FOCUS & Friends

Today – Sunday 29th – we spent the afternoon at the FOCUS Uganda site in Old Mulago, on the occasion of their AGM.

Over 150 associates and supporters had travelled from all over Uganda to meet the staff and council members at this annual celebration of FOCUS’s ministry in over 82 Christian Unions in Uganda’s universities and colleges. We had a enormous lunch of rice, matoki (savoury banana – now a firm Ackroyd favourite), potato, millet (not an Ackroyd favourite at all!), chicken, sauce, aubergine, etc, etc. Peter had been invited to lead devotions at the beginning of the meeting, and spoke on the importance for Christian ministry of maintaining the Messiah’s perspective, confidence and ‘foolishness’ (cf 1 Cor 1) from the story of David and Goliath (1 Sam 17). The Chairman, David Ssebbuunyi, then chaired the meeting at which Vincent Langariti as General Secretary gave a comprehensive review of the year. Needless to say, there is more work than workers and finances are always under pressure, but we had an impression of a team in good heart and encouraged by the growth of the staff team and support offered to CUs on campuses all over the nation.



Although travel in and out of Kampala is draining - owing to the traffic, fumes, and the erratic driving habits of most road users - it was well worth it to get the big picture of FOCUS’s ministry, and meet more of the staff and a good number of supporters.




This morning we attended the university church here which was well attended even though term does not begin for another ten days. Fewer excitements than last week’s service at the cathedral – and a Sunday School for Lucy Alastair and Tom. The church meets in the Nkoyoyo Hall – a multi-purpose hall with a splendid roof but no walls! Such does the weather here allow!

LAT have continued to make friends among staff families here on campus, while yesterday we spent a very relaxing day initially at the American Recreation Association in Kampala, meeting up there with Stephen Waldron (JoJo’s brother). We then had lunch with a couple we knew at Dundonald Church in Wimbledon – Steve and Gwyn Smith – recently moved with their baby son Joshua to help train children’s workers (50% of Uganda’s population is under 16) and to teach at Kampala Evangelical School of Theology. They were on great form and living in a great house with views over the city suburbs. Finally, on to tea with Jem and Lucy Hovill, just a few minutes walk away: we knew Jem when he was training with Peter at Wycliffe Hall. He’s now working in a training role with the Church of Uganda and a charity called Trust in Christ. So, a day full of catching up with old friends – with a bit of swimming thrown in!

Tomorrow we are off for three nights to the Murchison Falls National Park for a safari before school and university commitments begin. Next post therefore not likely till the end of the week – we hope there’ll be some good pictures to show you.

Ambrosoli School and FOCUS Uganda, Kampala

On Tuesday, we all hitched a ride to Ambrosoli School on the south-western side of Kampala. Ambrosoli
is an international kindergarten & primary school of around 200 children. We were shown round by the friendly Australian head teacher, and arranged for Alastair and Tom to join years 2 and 5 in a couple of weeks’ time. They’ll travel in with some university staff children and join classes which have a lovely mix of Ugandan and international children, all following a modified UK curriculum.

After an hour at the school, we travelled across Kampala to the FOCUS Uganda compound in Mulago. Surrounded by a very poor area, with a significant Muslim population, the site accommodates the offices of FOCUS - the umbrella body for the Christian Unions of Uganda’s burgeoning tertiary education sector - and also three staff houses.

One of these is the home of our good friends and St Mary’s mission partners, Vincent and Beatrice Langariti, and their young children Stephen and Zoe. They gave us a wonderfully warm Ugandan welcome - complete with a song, Vincent on the guitar – and a delicious lunch. None of us could quite believe that it was all really happening! It was just wonderful to be with them: to hear and see the details of FOCUS’s ministry both with students and with the severely disadvantaged children of Mulago (more of that in a later blog); to meet many of the impressive if small staff team which Vincent leads as General Secretary; to hear of their life as a family and all the adjustments to life back in Uganda after three years training in the USA; and to deliver the gifts which so many in Wootton had kindly contributed towards and which were received with great delight and surprise!

Over the next couple of months we will see more of Beatrice and Vincent – starting on Sunday 29th April when FOCUS has its annual meeting for supporters in Mulago: Peter has been invited to lead the opening devotions.

We really are here!

Monday morning and here we are on a guided tour of the Uganda Christian University site with Dan Button. The elegant building glimpsed behind is the original (1922) Bishop Tucker Theological College building – complete with a chapel which feels like it was modelled on Wycliffe Hall’s, complete with gallery and tutors’s stalls at the rear. All around and new university buildings, like this new teaching block. The university website is: www.ucu

First days in Mukono

Still having problems uploading photos so apologies that you can’t yet see much evidence of our travels.

Today is Monday, two days after we transferred to the Uganda Christian University site at Mukono, around 15 miles east of Kampala on the Jinja road. We were very warmly welcomed by Dan Button, who is on the teaching staff here (and whose wife Rosie was a student in Cambridge when JoJo was a parish assistant at the Round Church there). We also immediately ran into another old acquaintance from London, Angus Crichton, who is on the staff of Kampala Evangelical School of Theology. It’s very reassuring to see some familiar faces – but the Ugandan people themselves are very welcoming and friendly so we are quickly feeling at home here.

The university is a young one, but its site and history go back over a hundred years, since it has its origins in the very longstanding and respected Bishop Tucker Theological College. Ordinands are still trained here for the Church of Uganda, but now there are around 5000 students in a range of disciplines – law, social science, business studies, to name a few. The university is private, owned by the Church of Uganda whose archbishop, Henry Orombi, is Chancellor. It has mushroomed in recent years owing to the expansion of education and the economy in Uganda, and its own high standards of teaching and care.

We are living in the university guest house. It’s a great place to be - we have enjoyed meeting a number of other guests from Australia and the USA and are also discovering Ugandan cooking, which is delicious. Savoury banana – ‘matoki’ I think – is one of my favourites, enjoyed with delicious peanut sauce. Uganda is a fertile land and the fruit especially is mouth-watering!

In a couple of weeks we’ll begin house-sitting a home for a staff family on leave, but in the meantime we are getting to know a number of families around the campus – Lucy Alastair and Tom have already made some good friends. It’s a beautiful site on a hill above Mukono town with lovely views over the countryside beyond.

Yesterday we attended the English language cathedral service in Mukono at 8.30am. Services here are long – 10.30 finish! Warm-hearted singing, a full congregation all bringing and opening their Bibles, lots of familiar elements and some fairly unfamiliar, including a dramatic episode of deliverance ministry towards the end – though we were told this is fairly unusual! The preacher was a visiting American, David Bast, who has been here for some weeks assisting Mukono diocese establish a radio ministry. After a very clear and moving exposition of Romans 5.8 he made an ‘altar call’ which the canon leading the service then took up and a number of men and women came forward professing faith for the first time. Not what we are used to in English cathedrals – alas!

Today Peter joined the university staff – security guards to professors – for staff prayers and a short address by the Vice-Chancellor, Stephen Noll, and spent some time with Dan Button, who runs the General Studies programme where he hopes to assist when term begins in a fortnight’s time.

Tomorrow we are looking forward to travelling to Kampala to see Vincent and Beatrice Langariti and their children Stephen and Beatrice.

Monkeys, taxis and Cherish Uganda

Not sure how well this will work as the internet connection here is slowish and electricity supply variable!

We touched down at Entebbe Airport around 10.10pm local time (8.10pm BST) last Wednesday evening after a long but easy flight via Brussels and Nairobi. The plane was three-quarters empty so there was lots of space and a very attentive cabin crew!

We were met after a swift passage through immigration by Stephen and Sandy Waldron (JoJo's brother and his wife) who are part of a small team based here establishing an orphanage for AIDS-infected children on a beautiful peninsula between Entebbe and Kampala, a stone's throw from the shore of Lake Victoria. A short drive brought us and our 150kilos of luggage to their rented house a few miles south of Kampala, where we had a very warm torchblit welcome and managed to get to bed safely.

Yesterday - Thursday - having met the rest of the Cherish Uganda team, we had a tour of the site of the orphanage with Stephen and Sandy and their site team - Paul and Mark (see pictures). Then off to Entebbe for tilapia and chips by the lake and a tour of the peaceful and magnificent botanical gardens, including first sighting of vervet monkeys and some wonderful birdlife. We also stopped off at a fishing village - where the poverty was shattering. Fishermen are relatively wealthy but waste it - we were told - on alcohol, gambling and prostitutes.

Today we ventured into the teeming, chaotic and polluted heart of Kampala, picking up a few essentials, discovering some Ugandan crafts, and travelling back to Kiganzi in a taxi-bus! Highlight - apart from the overwhelming smells, noise, dust and pressure of population - was the discovery of 'jackfruit' (largest fruit in the world), consumed initially cautiously and then voraciously - it was delicious.

Tomorrow we move to Uganda Christian University at Mukono.

Just failed tom upload images - so keep checking!

Ready for the off?

Well here we are Sunday 14th April, 9.15am, the last time we are all together in Wootton. Lucy on her way to the Royal Albert Hall as a member of the 4th County Youth Orchestra at Bedfordshire Music's 40th Anniversary Celebration. We're joining her later in the day while Tom and Alastair travel to their grandmother's in Guildford to await our arrival and the baggage train tomorrow, Monday.