April 2014 Newsletter

Bishop Sheldon joining in the games
at the Ankole Diocese Youth convention

Church of Uganda Children’s Ministry

Newsletter April 2014 

Dear Friends /Partners in the Ministry to Children; Greetings in Christ our Lord. 

I feel the joy of Lord because He has been good to us, our Families and Ministry since this year began

Ministry Updates:

My year began with leading conventions for our Young people in West Ankole and Ankole Dioceses. What was very exciting is having Children under 12 years participating for the very first time and receiving full support from Diocesan Bishops and all Leaders. I testify that our call to include Children in planning and events by Dioceses is working. Our labour in the Lord is not in vain, we are slowly but surely reaping from our Advocacy Campaign of Intentional Ministry to Children which is one of the Four Major Focus Areas of my Ministry.

Bishop Sheldon teaching the children.

In this advocacy I have believed that the Church has a responsibility to the Children  both in and out of the Church walls/ compounds. Following this, we have undertaken a campaign to help Children in Conflict with the law (Juveniles) usually detained for petty offences as stealing food or even tresspass, which leads them to miss school, becoming hard core criminals and sometimes leaving as rejects. With the help of Children’s Justice Initiative Uganda, we have so far trained 20 Children’s Advocates in  Mbale Diocese, belived to have the highest rates, and these will work closely with  the Uganda Police officers on diversion alternatives as restitution, counselling or caution and release which are provided by the law. So far the we have received great support in the piloting of this program which is aimed at reducing the rate of children in detention centres/ remand homes.

My second Minitry Focus Area  is Children’s Ministry Leaders/ Teacher’s Recruitment, Training, Equipping and Retention drive: 
Since January 2014, we have had Ministry trainings for Children’s teachers and leaders in Rwenzori, Busoga, Kampala, Mukono, Soroti and Mbale Dioceses giving us an additional 256 trained Children’s leaders. This brings our Total number of trained Children’s leaders to 2687 since 2012, leading and teaching Children within communities, schools, churches, organizations or clubs all over the country in all denominations and ages. I know this number is growing on because those we train are trainers who keep on training many more. The Dioceses and Churches have been very supportive and I have reports of growing participation in the Ministry to Children both in Schools and Churches. 

Teachers have fun in their training sessions

The third Focus area is Mobilizing, Developing and Availing much needed resources for the Ministry 

 Since January we have been working on our Church of Uganda Child Protection Policy, which has already received great support from all stakeholders in the Province. It still awaits the approval of the Provincial Assembly this year then it will be published. With the help of Rosie Giles we have made some handouts already for use by Children’s leaders and incorporated it in our Children at Risk Trainings. We have also made strides in compiling our Chaplaincy Handbook, and the draft copy has been already availed to Chaplains in their regional workshops. We hope this will also be a great resource in the equipping of both lay and ordained Ministers serving in our schools. The COU Children’s Discipleship Curriculum (8-14) Volume 2 was printed, we are looking forward to our third Volume. The young (3-8) Children have not been left out either, we are working on a material with CONNECT to have some improved teaching Curriculum which can be used in churches and schools. I am hopeful that by early next year we shall have copies for piloting its use.

 

Practicing their teaching skills with children

The fourth Focal area is Schools’ Ministry Leaders support trainings: 

    

Great emphasis is on our ministry in Church of Uganda Founded Schools because children spend 9 Months of the year while there. Most of them are boarding and therefore we have fulltime students there for at least 3 Months before they break off usually for 1 Month holiday. I have been visiting a number of our Schools both Primary and Secondary to do Ministry and encourage all those in leadership to put Ministry into consideration. Our third Regional Chaplaincy workshop for the Central Dioceses had 56 Chaplains both lay and ordained from 7 Dioceses in the Central and Bunyoro regions. We expect that Dioceses will duplicate the same since most of those serving in our schools are often not trained or even equipped for the ministry. A number of Dioceses are beginning to implement the 21^st Provincial Assembly resolutions on Chaplaincy Ministry. 

                             

The Provincial Secretary, Rev. Can. Amos Magezi addresses Chaplains during the Central Region Workshop March 2014

I thank all our partners and friends who have been generously contributing towards our work and Ministry financially, through prayers and encouragement. I also extend my gratitude to the Provincial leadership for the support, it has been morally uplifting. With God we are making big strides in the Ministry to children, I believe we are called to fulfill the words of Ps 78:4-7

  “We will not hide them from their children; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds  of the LORD, his power, and the wonders  he has done...... so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born,  and they in turn would tell their children. ^....Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands. “

God’s Blessings

Rev. Richard M. Rukundo

Asst. Provincial Education Coordinator/ provincial Children’s Ministry Coordinator 

Rev Richard with the children at Ankole Diocese
Youth Convention