Dear friends
May the Lord bless and keep you and your families over this festive period. Thank you for all your newsletters and enquiries about the trip to Uganda. We had wanted to update you as soon as we got back but unfortunately, I went down with a virus. Thankfully, it was not malaria, as the doctor feared, but I needed to give myself time to recover.
We had a comfortable 8-hour trip to Kabale in South-West Uganda in the university minibus on Sunday 4th December. The next morning we began the training and continued with the group every day from 8.30 am until supper at 6 pm. Nancy and Zebedi from Kenya assisted us with the teaching at various stages.
The group of 18 lecturers was drawn from Uganda Christian University and seven theological colleges affiliated to them, including Bishop Allison College from South Sudan. We found the entire group keen and eager to learn. One thing they kept saying was how opportune the time was as the demands on them by their Commission for Higher Education have become difficult to implement. We had a real sense that the Lord had gone before and prepared the way. Some of their practice teaching was among the best we have seen.
The reverse journey to Kampala via Entebbe on 10th December was not so comfortable, taking 13 hours and with little opportunity to stop and stretch. Nonetheless, we give thanks for a safe journey. We left Uganda on the 11th and returned to Cape Town on the 12th December. In the meantime, the participants have continued to send us reflections on learning achieved during the training week and they are now preparing to implement some of what they have learnt in their classes next semester. The third phase of the training won’t be until November 2023, but the Dean has also asked us to work with the rest of the university on the integration of faith and learning. So God-willing, there will be a few more trips to Uganda in 2023.
Please remember to pray for the online Phase 1 training for the Anglican college in Recife, Brazil from 9-13 January. CMS local mission partner, Bishop Flavio Adair, is heading that up and has translated the materials into Portuguese. We are having problems with the electricity supply in South Africa and our internet connection has not been stable. Please pray that the Lord will supply the necessary stability during that week as we have to teach from home while GWC is on vacation.
Please also continue to pray for safety in South Africa. A missionary friend was killed in a home invasion last week, which has been a terrible shock and a wake-up call to us all.
In Christ this Christmas,
Caroline and Dick
Dr. Caroline Seed
Academics and Postgraduate Studies
St. Luke's Church Ramsgate 