Trouble on the Trail

Wednesday was a train wreck of a day... not literally... just what I call a classic day in Uganda. Recently we went through a lot of effort and money getting both our car and the Coppedges' car repaired. Our car had recently returned from the mechanic here in Arua, but the Coppedges' vehicle was still having some problems. They were needing to travel to Kampala (an 8 hour journey), so the obvious choice was for them to borrow our car. The next morning they departed, and about 1 hour into their trip, they called to tell me that our car's engine had just suddenly died. So I called some good German missionary friends of mine to join me on the rescue team. On the way to "rescue" the Coppedges and Stan & Katy Key (Billy's uncle & aunt) , we blew out a tire! After changing the flat, we then discovered the spare had a leak in it! We limped along till we reached our broken down car. Incidentally, the car broke down just outside of Nebbi, where we hold our pastor trainings. This turned out to be a real blessing~ some of our pastors were able to come out and help us. They took us to a "local" tire repair place in Nebbi town. This process took several hours, and then we towed the car back to Arua, which took another couple hours. So now we are at a place where we have to wait and see. Sunday a real mechanic will come up to Arua and tell us the extent of the damage... which I think is code for "your engine is ruined". Honestly this was a long day, but we are all so thankful to be safe. It could have been a lot worse, and we trust God to see how He will work all of this out. And what a "God-incidence" that this all happened just a few miles from our friends in Nebbi! Jesus always takes care of us, and we are so thankful!

PASTOR TRAINING UPDATE
Pastor training continues to go well. We are continually challenged with whether or not our teaching is really being retained. So we have begun to make more of an effort to make our trainings more interactive. This past training I was to teach on leading a church service. Instead of just lecturing for 1 hour I decided to write up three different stereotypical church services in Uganda and have the pastors act out the services. It took a little explaining at first, but they caught on and it was both fun & educational. I think this is a more culturally acceptable way of teaching and a style that really helps them not just learn the "right" answers, but apply what they are learning. We are trusting Jesus for more ideas like this for future trainings.