Thursday, June 20, 2013

Update from Uganda (June 20)

Thursday, June 20.

Today, we began our training. Pastor Daniel picked us up a few minutes late and we were about 10 minutes late arriving at the church. But, because we are not using laptops or projectors, it took us about five minutes to get ourselves organized, people to take their seats, and get started.

We have a total of 16 people that came for the training. Two of them are women leaders. We did have three young men in their early to mid-20's. Most of them were from the local area. However, we did have one pastor from South Sudan, one from Gulu, and one of the women drove 300 kilometers (approximately 200 miles) to attend.

Those that came made an upfront commitment to Pastor Daniel that they would be faithful to attend all of our sessions over a four year period, that they would take this back to their community and teach others, and that they would select and train others to also be able to teach. Daniel even had them sign a commitment form and they also had to pay a small fee to cover the cost of their meals. Undoubtedly, several people decided not to make the commitment because originally we had 25 sign up but only 16 showed up!

Overall, this was a very, very good day. We quickly found that approximately one-half of the people had never attended one of our Encounters, so this was their first exposure to Lead Like Jesus. Initially, this slowed us down a little as we focused a lot of time to discussing the concept of "influence", the "not so with you" mandate, and the transformational leadership cycle and making sure they understood. Several of those who had been a pastor for several years really asked us a lot of questions about servant leadership and how they can apply the "not so with you" mandate in their situation.

Once, we got them through this initial section, the light bulb came on as we talked about Edging God Out, Pride, Fear, and Exalting God Only. We ended the day with covering about seventy-five percent of the material and we should be able to cover the remaining amount in the morning before lunch. Both Luke and I are very encouraged by what we did accomplish today. They get it!

So, tomorrow we will finish teaching the material, review the key concepts from each section, and instruct them on ways to facilitate and present the material. If time permits, we may have them start the teach-backs (practice teaching) of the material.

Great day! I'm excited thus far. It is a wonderful experience to look into someone's eyes and as you are covering a particular concept or idea you suddenly see their entire face brighten up as they grasp it - they get it! I saw this on numerous faces today. Yes, it was a good day. Thank you Lord.

Continue to pray for us and these leaders who are devoting a lot of their time and personal resources to become men and women who are committed to Leading Like Jesus.

Blessings from Uganda!


Fred


Sent from my iPad

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