The place
that I am living now feels like home which has been particularly nice after
long days out. Over the past few days,
we have been touring and learning more about Watoto Church and all of its
ministries. I am going to split this
blog into two sections in order to not make them that lengthy. I will begin with talking about the church and
the Watoto 360 program.
On
Thursday, we had our very first official day in Watoto 360. Early in the morning, our driver, Abeh, drove
us to Watoto Central Church. It looks
like the majority of our class sessions will be held at Watoto Central in a
room right beside where the children’s choir rehearses. OH MY GOSH!!!
They are sweet little treasures!
I was talking to some of my Ugandan classmates, and they said that when
they were younger, they also participated in the choir. The Watoto Children’s Choir travels all over the
world with each choir consisting of different children from the Children’s
villages. What an amazing opportunity
for kids to travel!
Watoto has
five churches in Kampala, north, south, east, west, and central. Watoto Central is where Gary Skinner, the
founder of Watoto, preaches. There are
also churches located in each of the Children’s Villages. Let me tell you that the Watoto church is
alive! Between all of the different
campuses, they are 20,000 members strong. A regular church service includes a five
part-harmony, African version of Hillsong worship band, a hip-hop dance crew,
smoke machine, rappers, lots of hugs, people dancing in and out of the pews, and…
a DJ spinning beats as the congregation comes in. Myself and the other internationals are
asking our Ugandan friends to teach us to dance so we don’t look like complete
idiots every church service. Besides all of the flashiness, there is a real
core to Watoto church. I like how they
use African cultural elements in their worship to reach to the African people. As I said before there are many different campuses
to the Watoto church. Every week, the
different campus pastors meet and write a communal sermon to be preached the
next Sunday. Even though the church is
rather large, Watoto is a cell-based church, meaning that every individual
church-goer is a part of a cell or small group.
The small groups consist of a maximum of 10 people that meet once a week
to study the Bible. The coolest thing
that I have encountered at Watoto Church so far was at the youth and young
adult conferences that have been going on this last week at Watoto Central. We attended a few of the incredible sessions
on both Thursday and Friday with the guest pastor, Earl McClellan from
Shoreline Church in Dallas, Texas. Every
session we attended, whether it was in the morning or late at night, all the
pastors from each of the Watoto campuses were there sitting in the front row
and I mean all of the pastors, not just the youth ones!
As Thursday
was our first official day in Watoto 360, it was also the first day we got to
meet the entire class. There are 54 of
us in all, 8 of which are internationals, 4 Ugandans who are connected with
Watoto Church, and the other 42 are all from the Watoto Children’s Villages. I will explain more about the villages in my
next blog but to summarize, the villages contain children who were vulnerable
and in need of some help, whether that mean they were orphans or their parents
were unable to care for them. Ya,
powerful! My fellow classmates are
amazing human beings who have gone through a lot of hardships in their
lives. They also are the most welcoming
and loving individuals I have ever met.
In the last three days of getting to know my Ugandan classmates, I have received
many hugs, shared many laughs, and have conversed in some deep
conversations. I am so excited to learn
from these incredible individuals that I am privileged to call classmates.
As part of
our orientation, we had Gary Skinner, the founder of Watoto, come to our class
to speak to us about how Watoto began almost 30 years ago. It was such a great honor to have him talk to
us, especially since he doesn’t share the whole story of Watoto to that many
people. He described his life growing
up, what lead him to Uganda, what Uganda was like when he first arrived, how he
sometimes feels like quitting, and how he first established a church in
Kampala. The first church they founded,
Watoto Central, actually used to be a building in control of the army. What an amazing turn-around from a place of
violence to now one of love and peace.
Gary shared with us how he really didn’t want to have anything to do
with childcare ministries whatsoever.
All Gary wanted to do was preach and establish churches in Uganda. He stated that God had a different plan in
mind for him and flat out told him, “I did not bring you here to preach but to
look after my children.” It was then
that Gary began the Childcare ministries and Watoto has been growing ever
since. There are two villages in
Kampala, one in Gulu and they are beginning to establish a church in southern
Sudan. The cool thing about the whole
time he shared with us was that it seemed like the whole story was still very
fresh, raw and real to him. He broke
down and cried numerous times as he spoke.
At one point, he asked each group of us to stand up. When it was turn for the forty-two Watoto
graduates to stand up, he bawled. The
whole mission of Watoto Childcare and church is to raise up the next generation
of African leaders and those forty-two people are living proof to that future
promise.
So yes, I believe
I will learn a lot from this amazing organization and all the people that are
involved in it. I am so thankful to be
here. Next blog will be about the
children’s villages and other cool ministries of Watoto.
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