Uganda License to Preach

We Are Home on time.

2008-09-07T04:37:00.000-07:00

Sorry for not being able to send you a blog, but our last days were very busy and the Internet was down on Thursday. Some of the last experiences we had: In the evening we were standing around and I saw something black crawl toward David's leg. When I said something, he would not take me serious, imagine that, he thought I was pulling another rat story. Finally Jim saw it and yelled at David, David calm shook his leg and a small bat fell off. It started crawling away, and we were all backing up. Finally one of the workers spotted it and with his rubber boots he stomped on it and kick it out the door. On Thursday evening we went and had a delightful meal with the Suitti family. They have 12 children living with them, some his, hers and theirs plus a few orphans. We had makootee which we expected, but she put some sweet bananas in the makootee so it had a wonderful flavor. She had fixed us fried and baked chicken, beef, green beans which were the first we had had in Uganda. The children sang for us and it was a nice evening of relaxing before we went back to grade final papers and to total their grades. I know Carol was up late and also Len grading papers. Len was evening finalizing his comments at breakfast. On friday morning we got the wonderful news that we did not have to be checked out by 10:00. We all packed and after breakfast meet with the pastors at 9:00, which did not get started until about 9:30, to discuss the details of them training other pastors. In the midst we had the District Superintendents from Kenya, Rwanda, Bruindi to come prepaing for their afternoon and Saturday meeting. As we explained to them the License to Preach School they were very excited and hoped that this material would also be pasted on to their countries in the East Africa Annual Conference. At 10:00 we started the Closing worship with singing of hymns, reading of scripture, prayers of intercession and when Len prepared to begin his sermon, in walks Bishop Jones from America and his brother Dean Jones from Duke Divinity. Len gave a wonderful message about journeys, using a story of Lewis and Clark and his Swedish family roots. I was a short, concise and inspirational message to us and to the Uganda pastors. Finally Bishop Daniel Wandabula was able to arrive and greeted us. We were hoping to leave at 12:00 but it was more like 1:15 before we left. It is hard to tell a bishop to move it along, especially when the Bishop is as big as Bishop Daniel. We packed our bus and headed toward the airport. Friday is a very bush day in Uganda, because many people work in the city through the week, but they go back to the Village on weekends, no not to a summer cottage, but to their small grass, mud and maybe brick home. We stopped to see a University where Jim's church sponsors a young man named Noah. We got a snap shot of a sign of a Habitate for Humanity village near Mukono, since Jerry has helped to build many homes in Johnson County. I believe this village is also very special because woman have been able to purchase these homes through selling of beads with an organization called Beads for Life. We dropped off a young lady named Rachael in Mukono and then we went through the busy traffice of Kampala on a Friday afternoon. George our driver knew some of the back ways so we did not set in much stopped traffic. James, the Dean of Superintendents meet us at a street corner and gave us farwell greetings and necklaces for me to sell. On to Entebbe we ate at a very nice resturant as our last meal in Uganda. They wanted us to be at the airport 3 hours before leaving, and by the time we went through all the check in areas, we had about 30 minutes to spare. We left at 10:20 and arrived in Amsterdam around 5:30 am. We had about 30 minutes to get to our next gate to leave for Detroit. In Detroit we had to go through customs and connect with our flight to Indianapolis. In Amsterdam we said goodbye to Len because we was taking a later flight to Louisville, and we said goodbye to Barbara in Detroit. Everythings was moving so quickly that we barely had time to say goodbye. Everyone made it home safe and sound with all of our luggage intact. God is so Good. This Sunday morning will be a wonderful time for each of us, as we realize that God has taken us to Uganda and back. David and Jerry are sharing in their service about all the wonder of God building the first United Methodist Church in Uganda. Thank you one and all for the prayers, financial support and love that we felt on this wonderful and God inspired trip in the precious name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Byron Fritz

Wednesday Schedule

2008-09-02T23:21:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday we were in a bit of a stand still, because the key would not turn in the van, but it happened after George our driver got David and Jerry to their worksite and he had returned. Carol gave him money to take a Boda Boda (Motorcycle Taxi) to a repairman and bring him back to the van at the Hotel. The starter stwitch was fixed, so he was able to go back and pick up the men. Our Hotel is only about one quarter of a mile from the Hotel where we teach, so we usually just walk down to the classes and walk back. We only need George through the day if Jim needs his pizza at the Source Cafe or if someone wants to go to Bank or shopping. That was the only eventful thing to happen. Len has had four of five of the pastors to preach and they are following his instructions fairly well. Now we are giving tests and many of us stay up late grading their tests. Yesterday was a long day for the Pastors, after our discussion time at 5:00 I teach one more hour of my class and then the Dean of Superintendents wished to meet with them about how they will implement this program once we are gone, since they will be training the other pastors. That took them to 8:00 when they had Dinner and then at 9:00 to begin homework. As we have said this is preparing some of them to realize what University work will be like. Six different subjects and six different assignments. You can tell the pastors are getting tired, and some of them have had to leave for a funeral and come back. One who has malaria has had to leave go to the doctor, pick up medicine and come back to the school. One pastor has a son who has malaria and he had to go home and pay for his child to be in hospital with medicine drip. We have helped each of these pastors with funds for travel and medicines. The needs are so great, and we have tried to help in each situation, but we know we can not meet every need. Continue to pray for us as we are looking at the last few days of License to Preach, grading and giving grades, encouraging the pastors for the load upon their shoulders to pastor, take care of family, find work for income, and now go and train other pastors. This is all they needed was to have another hat to wear. Pray for the Pastors. We can't wait to eat American Food. In Christ Byron

Tuesday Events

2008-09-01T23:34:00.000-07:00

On Monday we went in all directions. Carol, Barb and Jim went to lunch at the Source Cafe to have Pizza, I now it was hard, but they had to sacrifice. Len stayed back to prepare for his class and I went out to the worksite after I went with Rose Martha to the bank and Western Union. It took a while to get most of our money, but we have found that you can only get 500,000 shillings from an ATM machine. I had to wait for a long time to get money from the Western Union . They would not exchange one of our $50 because it was torn, and my $100 had been in my money belt and the weight of my stomach had wrinkled it, so they would not take a wrinkled bill. I went back to the class at 6:00 and taught for their hours to be caught up, while the group ordered their supper. I thought the pastors were eating at 6:00 but they do not eat until 8:00. When I got back at 7:00 our group was done eating but I order ice cream. While we were setting there I looked over at the stairs and a rat, a very large rat came down the stairs and was in the corner. When I yelled at the group "rat" I thought Jim was going to jump out of his skin. At that time it ran back up the stairs and out of sight. But we decided to stay seated for a while, just to let the rat have some time to get farther away. Today we will not have use of the van, because it is going to go in for repair on the steering. We all agree that is important, so when it is done they will go and pick it up and then pick up the men at the worksite. Len and I are planning to take a Boda Boda at 9:00 am tomorrow and go down town for a little shopping and I will go to the Western Union to collect the rest of my money for the school. Have a wonderful day and we will be home soon. If we see anymore rats, we may be home sooner than you thought. In Christ Byron Fritz

Another Week Begins

2008-08-31T23:10:00.000-07:00

On Saturdsy we belive we had around 180 persons at the Children's Rally. We had a roll of stickers with a Red Heart and it said Jesus Loves You, there where 200 stickers and we had 18 left. We also gave everyone a cross necklace that glows in the dark. We have some of those left over so we will give them to the pastors to take home to their churches. Our program went from 1:00 until 3:30 and then we gave them a snack of juice and cookies which cost 90,000 shillings or about $55 for almost 200 persons. They had children's choirs from three of the churches, Trinity UMC, Wanyange Central UMC and Shoot of Jesse UMC. Carol and I did puppets, I did some magic tricks, balloons, Len led the children in some songs and we were all blessed. Jim said it was the greatest thing we have done in the three years we have traveled to Uganda. The children were excited and we were blessed. We left at about 4:00 and went to the work site to see all that David and Jerry have done in this first week. They have been working so hard, and it was exciting to be able to see what the size of the church will be. Before they leave they are hoping that some of the bricking will begin. The hope of the Ugandan's is that the church will be finished around November. This will be the first United Methodist Church to be finished in Uganda. Some churches have begun to build, but have run out of funds and are setting only partly finished. On Sunday Carol and I went together to Shoot of Jesse, David, Jerry and Barb went to Trinity UMC, Len went by himself except Dick on of the young students went with Len and was his interpreter, to His Grace UMC and Jim went by himself to some church in the city.
Jim did not get to eat, because His pastor forgot to take him to Julius. Len was taken to meet with the others to eat lunch and Carol and I eat at the Shoot of Jesse. Some of the group went to the Source of the Nile and then came to pick us up at the Shoot of Jesse. Carol and I meet with the United Methodist Women who were making the paper bead necklaces. It is such a blessing when you know we are helping about 15 women and their families. Carol had some sandels that she brought, and first she said you can give them to women they know need sandels. I said to them you can have them first, and the women got so excited. The size of the sandels was size 8 and amazingly that is what all the women wear, even if it was to short or to long, it fit. We gave them the embrodery machine and gave them some ideas of what they can make with this machine. They are so excited to know they have a new item to begin a new type of business. Our hearts were so blessed to know that we are making a difference for some many. The tour group of Len, Barb, David and Jerry went in the late afternoon to Bujaghali Falls. Someone paid a man to swim over the falls which he held on to a five gallon container. Barb said she prayed the whole time he jumped into the water. Today we start our second week of classes, and Len is having them to prepare and give a sermon. He is given them two options: to preach in English or to use an Interpreter. Either way they are not to go over 20 minutes. Carol would have flunked Len's class, she preached with an interpreter and went 1 Hour and 15 minutes. Continue to pray for us, and we are praying for you. In Christ Byron Fritz

Make up Day

2008-08-29T23:27:00.000-07:00

The License to Preach requirements are 80 hours of class time, since we did not have class on the first monday morning, we are having class until noon today and then many of the pastors are going to leave to go back to their church for Sunday Services. They are to be back by 5:00 on Sunday to have another make up class. At 1:00 is our children's Rally and then we are going to go do some site seeing at the beginning of the nile and Bungali Falls, then we are going to go out and eat someplace besides here at the Hotel. We want something different, even though it may end up being the same type of food. Boy are we starting to want a salad or an American Hamburger. We have had some wonderful time of tea and lunch with the pastors. Dick is the youngest at only 21 and he only has schooling through the Freshman year of High School but speaks 6 languages. He gave the Devotions yesterday and he did a wonderful job of speaking, giving seven points to being an effective pastor. We all needed to be retold about our way of living and serving Jesus Christ. It will be another full day, and tomorrow four of us will be preaching in four different churches. Carol will be speaking at the Shoot of Jesse, Barb at Trininty, Len at His grace UMC, and Jim Kagumba UMC, we are sending him to the other side of the Nile, we may never see him again. Carol and I will be giving the United Methodist Women the Embrodery Machine and then spending time talking about the Cottage Industries they have begun and Rose Martha's (President of the UMW of the Conference) dream of a School for Industry, Agriculture and Crafts. Talk to you all soon, keep us in your prayers. No one has become ill, but we are a little tired. Byron Fritz

First Week of Class

2008-08-28T23:27:00.000-07:00

We are on Friday morning and this is the closing of the first week of classes. Two of our Pastors are having some problems with the English. They come from Aura area which is in the back woods of Uganda. Many people will not travel there because it is a long ways away and is not always safe, and many of the people in Aura area do not leave and have association with the outside areas of Uganda. We are having their District Superintendent (Toko) to help translate the tests to them. When they return home they will be training all the other Pastors in their own language. What will be hard is when they have to preach to the class in English. Barb Pope is doing a wonderful job of teaching the Pastors how to keep a calendar and organizing their time, some of us need a few lessons in this as well. Carol is giving to the pastors many resources such as coloring pages that have the Bible Story on the back. She has worned them not to give them to their children at home until they make copies. My class gets into what do you do when you are invited to a funeral and the food has be sacraficed to Gods. You know just like our funeral dinners. HA! They have many issues that seem to come straight from the Bible times. Len has the hardest classes, (He is such a slave driver) because he is going to have the pastors to preach. But at this time he has them to lead a morning and evening devotion which gives him a sense of their styles and comprehension. I hope to place a part of a morning devotion on this blog. Jim is teaching Evangelism this week and then he will teach Methodist Doctrine next week. The Pastors are very excited to be here, even though we are giving them much in the way of homework and reading. The church building is coming along. They have the footers constructed and in place and today they will be pouring the concrete. Tomorrow the workers will be going out again while we teach in the morning a makeup time that has been lost, and then at 1:00 we will be going to a Children's Rally at Wanyange Central UMC. We are doing well with the food even though some of the workers and teachers have ate in local homes. We are having a little problem with sinus because we are staying along the Nile River. We will send you a moment of blessing tomorrow after the Children's Rally. Greetings from the whole team. In Christ Byron Fritz

We Made It!

2008-08-27T06:59:00.000-07:00

We arrived on Friday night in Entebbe and was greeted by two District Superintendents, David Muwaya and our driver. We traveled to the Sportsview Hotel and rested for the night. On Saturday we were to leave at 9;30 and on Indiana time we were late, but in God's time we were fine. We meet an Engineer from Atlanta, GA who works with clean water programs in Uganda. We left and went to a shopping area and I bought a Muzunga T-shirt in red. We went to the Bishops office and saw him briefly. He is working with the Board of Higher Education to start a satalite school from African University. We stopped at the Humble School but no one was there since they are on Holiday and it was raining. We have had short rains almost every day. We ate lunch at about 3;00 and then traveled to Jinja. On Sunday I preached in Wanyuaga Central UMC. The church is the one that I showed last year that met in a shed and was building a 60 ft deep trench. Today they have a wooden building and it was full. We had three women give their lives to Christ and we prayed for about 15 people for healing. Judith was a little girl of about 10 and she had cancer in the face. It was pushing her eyes apart and swelling on her cheeks. As we prayed you could feel God touching. Later that day it was described to us that rotten meat began to come out of her nose. We are praying that this may be the tumor or cancer, praise God. One pastor shared with me, he had a woman in his church who could not have children, and she was afraid that her husband would leave her. In the night God told the pastor to go and tell her she would have a son, and what his name was to be. That young woman is not 5 month pregnate. Have you heard that somewhere in the Bible before? That is only a few of the miracles we are hearing or experiencing. We are in our third day, we have had a problem, send us money. The cost that we were shown was added up wrong and the Schooling is costing $2,600.00 more, so we are looking into how we can cover this expense. Our accomodations are fine, but we need to cover the rest of the school fees. At this time we do not have funds for the rental of the hall or for the rental of the van. We may also have to cancel the children's rally and youth rally. God is faithful and He will provide. Blessings to each of you, and may God continue to be praised.

We are almost gone.

2008-08-21T01:32:00.000-07:00

It is 4:30 am and Carol and I are trying to fit everything into the suitcases and not go over 50 pounds. We are going to have five suitcases and each a carryon. Of course most of my carryon is the sewing machine, some balloons, few t-shirts, medicines and reading material. At least the good thing is we can sleep on the plane depending on who we setting beside. Lord help us to have a good attitude toward the person in front of us, behind us and beside us. May we be a witness of joy and caring. We will leave for the airport about 8:00 am and our daughter Lori is taking us. As soon as we can get to a computer, we will keep you informed. Remember you can make comments back to us, at least we will know somebody is reading this blog, but if not, it is a good way to journal. In Christ Byron and Carol and the whole team.

Tomorrow we leave!

2008-08-20T04:20:00.000-07:00

The time is ticking and we have a lot of last minute details to do. We have our money situations in good shape, but we are probably going to have to pass on one of our suitcases to someone else in our group. We have filled two suitcases with books and one is over by 3 pounds, but we have not loaded the books Carol is wanting to take for her class, my magic tricks and our clothes. I believe we will have to take five suitcases. It is amazing how heavy the book of Discipline is, of course it has all those laws and rules in it. HA! The blog is up and going and if someone wants to they can go to this blog through our church website, so I hope and pray that people will read and respond, so we can keep in connection while we are in Uganda. For those who would like to track us leave Indy on Thursday Aug. 21 at 11:16am on Northwestern 895, we arrive in Detroit at 12:33pm (241 miles) We leave Detroit on KLM 6040 at 4:05pm and arrive in Amsterdam at 5:55am Friday Aug. 22 (3,920 miles), we leave Amsterdam KLM 561 at 11:10am and arrive in Entebbe, Uganda at 8:15 pm (3,951 miles) Friday Aug. 22. We leave Sept. 5 from Entebbe KLM 562 at 10:20 pm and arrive in Amsterdam Sept 6th at 5:50 am. We leave Amsterdam at 8:00am Flight KLM 6039 arrive in Detroit at 10:45am Sept 6th. We leave Detoit Flight NW 2853 at 12:11 and arrive in Indy at 1:30 pm and time for a nap. Keep us in your prayers as you can see we have enough time to catch each flight, but the flight over and back will be long. In Christ Byron Fritz

The church praying

2008-08-18T13:11:00.000-07:00

It has been wonderful to hear from many of the people in the church who say they will be praying for us. Isn't amazing how God can hear in Indiana and answer the prayer in Uganga.

Almost ready to go

2008-08-18T08:47:00.000-07:00

I only have two more days to go.

Nine Days to Go

2008-08-12T03:46:00.000-07:00

We haven't begun to pack, but we have almost everything that we need. All I have left to get is my new glasses, Books of Discipline and pocket Books of Worship from Cokesbury and the NIV Study Bibles from Living Truth Bookstore. Carol and I are taking plastic cross necklaces that glow in the dark. We have 30 dozen necklaces so that should be enough for the children's rally and some for the Humble School. Now the 12 Pastors will be receiving a Metal Briefcase filled with 7 Paperback textbooks, Book of Discipline, Pocket Book of Worship, Paperback NIV Study Bible, Notebook and Yellow Marker. It will be a glorious day when they receive these. I am hoping to video tape this event so my church and the churches that I visit will get to see the blessing of providing these pastors with such gifts. In Christ Byron Fritz

Preparing for our Trip

2008-08-11T13:32:00.000-07:00

We are only about 10 days away from leaving for Uganda. We have seven persons going on this trip. Five will be training 12 students, six District Superintendents and six pastors, in the format of License to Preach School. We will be having this training in Jinja, which is one of the tourist areas of Uganda. It is known for the beginning of the Nile River from Lake Victoria and there are White Water Rapids, Bungee Jumping, Four Wheeling and other tourist type activities. We will not have time to be taking in many of the sites. Our schedule at this time is to leave from Indianapolis on Thursday afternoon, arrive in Detroit and by 5:00 pm we will be leaving for Amsterdam. We arrive Friday morning in Amsterdam and leave arround 8:00am. We will arrive in Entebbe at 8:30 pm and drive to Kampala to stay the night. On Saturday we will visit Humble School, Music Academy and then on to Jinja to see some of the sights. Sunday we will be preaching in area churches and on Monday we will begin our schooling. Two of the team are members from the Mt. Auburn UMC in Greenwood, IN and they will be helping to build a church in Jinja that Mt. Auburn is financing. Each day some of the teachers will also go over to the site and work on the church construction. In the middle weekend we are planning a children's rally on Satuday and a youth Rally later that day. On Sunday afternoon we plan to have a community Church Rally. Please keep us in your prayers starting August 21 through September 6th. Love in Christ Rev. Byron Fritz