Mission Update - March 2013

Dear friends and partners.

    We  really enjoyed being together as a family over Christmas and seeing good friends. We enjoyed New Year in Scotland and did several hill climbs. Two good friends , Netty and Walt, flew back out with us in January and joined the deaf-hearing Go Camp. Helen did a great job of coordinating the Camp.

    As a result of our recent YWAM outreaches, the parents of seven isolated young deaf have put them into schools that cater for their academic or vocational training. Our deaf Go Camp students were able to testify to the personal benefit they’d gained from the new opportunities our partnerships have helped to create  in the region for such families.

 Photo'd above Aisha, our trainee tailor instructor models her new outfit. She worked really hard with us to improve her numeracy skills.

 Adam & Helen

In This Update..

YWAM Go Camp teams out –reach to S Sudan & N Uganda

Trial Vocational Training 

    Course  in  Tailoring/Knitting

Deaf/hearing  build head

     teacher’s house.

Signs & Wonders: – Story time 

        & The Blessing Boutique

In the Refiner’s Fire:

News from the family

Future Plans

Review of Deaf Connections Activities, 2009 – 2013

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