - by Michelle & Robin

Hello everyone,
 
I’m writng you from Jinga, Uganda.  We made it safely from Soroti to Jinga and we are now staying in a small house in a village near the city.  We are working with a YWAM ministry called Hopeland.  It is a clinic in the village that works with HIV/AIDS as well as working to immunize the local children.  They have a clinic that works with pregnant women and there are some people on their staff who do physical therapy with disabled children in the village.  They work with the kids but they also work with the parents so that the parents know how to work with their children.

We have been able to help with the different ministries and we have been rotating through them so that each of our students can work with a large variety of ministries.  On Sunday our team was split up so that we could visit several different churches in the village, they were all very excited to have visitors.  This Sunday we are planning to all go to the same church so that we have a chance to stay together as a team.
 
I have been retested for malaria and it seems to be gone!  I was retested on Sunday but they said that it could be the medication that was preventing it from showing up on the test so they tested again today and it is still not showing any malaria.  Other than that I have been staying pretty healthy on this trip.  Please pray for continued health with me as well as the rest of our team.  We leave Jinga on Monday and will be spending the remainder of our time in Kampala (the capital).  Please pray for safe travels.
 
God bless,
Michelle

Previous Post - Update 2- Soroti Outreach - by Michelle

Hello everyone,

Greetings again from Soroti, Uganda. We have had a really good week. Over the weekend we were able to go to a praise and worship gala where there were several different church groups and organizations that were leading different praise and worship songs. Our team sang a couple of songs and got to enjoy the rest of the show.

Yesterday three of our team members Paul, Stacie and Brenden went to a church in a village, they were able to hang out there pretty much all day, Stacie shared her testimony and Brenden also spoke at the church. When they got back our team made dinner for the YWAM Soroti base, we made french toast (a typical North American breakfast).

One of the ministries of YWAM Soroti is a home for babies and children who have AIDS or HIV. Their are also some children there without HIV who have lost parents but most of the kids are HIV positive. Last week a 2 1/2 year old boy named Timothy died at a hospital in Kampala. Please pray for his family and the other people living in his village. Also please be praying for the ywam staff that work with these kids, although they realize that death is a possible outcome for many of these children it never gets easier to lose a child.

God bless,
Michelle

It is now our third week in Uganda. Only 4 more left- it is going by quickly. Today and yestarday my Ugandan friends braided my hair. It took 8 hours, I really like it. They laughed because they said Mazogoo hair (white persons hair) is much different to braid then black hair. I am really making good friendships here. I really love the people.

Last week I got to work in a home for babies whose parents have either died from AIDS or cannot afford to take care of them. Over half of the babies are HIV positive. I loved being with them, some are so tiny, when I bathed them they fit perfectly into the little basin.

The weather has been very hot, and I am burnt but hopefully it will turn into a tan. I love the music and worship here. They pretty much dance at every worship service. I love hearing all the different clapping and harmonies. The children get right into it as well. Two more weeks in Soroti then we go to another place called Jinja.

Take care,
Robin

We recently received a brief, but excellent update from our outreach team now serving in Soroti, Uganda.  Lindsey, one of our excellent students, writes the following:

Greetings from Uganda! I only have 15 minutes at the internet cafe, so this will be short, but I thought you may be interested in hearing a bit about how things are going for our team so far. When we arrived at the airport in Entebbe after a grueling 40-something hours in transit we expected to be greeted by the YWAM staff from Soroti, who were supposed to be picking us up. Although some of us realized that Africa time is a little more laid back than that in the West, we left the airport after about 4 hours of waiting and got a hotel.

To make a long story short, we ended up spending two nights in hotels until we were finally picked up and brought to Soroti. What probably happened was the email with our finalized itinerary did not get through, so all they had was an old email saying we were arriving two days later than the actual date. Anyway, the wait was actually a good thing. It gave us some time to get used to the culture and climate, and our team did some bonding in that time as well.

Uganda reminds me so much of Nigeria, where I lived two years with my family. I am the only person on the team who has been to Africa before, so some of the comments my teammates make are just hilarious. Today is a national holiday, so we have the day off, but tomorrow we are going to be starting to work with some of the ministries YWAM is involved in here. For example, tomorrow some of us are going to a youth service and sharing our testimonies, and some of us are going to be doing “Bible Time” at a local school. Prayer Requests: - Calming of nerves for me as I give my testimony tomorrow. - Health and unity for the team. That’s all I have time for right now.

In Christ,
Lindsey