Day 19: Roles for the Week

The first night at Ugandan Martyrs University (UMU) was marked by a distinct lack of mosquito netting, but luckily we picked the most mosquito-less time of the year to be missionary in Uganda. And a part of being missionary is, of course, finding our expectations always a little off from the reality. Meaning, we had thought that we'd be able to go to a noontime mass for the duration of the week, but in fact there was 7am mass again. This was a fairly regular time for people to go to mass through the country, so it didn't come as a surprise when it was the case on campus as well. After mass, the mission team and the various student leaders all gathered in one of the classrooms for a strategic meeting. We were outlining our plan for the week.
We realized that we were in three distinct groups: the Canadians, the UMU students, and the NET team. The NETers joined us from Masaka, both the 2010-2011 team and part of the 2009-2010 team. We knew that for our mission to reach its goal we all needed to take up our group roles and play them to the fullest. The Canadians were to build into the seven UMU students who were present at last weeks conference, and assist in bridging the gap between the ideas shared last week and the faith studies that will be led this semester. The UMU students were to think of different peers, both leaders new students, to bring together into one or two faith study groups. The NET team members were in charge of going out through all the campus and share the kerygmatic gospel using tools gained the previous week (the Ultimate Relationship book, three minute testimonies, etc), a role which they took up with incredible fervour.
With the roles divided up, the different groups left the meeting with a renewed sense of the mission we have this week. As part of the Canadian group, we each took initiative for one or two UMU students and began meeting with them for discipleship meetings today and on Thursday. During the evening we were planning to have a group event for the first-years, but the leadership decided it would be best to have a night off to rest and prepare for the rest of the week.

Pray that the work we do this week with the UMU students will develop into strong faith study groups for the fall semester!