Westminster Theological College

At last, the project trip is here!

I’m excited to share with everyone that my fall eMi project trip begins today. I’ve been looking forward to this trip since May or June or whenever I saw that eMi was partnering with a Reformed college in Uganda. As soon as I saw the project listed on the eMi USA homepage, I did a Google search for the local pastor to learn as much about the ministry as possible. If you’re interested, you can read what I did here.

A major problem in Uganda is the lack of qualified pastors for the local churches. “Operation World” reports this, along with the anecdotal evidence I’ve heard and seen. For instance, one of our local staff members was told in her church that if a Christian commits a sin and then dies, they’ll go to hell. Straight, simple, and wrong. Last week sometime I met with an evangelist named David (incidentally, we were introduced to each other solely because his brother, Wilberforce, thought that two people with the same name should meet ). Anyway, I met David at his house and the few books I saw were those written by some folks generally considered to be theologically misleading (Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland). I hope to meet with him again and discuss the Bible, find out more about what he believes, and share with him some of the problems I see with his books.

I think that it would be helpful to describe the larger Ugandan Presbyterian context that Westminster will serve. And I know that Trevor, Tyler and several other PCA/CPCers are reading this and leap with excitement over the very word “Presbyterian.” So a quick background, which I’m taking from the application eMi received from Westminster:

The Presbyterian Church in Uganda started in 1979 after the Tanzanian army succeeded in dislodging Amin’s reign of terror. It started as a small congregation aiming to fulfill Christ’s message of going to the whole world and preaching the Gospel. The founder of the PCU was Rev. Dr. Kefa Sempangi, who carefully studied the Reformed faith. The PCU has established more than 40 organized churches and more than 15,000 members.

A quick note about the Ugandan school system before going on…this little chart was described to me by Semei, our office manager who is Ugandan. It’s the best approximation I’ve been able to come up with:

Uganda America
Nursery School ~ Day Care
Primary School ~ Elementary School
Secondary School ~ Middle School/Junior High
College (O level) ~ High School Underclassmen
College (A level) ~ High School Upperclassmen
University ~ 4 Year College/University

Westminster is currently called Westminster Theological College, meaning that it is somewhat comparable to an American high school. They are fully operational and have ~40 students currently enrolled (this number is a guess). They desire that their students become both pastors in local churches as well as Christian leaders in society. Part of their vision for accomplishing this work is by developing Bachelor and Master level programs for approximately 300 students. Westminster currently owns ten acre and six acre plots of land and desires to develop these properties for their campus. And this is where eMi comes in…

Our team of volunteers will meet with the Westminster folks this week to discuss the vision and master plan for the campus. Here’s a quick breakdown of those involved:

Emma-Dean of WTC and pastor at Zana Community Presbyterian Church
Fred-A local pastor
Dave-An American faculty member at WTC
Bruce-An American faculty member at WTC

Kevin-A volunteer civil engineer from the US
Gene-A volunteer architect from the US
Kathryn-A volunteer architect from the US

Chad- The eMi East Africa director, civil engineer, and Project Leader
John-An eMi construction management intern
Me-An eMi architectural engineering intern

The volunteers will arrive in Uganda later tonight, and then we’ll all meet with the ministry tomorrow after visiting Zana Church. The rest of the week will be spent surveying the plots, developing drawings, and praying for much wisdom. I know that my responsibilities will be to participate in the master planning/building design meetings and helping out with structural issues (no worries here folks, it’s all single story…I think).

I actually hoped to write a bit more but I need to do a couple of other things before I leave in a few hours, namely, pack my bag. Look for a follow-up report in a couple of weeks with more pictures and an update of how the trip went. For those praying for us, please keep this trip in mind, particularly:
1) That our team would be able to provide Westminster with the design help they need
2) That the grace and love of Christ may be furthered in Uganda as a result of our work

And you may be wondering…Amanda will be spending the week with Shanthi (Chad’s wife). They just adopted two children (ages 2 and 4) in addition to their two biological children (ages 6 and 8). She’s excited to help out over there after school.