Thursday - the last full day with our students for the week! We couldn’t believe how fast our time went. The day started anywhere from 5:45-6:45, depending on the person and who was showering and when, since the place we are staying at has one shower for the eight of us. Mass at 7:00, breakfast at 8:00, chores at 8:30, first faith study session at 9:00am and then continuing the program with sessions, workshops and large group meetings before finishing our day at 10:00 pm - then back to our ‘home“ to talk for a bit, pray, talk some more and then off to bed. They’ve been long days, but I don’t think anyone would trade what we’ve been doing for anything - it’s been incredible.
Our time here has brought us so much joy, laughter, friendships and hope. Going through the last of the lessons with our faith study groups and hearing them talking about the material and how it impacted them, seeing hearts change, and the dedication the students have to both the message and mission has astounded us. Two stories especially stick out to me. One of the students hadn’t talked with a friend from back home in a while and after learning the UR (ultimate relationship booklet - a tool to communicate the basic gospel message) phoned this friend, talked him through the book and now will get to meet him when going on campus next month cause he wants to know more! Another student decided to share the UR with one of the staff from the “camp” we are staying at and this staff member decided to return to the Catholic Church. We are constantly being amazed.
Tonight we had our commissioning of the students. The team had been talking and felt that there were still some students that hadn’t fully made a commitment to Christ so the night started with a mini-talk by Andre challenging those who hadn’t made that commitment to do so tonight. After some praise and worship we then went into the commissioning. Andre reminded the students that this week wasn’t about them, but it was about bringing this message to their friends, onto campuses, and out into Uganda - and how that decision started tonight. Each student spent some time in prayer and asked God to reveal to them what He wanted for them. Then one by one each person got up read the Apostle’s Prayer (a missionary prayer) out loud and then came to their small group leader to be prayed over. Then after all had gone we finished off with some praise and worship - African style! It was such a powerful night! We are definitely going to miss everyone tomorrow when they leave.
Please pray for the Holy Spirit to go before us and prepare the hearts of the university students we will be reaching out to on Monday when we get onto campus for the first time
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