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Seeking First:
An update from Mike & Marianne Botting
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Will you marry me?
This is maybe one of the biggest questions some of us ever have to answer. How does a person know whom they should marry? Upon what basis should such a huge decision, with all its lifelong implications, be made?
These are the questions being asked by a special group of young men and women here in Pader - and we're very excited to have been invited into the discussion!
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Pastors Donato and Christopher at Faith Mission Church in Pader have started a weekly training for youth on Monday evenings to help young, single men and women prepare for marriage - before they get into a relationship. This may not sound ground-breaking, but it is for two main reasons.
First, wars are known to disrupt the passing down of cultural knowledge and values. The insurgency in Acholiland spanned a whole generation, and the youth of today themselves are crying out that they are lost. Secondly, we have seen that the wider Church has not been teaching the youth about Biblical relationships and marriage, but have only offered teaching and counseling to people who are already married.
Since the war ended, the rate of cohabiting and divorce has sky-rocketed...leaving in its wake a trail of what we call pseudo-orphans; children whose parents are still both alive, but are left to the care of a grandmother, or perhaps a step-mother who may neglect them. This perpetuates the cycle, because many of these children grow up without knowing what it is to truly be loved.
This is a need we've seen and have been praying about for the last 3 years, and we're so excited that it is starting to be recognized by others. The youth attending are hungry, and when we pray together, their cry is "Lord, let us be a new generation!" Amen.
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Thank you very much!! Apwoyo matek!!
After our July letter, different supporters replied and offered us accommodation for our furlough and storage space for our belongings. Thanks be to God!
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We got an email recently that said, "Can you remind us what fills yours days when you're not doing CHE trainings?" We thought there may be others asking the same question.
Although we have shifted to a support role with the CHE ministry, there are still many CHE-related tasks that we help out with. In addition to facilitating CHE trainings, these include teaching CHE at Bishop Lee College, assisting with monitoring and follow-up, and supervising the translation of hundreds of pages of lessons into Acholi.
Outside of CHE, Mike does a lot of office admin, some of which is in support of the Emmanuel International Country Representative. At Bishop Lee, Marianne teaches English. Then there are the open doors we've been walking through; preparing and delivering Thursday morning radio talks, the Understanding True Love course and sexual reproductive health talks in local schools and churches, pre-marriage training with youth, preaching in local churches on Sundays, and responding to invitations to take part in trainings initiated by other organizations and churches.
In addition, an important part of our work is building relationships. While this is not a defined task, it is very important, because in the end, it's God working through people who change a community, and not the projects themselves.
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