Here are a few excerpts from Mark's daily journal:
Traveling to the school every morning is an adventure in driving, with huge speed bumps, driving on the wrong side of the road, numerous bicycles and pedestrians and school children walking to school. Houses range from nice to abject poverty. We pick up students on the way and they ride in the back standing up. We pick them up at meeting areas, on the road and on the highway. We always stop to get a paper and if we don’t have enough change we agree to pay the next day – pretty nice.
Every home or compound has an “astari” (guard) who opens the gate as we arrive and there is one at the seminary as well. They are all friendly. Ugandans have big eyes, high cheekbones and huge smiles. The men are all thin – they have very little fat in their diet. Classes are filled with eager hearts and ever increasing questions. I just finished my last class for today – lots of questions from our lectures on Abraham & Joseph – all excellent applicational questions.
My biggest need is to figure out how to test these men. Please pray for wisdom as I design the tests.
We are waiting for lunch before we leave – yesterday it was rice and pork – it was good. We always stay for lunch, which is late (2:00 PM) and then head home. John likes to stop by the post office on the way home.
Wednesday I was asked to come and speak in a village on Sunday about 35 KM from Jinga. John & I will talk about it and decide. Thursday afternoon after class Rebecca & the children came to pick us up at school and take us to a very large sports complex to play badminton. The Fulks know the people who own the place and they have invited us.
Wednesday, July 15 – John headed to Entebbe to pick up a team of 4 people from their Memphis Church. They are coming to paint the seminary – we will all help them for the week that they are here. After they leave there will be some stone work done and they will pay the students to assist in that project. John will be gone for a day this week and a day next week and I will be covering his Algebra class while he is out.
Today we visited our second day on Moses and talked about rebellion. The students had questions about multiple wives – it took some time to get them back on point. Multiple wives is a problem in Uganda. There is a further problem with Pastors who are not accountable and that is revealed in the Pastoral Epistles class. We have lots of discussions about issues and the rest of the questions go to how to interpret Scripture.
The ecclesiology class is in the throws of preaching for the first 2½ weeks, so John, Dominic and I are evaluating the students and making constructive comments on each sermon. Dominic preached in Chapel and did a great job with Ephesians 6:10-17. He did not complete the sermon but did a great job none the less – he is gifted at preaching. The students are all different and take comments very well. Each has an interesting style and so far each message is good for the students to hear as well as good for me to evaluate and make suggestions. Their sermons all raise important issues about preaching that either John or I unravel. It is fun but still challenging to do. Thank God that the students are gracious and willing learners.
Designing the tests remains the most important issue before me – this will take wisdom.
This picture was taken today in a village where I preached. The man in front of me to my right invited me and these folks are mostly his family. We had quite a trip getting to and from the village however. We had a flat tire getting there and on the way home on the highway the same tire came off the land cruiser causing us to swerve, yet the driver succeeded in keeping us from hitting anyone or going in the ditch on my side of the vehicle. Needless to say it was an exciting day. A man who was part of the local people who helped us retrieve the tire and get back on the road said I was lucky. I told him I have a great God and he walked away saying, no, your god is the god of luck.
