Sunday, June 16, 2013

Well, tomorrow's the big day. I depart for Uganda at 3:50 pm from the Lexington Airport and will return on June 26th. I will be linking up with Luke Kuepfer (also with Lead Like Jesus) and his daughter Brittany who will be coming to Uganda from Ghana, where they have been working with church leaders this past week.

Luke and I will be returning to work with Pastor Daniel Byamukam in the city of Iganga. This will be Luke's second trip and my third trip to Uganda to teach Lead Like Jesus. But this trip will be different. Instead of teaching to large groups, we will be focusing our attention on 20-25 young pastors that serve with Pastor Daniel's ministry. These pastors will be coming primarily from eastern Uganda, but there will be some from northern Uganda and at least one pastor from South Sudan.

Our goal is to teach and equip these leaders so that they can teach others and to provide them with low-cost, easily reproducible materials, that they can use to take the Lead Like Jesus message to their church and communities without having to rely on financial assistance from the U.S. So, no powerpoint or videos this year. We will be using Bible storying and drama to present those portions of the training that in the U.S. we would show clips from the video Bible.

Luke and I have put together a four year program of leader development for them. This will be the beginning of Year #1. This year we will focus on the basic principles of becoming a servant leader like Jesus and equip/prepare them to teach these principles to others. This year we will concentrate on self-leadership. Year 2 will be on one-on-one leadership. Year 3 on team and family leadership. Finally, year 4 will be on organizational leadership.

We truly believe that God has put this on our heart and has given us a vision of creating a group of pastors, who like Jesus did, equip and release other men and women who also go out and teach others what they have learned. By doing so, they will create a leadership development "factory" in Uganda. 2 Timothy 2:2 is our model. Paul tells Timothy, "And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others".

Here is our schedule:

Mon-Tues, June 17-18 - Travel to Uganda. I arrive in Entebbe at 11 pm on June 18th. Luke and Brittany arrive at 3:15 am on June 19.

Wed, June 19 - Travel to Iganga and check into the Mums Resort Hotel. (It's not really a resort?? By the way, I've spent a lot of nights in that hotel over the past two years. I'm going to ask them for rewards points!) After we check in we are going to visit several of Pastor Daniel's projects in the Iganga area. Also, Luke will be preaching on a radio program at 8:15 pm this evening.

Thurs, June 20 - We will conduct a LLJ Encounter for the pastors.

Fri-Sat, June 21-22 - Practice teaching/facilitating.

Sun, June 23 - Day of Worship. Luke preaches and I will be teaching a large group Sunday school class.

Mon, June 24 - The Pastors will teach/facilitate their own Encounters. They will be divided into 2 (possibly 3) groups and each pastor will facilitate parts of the workshop.

Tues, June 25 - In the morning, we will debrief the Encounters from Monday and do some coaching and mentoring. We will also lay out their "homework" and assignments for the next year and present each pastor with a certificate of completion of Phase I of their training. In the afternoon, we travel to Entebbe. Luke and Brittany will remain overnight there in a hotel and I will depart for the U.S. at 11:59 pm.

Wed, June 26 - Luke and Brittany depart the Entebbe airport for the U.S. at 4:15 am. I will arrive back in Lexington at 6:30 pm.

Please keep us in your prayers and especially pray for those who are coming for this training. My plan is to post again on Wednesday after we get settled into our hotel in Iganga.

Blessings!

Fred Waggoner