Deaf/ Hearing Go- Camp Team and Staff

 Helen: Coordinating ‘Go Camp’ was my biggest recent challenge but I loved it. Eight deaf and eight hearing student had a rich cultural experience learning more about faith as they lived together in community for 3 wks. Two students Moses and Netty  both made light of their big mobility challenges. Laurence did exceptionally well as the only ‘muzungu’ white and youngest participant. I was so pleased he got to see and work with the people in Labone S Sudan.  Adam took half the students, including Netty to Yivu in Maracha district. Walt co-led the remainder of the students, including Laurence , based at YWAM Labone in S Sudan.

Adam: Whilst we were in England a deaf/hearing Arua team ran a successful Home Sign workshop. This increases my hope in the possibility of delegating more responsibility to local interdependency advocates in the future.  The last slide shows a review of our activities over the past three years. Training future instructors  and deaf graduates n vocational subjects continues. Sign workshop venues have now moved from the community to the homes of the  deaf youth. Sign resources for new sign topics  are now being trialled in video rather than photo format to increase user’s sign accuracy. Deaf/hearing discipleship and bible dramas continue. Sign language workshops for improvers to develop as future interpreters are now running    

Go Camp team shares sign language, role play, tribal dance, drama & very competitive sport with Parish Yivu, Maracha.

Host’s Report on Go Camp Outreach to Yivu, Maracha District

This beautiful owl is almost blind in daylight and just sat next to us for several hours. In local culture, owls are usually seen as a bad omen. 

Deaf-hearing Go Camp Outreach to Labone, S. Sudan

Walt: A programme of singing, dancing, puppets and a sermon was made in the market square and enjoyed by everyone. The village elder was very impressed and the children all got sweets at the end. We also had fun making mud bricks for two churches. Deaf student Kennedy was a star worker. He ran all the time. That day we made over 900 bricks! We were glad to refresh ourselves with a swim afterwards. Other activities were classes in signing lead by deaf building instructor Temia who was a natural and loved doing it. Her deaf husband Raphael helped.

   While we were there, we had our challenges. Mine was sleepless nights because of frequent unknown bangings on the roof in the dead of night! I never found out what they were.   We did have a great time though. We met up with the pastors who we met last year. We did door to door work with them. Once, we split up and went from hut to hut saying who we were and praying for the villagers. I was surprised how welcoming they were. Not like in England, where you would be looked on with suspicion.

Deaf build head teachers house

At least 5 deaf builders, 3 deaf labourers,  1 deaf cook and three hearing builders are involved. They have  impressed passers by and deaf and hearing Eruba school members  with their team spirit and hard work.
   This project to provide adequate accommodation for the head teacher was selected because of our strong partnership with Eruba. It was possible  because of the building materials collected by the last head teacher, Sebastian,  and the generosity of friends and family of our former British sign-language  teacher, Christine Reeves, who in the latter stages of her battle against leukaemia, asked  for donations at her thanksgiving service to be dedicated to an educational aspect of our work. Additional support is enabling the roof and apron to be completed in the next fortnight.
     Working relationships between the deaf and hearing are good so far. Two deaf labourers, one deaf cook and their families have agreed that their earnings can go towards their school fees next term. They have been out of school for at least a year. The deaf builders also taught sign language to the deaf labourers because they need it to progress.

Trial Vocational Training Course in Tailoring/Knitting

  

Signs & Wonders – Story time & The Blessing Boutique

Adam asked me to write about another couple of projects I’ve started. Story time, one hour each week, was introduced by us on our arrival in 2009. It has continued from strength to strength. Parents are encouraged to come and learn with their children whose ages range from 0-13. We teach basic reading skills and then provide a weekly library.

   Currently I am trying to provide some extra reading coaching for children/parents with learning difficulty. Only yesterday Coco Moses 13yrs sobbed silently as I explained that he was able and not stupid as I think he had believed and that his only difficulty was reading and writing and that we could progress with it, but it would need extra time. Moses is only too eager to put the time in. I will try to give him ten mins  reading/ writing each evening when he comes for a ‘knock about’ with Laurence.

The ‘Blessing Boutique’, a place to exchange quality unwanted items is another small project I recently set up. Many of our visitors have items they need; have forgotten; or; items they want to leave behind when they return home. So I along with the help of some visitors have set up what looks like a beautiful blessing boutique (charity shop). Five months on and it is working really well under supervision. Helen

In the Refiner’s Fire:

Walt: Hi Folks.    Last year Adam and Helen had organised a mini DTS (discipleship training school) to Labone in South Sudan for 10 days. Rita and Adam were the team leaders. This time,  Adam said to me Walter you and Rita from Kampala are to lead the mission team to Labone. Well, I am the least organised person he could have chosen.I do evert thing at the last minute."Lord, I CANT DO THIS!” I cried.  But God had other plans, it seemed. Rita was to come with us. She was an excellent organiser and cook and we had others on the team- Daniel and Erik, who were brilliant as well. Everything went fine. After all, God has told us not to worry.

      We prayed for one lady who was very ill with hook worms. She was lying down when we prayed for her. On our next visit she was up and said our prayers had made a difference. Praise the Lord!
Our motto for our 10 days was "Trust in the Lord and do good". We pray that we made a lasting impression and have made a difference to the people in Laboni by making real this motto in our lives and trying

 to show it.

Helen:  Some life learning challenges of the moment include struggling to sort our work permits, vehicle registration documentation and moving forward with an exchange trip to the UK with our deaf friend Temia, who is struggling with sickness. I’m also home schooling Laurence. But thanks be to God. He never lets us down.

News from the family:

Laurence: Seems ages since we did the last newsletter. The main thing I’ve done since then, is something called a go-camp. It meant going to the bush in South Sudan for ten days, It was quite fun, we made bricks, to build two churches that had fallen down, We preached In loads of churches and did dramas, songs and dances in the market place, among other things. I’ve nearly finished my textbooks before my exams start in May. It will be a gruelling month of exams but I should be able to come back to Arua for a week in the middle because they are so spread out. Also I am planning to do a bikeride to Nebbi with my friend.

Maria: The fast few months have flown by! A lot has been going on with university, various sports clubs, societies and my TA (OTC) training. I have competed in several races with my uni Athletics club and my local running club. I competed in the annual BUCS X country competition and two 10 mile races. I was pleased with my performance in all of them and have got my 10 mile time down to 73:33 :)  Been busy with organising expeditions for the Duke of Edinburgh Society and I'm hoping they will go smoothly. This Easter I am going to Berlin with OTC and am helping to organise a trip to Bavaria with them in the summer. Lots to look forward to!

 Jerome:  Hi, I've just got back from a short trip to Paris which was a lot of fun and very tiring. We visited an agricultural show called Sima and ate out in Paris with friends from college. I've been working at the farm some weekends and I went to Stafford with Wildfire for another awesome weekend helping the church out there! I've had conditional offers from all the uni's I applied to and now I'm determined to get my head down and achieve a 'distinction' on my current course. I hope to go to Newcastle, Cirencester or Reading to do a BSc in Agriculture! College life is really fun and I always seem to be learning which is great. I recentl

y inseminated a sow which was bizarre. Bye!

DEAF CONNECTIONS

A ministry of Arua Youth With A Mission base

encouraging deaf & hearing people to value each other more

Coordinated by: Adam & Helen Fielder

c/o YWAM Arua, PO Box 442 Arua, Uganda, E.Africa

42 Tintern Way, Bedworth, Warks. CV12 9SS

E-mail: fielder34@hotmail.co.uk 

Facebook: Helen Adam Fielder

www.deafconnections.blogspot.com

Please email us if you’d like to receive our prayer

September- December 2012

Mission Update                                                                                                  

Dear friends and partners.

       We  pray you all have a Happy Christmas and exciting plans for 2013. In the last three months Helen and I spent two of them apart. Whilst Helen was leading the first half of the YWAM Arua discipleship training school outreach in S Sudan operating out of YWAM Labone, I was in the UK to see Maria and Jerome, to visit some sixth form colleges with  Laurence and to update our supporters.

      Four weeks later we re-united in Labone before travelling back into Kitgum, N. Uganda where I took over leading the team with John, a Ugandan YWAMer. Meanwhile, Helen returned to Arua to  be with Laurence. This up date focusses on events, insights and personal growth we experienced over the past three months.

       The photo left shows the YWAM deaf/hearing outreach team working alongside members of Issingli, a remote mountain-side community. Together they are constructing a multi-purpose building that will serve as a school/clinic/ community hall. YWAM staff members, Bosco, hearing and Philliam, deaf are circled.

  We look forward to seeing family/friends in the UK soon. Ad

In This Update..

DTS Outreach Phase 1 Labone, S. Sudan; Kitgum, N Uganda

Signs & Wonders: – Baptisms…   …and weird reptiles

In the Refinery: Looking back on our outreach in Kitgum

News from the family

Looking ahead to the new year -– see next newsletter  points

Deaf/hearing YWAM Team Support

 f        Lucy, above left,  educated to only P7 demonstrated such a wonderful gift to teach. I pray that by God’s grace she will be able to continue her education and make it. 

         Our deaf team-members, above right, collecting clothes to clothe the four naked deaf children that Philliam had come across. This was a wonderful blessing commented upon by members in the three local churches we attended the following Sunday. We are supporting one deaf six year old girl, Janet, from Labone to enrol at Glory Special Needs School in Kitgum next February.

         Should C/DTS outreaches return to Labone? The answer is yes. The Jesuits have been a great help in setting up the schools and numerous other programmes but they left Labone whilst we were there and the local community is struggling in the aftermath of war. Since the new country Southern Sudan has come into  being the people in remote Labone have seen few benefits. They still need to be discipled and encouraged. Students on outreach there can see positive results from their efforts in a relatively short space of time. I think this really helps them to be inspired and grow in faith. Helen

Deaf/hearing YWAM Team

Deaf/hearing YWAM team learns much from their hosts in Kitgum, N Uganda

Unexpectedly, we were generously lent a new town house by one PAG member, Rhoda, who was also the Assistant Chief Administration Officer for the District. We invited Rhoda to outline some of the challenges Kitgum District faced and her District’s vision and goals. Students were quite surprised at the amount of issues and the scale of need her office has to try to deal with. A much deeper understanding grew of the implications  of widely varying attitudes towards taxation.

    Pastor Jackson, founder of the PAG church in Kitgum took us to an exhibition  where we were shown photos and objects unique to the Acholi Tribe, who make up much of the local population. We were shown a recently made film, ‘Untreated Wounds’, which outlined some of the atrocities and the efforts being made to bring perpetrators to justice, to gain compensation victims to re-settle Abducted children were brain washed to kill, often their own tribes people in other villages. An incredibly complex situation! Two of our students were orphaned during the raids & two staff also had to flee for their lives in earlier conflicts.

    The whole team was very moved by Glory Special Needs School Director, Nurse Sister Teddy (top right) ’s explanation of how 30 of her 120 children there were dumped anonymously outside the school during the night, leaving the school with the difficult dilemma of accepting children without any school fees.

    Now parents whose children have Nodding Diseases were also asking the school to care for theirs but the spread of the disease is making all fearful to try and meet their needs. Some of us, centre photo, were taken to one of numerous villages where the disease has affected many. Some of the follow on epileptic fits result in  severe burns or drownings for those fitting near stoves or water. Few can swim and most are scared by the sight of the convulsions. 

Deaf/hearing YWAM Team Support

     Glory special Needs School, Kitgum, N Uganda  welcomed us warmly. They asked us to lead a Sunday service for them because they’d never hosted one before. They did a fantastic bible drama (see last slide) for us about the rich man and Lazarus, brilliantly coached by one of their Muslim sign language interpreters. We joined, then led a school debate on whether the deaf should continue to have their own Olympics. We also helped run tailoring & baking lessons.

     Our team also helped to set up a large school library and hearing children read at a large school for war orphans.Our team also lead a one-day seminar for  50+ local church leaders and youth leaders to develop their bible  dramatization/ interactive teaching skills. A second one day seminar was  to help couples enrich their marriages. Both seminars were much appreciated. Participant came for five different churches and two schools inc. eight deaf from Glory Sp. Needs       

    Our team was able to strengthen interdenominational relationships and support several organisations in Kitgum addressing post-conflict development needs such as the rehabilitation, education and reconciliation of innumerable children caught up in the regional conflict. 

Family Celebration

Three more families celebrated their deaf son/daughters’ vocational training achievements

… in building and carpentry this month. They would like to pass on their appreciation to all our partners including vocational training centre partner West Nile Ecumenical VTC for their continuing willingness to train deaf alongside their hearing students. Wilfred is the first deaf carpentry graduate from WNEVTC and has gained paid work straight away. I’d like to pay tribute to carpentry instructor Moses for this and for his determination to develop his sign language skills and overcome his experience of  polio and to assistant building instructor Temia for her continued hard work.   

    Both Kennedy, who gained a credit, and Herbert hope to have paid work in January. We are working together to improve this opportunity even more next February with ten places on offer for suitable deaf youth in building and carpentry. 

Deaf Youth Camp Lira...

Deaf Youth Camp Lira..  ..atendance by three deaf youth, Godfrey, Sam and Doreen from St. Phillip’s Special Needs fellowship, was supported by YWAMDCM (YWAM Arua Deaf Connections Ministry) in August. Shared payment of the camp costs was expected on an ability to pay basis with each youth contributing accordingly.

   Deaf carpenter Sam, who has enjoyed two years full-time employment at an Arua town carpentry business we introduced him to, wrote this letter for us to share with you.

Ugandan National Deaf Awareness Day, Nebbi..

‘Partnering through ICT and Sign Language Is Our Priority’

..attendance by eight invited deaf, each joined by a hearing family member/ teacher / employer, was supported by YWAMDCM in September. This was a new approach that emphasised the deaf-hearing interdependency (partnership) spirit of YDCM.

   Its objective was partially achieved in that five hearing partners were present in the group of twenty eight at the event, three for the first time.

   We had hoped that the deaf driver we had enabled to pass would co-drive the hire vehicle for our invitees with his hearing driver instructor partner Bernard. Unfortunately increased vehicle charges and other complications prevented this happening and public transport had to be used.

   Joint deaf-hearing participation is still a new idea to many and more ground work is needed.    

Signs & Wonders – Baptisms… …and weird reptiles

         During our morning daily personal devotions time I took the step of insisting that the deaf  students; Saisa and Aisha came  together with Philliam (deaf staff member) and I for more teaching on the Bible. We studies Matt  Ch 3:1 – 5:16 over a period of three weeks. Whilst we had received good teaching on repentance and forgiveness of I did not feel that the ladies had fully understood it; so I believed that these weeks of study during morning devotions could be of help to them. It was. Slowly they committed to their own quiet times.

         My high-light was when Aisha once again asked for baptism. I knew this was coming from her own heart. The heavens opened and it poured with rain as Aisha and two other students Ann and Rebecca took the step to be baptised in the Labone River. Hallelujiah. Climbing the mountain to the less reached peoples group was so exciting. Seeing the unspoiled natural environment; monkeys;  beautiful butterflies;  weird  little reptiles in all  their glory was another highlight to us as were appreciated the beauty of God’s creation. Then crossing the river was a delicate procedure, the river was where we got our water and our place for bathing. It was primitive but wonderful. Helen

In the Refiner’s Fire: Looking back on our outreach in Kitgum

On out team’s arrival in Kitgum we shared and agreed expectations for living in our host’s house. Each morning team members explained what they had discovered from meditating on their given Proverbs verse with the team . The verses pin-pointed +ve and –ve attitudes we have seen in our own life experience. We started to see benefits of changing our attitudes to each other or to the wider community were they were unhealthy

     Highlights of the whole Kitgum outreach occurred in the final week. Our team organised two well-organised and well-attended seminars with delegates from five local denominations, the special needs primary school and a secondary school too. One seminar was on marriage enrichment and the other was on bringing the bible alive through drama. We are grateful to the Refugee Law project who offered their well-equipped venues. I was also very moved on seeing a deaf youth’s hearing family happily allow their deaf son and I to teach them sign language together in their home. Afterwards, several of us produce a wall display, above right, to help the family practice.

     Then, several days later, our team hosted  a farewell party that was attended by 55 local partners we served alongside. Many paid tribute to the unity and interdenominational nature of our team and its wide range of skills.      Some of the students were surprised to hear such tribute, having found it difficult to volunteer in a strange town in activities they’d never done before.

     I was really encouraged to receive our local partners’ appreciation for two reasons. Firstly, because it took the team two weeks to transition from Labone and the different leadership team and style they had had there. Secondly, because it had initially been uphill struggle to encourage many team members to adapt to serve the needs Kitgum presented them with. It was far more developed than Labone & YWAM has not been there before.

       For me our individual growth has been more apparent as I look back, typified by greater appreciation of other cultures, ages, denominations, communication styles, effective teamwork and conflict resolution -  amongst  staff as well as amongst students. Areas for growth in these areas are also clearer. Future partnership is emerging

Thank you Lord, YWAM Arua Leadership, staff and students and Kitgum partners. Reign in us, precious Lord.. Ad

News from the family:

 Laurence: Lots of school work, these days so I cant go out much on weekdays. At the end of October we went to Kitgum and I stayed for a few days, with my old friends who moved there from Arua a year ago.

We bought a tortoise recently which I’ve named Gonzalez. Playing football a lot as usual.
Thinking about what to do for A levels, and looking forward to Christmas in England - hopefully with snow.

Maria: The last few months I've been busy with a lot of new ventures. I have joined the Office Training Cadets - part of the TA. I am also volunteering in my local MP's constituency office and was successful in gaining an Internship in Parliament for my third year!
In my church I have been providing cover for the Boxercise class on several occasions and have really enjoyed it; I hope to gain some qualifications in this area so I could potentially teach my own classes.
Uni is busy as ever and the work never stops but I'm looking forward to December when I will go skiing with the OTC and will then come back to have Christmas with the family :)

Jerome: Hi guys, the past couple of months have been a lot more relaxing than the summer work. I've got back into college life and all the assignments which are involved.

Recently I've started to take part in Wildfire Camps again. These camps are evangelical teams with YWAM going into different cities to spread the good news.
I'm trying to decide what I want to do next year regards to university which is hard to decide on but I'm slowly making up my mind.
Last weekend I took part in a walk called the Rudolf romp. It was 24 miles and a good fitness test. We finished the walk in the dark with big blisters but we really enjoyed the walk.
I'm looking forward to Christmas and my parents coming back which should be good.