Thursday, July 25, 2013

Learning by Doing...

Solomon Muwanguzi is a Child Development student at ARU. Currently students are on holiday and required to complete a 10 week internship in their field of study before the next term begins. Solomon was placed at a local primary school to get some hands on experience with children. 


Early on Solomon noticed that the children did not have a playground. During their breaks they just ran around in a field without any tools or sports equipment. So he asked the school for a bag of nails.


With a bag of nails in hand Solomon chopped down a few trees and build a playground from the ground up with the bag of nails, a few tree branches and whatever scraps of material he could find around the school. 


 I cannot tell you how exciting this is to see one of our students practicing stewardship with his time, talents and whatever material he had at his disposal. Solomon didn't focus on what the school didn't have... he looked at what the school needed and made it possible through what little he was given.


 And do you see the results... look how excited those children are!


Way to go Solomon! It is such an encouragement to see you using the knowledge you have received to serve the children in our community!


Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Witchcraft on the grave of Christian martyrs


The Uganda Martyrs day is one of the strongest evidence that syncretism is the number one setback of Christianity in Uganda. With 3 million "Christians" gathered in one place it is the biggest Christian gathering of the year...If Jesus went to Namugongo...what do you think he would do?...I think he would only go to overturn tables and chase the money changers.

At the root of the problem facing Christianity in Uganda is a double standard life where people mix traditional culture and Christianity. People cloth old religious beliefs with a Christian dress. People profess Christ but live everyday lives using traditional practices. This explains why Uganda is 83% Christian yet one of the most corrupt nations on earth. Many are Christians on the surface and traditionalists deep inside.

This week we celebrated the Uganda martyrs day and over 3 million “Christians” gathered to celebrate the life of these martyrs. The Uganda Martyrs day is the strongest evidence proving the mixture of Christianity and traditional witch craft practices. People walk on foot all the way from Nairobi (650km), Kabale (450 km), Gulu (300km), all in the name of expressing their love for God and seeking answers to their questions, with the hope that their walking will manipulate God to give them what they want, without genuinely believing in him. It takes weeks and days to reach their final destination, the site of the murder of 39 Ugandan Christians in 1886. These were killed by Kabaka Mwanga for their faith in Jesus. They were killed in cold blood, the youngest about 12 years walked into the fire without being tied. They had committed their life to Jesus and rejected mixing traditional demonic practices with Christianity. The very practices the martyrs opposed and hence died for are the very practices displayed at the scene of their murder.  None of the martyrs would have in their life time. worshipped anyone who died for Christ. They saw Christ as the only person to live and die for. If the martyrs were in Namugongo this week, they would have torn their garments at the sound of those who hailed them and would have urged them to worship God alone.

There were long lines that stretched about 5 kms with “Christians” struggling to get “holy” water from the site. The belief is that it will heal them. How different is this from witchcraft? People collect soil from the site and carry it home with the hope that it will heal them. How different is this from witchcraft? People go to pray through these Christian “ancestors” with the hope that God will answer their prayers. How different is this from witchcraft?

Witchcraft is worshipping creation rather than the Creator.  This is besides the drunkenness, immoral sex orgies and dancing. It is on record that the police jails around the shrine are most occupied during Martyrs celebrations. This year alone over 70 petty thieves were arrested, about 15 0 drunken drivers were taken to the police jails. There are mobile bars set up, mobile disco’s set up, and mobile distilleries set up. Live pigs are taken to be slaughtered for roasting. Sadly this is the largest Christian gathering of the year with over 3 million gathered in one place. In Uganda, there is no larger Christian gathering. Could this be because the church is not answering the questions that Ugandans are asking? These are questions concerning illness, misfortune and fear of spirits.

If Jesus was to go to Namugongo, I believe he would only go to over turn tables and chase away the money changers. This is because Jesus is no longer the center of the celebration. It has been turned into a big festive party instead of a worship service. At Africa Renewal University where leaders are trained for the transformation of society, we believe that Christ must be the center of every thing we do. Let him who has ears hear.

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Media Siege in Uganda: The real question behind it...


The question is not whether or not there is freedom of speech in Uganda. The question is, now that there is no freedom of speech in Uganda. What next? How shall we hold our leaders accountable?
With the recent media siege that involved the closure of the two top “objective” media houses in Uganda, lots of questions have been raised. Is there freedom of speech in Uganda? Will the media houses report objectively? Who will speak for the oppressed Ugandans? Are all the other media houses state controlled? Are Ugandans free to say what they want within their country? Is current government falling apart? Is media freedom a threat to the current government’s existence?  I believe that these are surface level questions that will lead us on an endless rabbit trail; they do not answer the fundamental question that is at the root of Uganda’s problem.
There is an Acholi proverb that states, “When the beat changes, so does the dance.” The beat in Uganda has changed, so what next? Shall we dance to the music or not? Will the government determine what pastors say at the pulpit? Will pastors speaking against government evils be silenced? Will churches that speak against the evil in government be closed? Will church leaders emulate this by chasing away whoever speaks against them? Will the police continue to be used as a means of suffocating freedom of speech? Shall Britain and America continue donating money to fund this type of “freedom”? The music has changed, what happens to the dance?
After all is said and done, I believe the root question in all this is, “HOW WILL WE HOLD OUR LEADERS ACCOUNTABLE? Without accountability we are building on sinking sand. How will we hold our leaders accountable without the freedom of speech? How will we hold our leaders accountable in the 3rd most corrupt country in Africa? How will we hold our leaders accountable in a country where over 1 million children die every year from Malaria? How will we hold our leaders accountable in a country where 16 women die each day in child labor? How will we hold our leaders accountable in a country with an unemployment rate of 84%? Ironically we are 83% “Christian”. What lessons on accountability are we teaching our children in a country were 56% of the population is below the age of 15 years?
I believe in all this the key question is. HOW SHALL WE HOLD OUR LEADERS ACCOUNTABLE? For this reason one of our core values at Africa Renewal University is accountability. Uganda needs leaders that are accountable. I Rest my case.
Kilama Dennis
Co- Department Head, Africa Renewal University
Pastor Lugogo Baptist Church

Friday, May 31, 2013

Freedome of Speech?

Today the Daily Monitor... a popular Ugandan newspaper... re-opened after a 10 day siege by the Ugandan police. The Daily Monitor is the second most popular newspaper in Uganda... but it is unique in that it is not owned by the government.

So why was a public newspaper shut down for 10 days which were filled with protests, violence and out cries from Human Rights agencies around the globe?

Because an article was written about a government plan to assassinate senior army and government officials who opposed the plan for the President's son to succeed him in office.

Talk about looking guilty... they should have just laughed and ignored the story...

Unless it is true!

Ever since the deadly "Walk to Work" protests of April 2011... which no one heard about since the world news was only covering Will and Kate's Wedding... I have been shocked to see the escalating abuse of power in Uganda... it seems that anyone who writes, says or even thinks negatively about the President or his government will be arrested, beaten or removed from their position...

We talk about the leadership crisis in Uganda at ARU all the time with staff and student... this last week was just further proof of the great need to train leaders to share the compassion of Christ and hope of the Gospel in the midst of pain and suffering!

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Values-Driven Education - Conclusion

At the 6th Annual Exhibition of Institutions hosted by the National Council for Higher Education ARCC was asked to present a paper on "The Role of Universities in Advancing National Cohesion and Integration." The following is a portion of the paper presented by Jeff Atherstone, the Director of ARCC, on the role of values in education for advancing national cohesion and integration.

VALUES WORK TOGETHER
You will notice at this point that there is a degree of overlap in our values. The scholarship students are required to work 10 hours per week on campus (accountability) and also students and staff work together on Friday mornings (community) and the majority of their projects take place on our school farm (stewardship). Just as values must be established and implanted into our character they must also work well together and not conflict with one another.

You cannot have competing values such as community and individualism, extravagance and stewardship or irresponsibility and accountability. Values must work hand in hand to achieve the intended results that we are aiming for.

Values must work hand in had with the vision of the school. If the vision can be seen as the foundation of the building, then values would be seen as the pillars, which cause everything else to stand. You will remember that the vision of our Institution is to “equip Christian leaders for transformation of society.” Our values are the pillars that we believe will bring about transformation: accountability addressing corruption, stewardship addressing poverty and community to bring unity to diverse groups of people.

There are many lectures that I have forgotten over the course of my lifetime but whenever I need information I know where to find it.  Values are not something that you can find when you run up against a problem in life. Values are implanted deep within your character and will reveal themselves when the storms of life hit you the hardest.

When I was in secondary school I had a coach who taught us the value of perseverance. Everyday he would shout from the sidelines of the field “quitting is a habit!” And every day he would give us an opportunity to practice perseverance. He would start practice by giving us a goal such as “run for 30 minutes straight.” I will never forget the day that one of my teammates stopped running at 29 minutes. My coach called us all over and told us that one of us had quit so we would all pay the price. We all had to start the run over again, a full 30 minutes. But this time we also had to pull the others along who fell behind. Not one of my teammates quit that run. We wouldn’t let them. And still to this day every time I am tempted to quit early I can hear my coach shouting, “Quitting is a habit!”  And believe me, I don’t want to start that run over again from the beginning.

YOUR VALUES ARE YOUR STUDENT’S FUTURE
So how do we measure the success of our “values-driven education?”

Each week when our staff comes together we measure our success. For a shoe salesman he would measure his sales in number of shoes sold. For a restaurant they could measure their success in number of costumers served. At ARCC we measure our success in number of lives that have been transformed. Every staff meeting a member of staff will volunteer to give the testimony of a student’s life that they have seen changed. In order for this to happen you realize that the staff actually have to know the students and interact with them.

Specifically we ask the staff to demonstrate how the students have been transformed by the values of the school. Two weeks ago a staff member shared the testimony of a student from Lira. School fees have been a problem for this young man in the past but this term he cam and paid his fees in full. The staff member took the time to listen to the young mans story and find out what had changed.

This student was assigned to work on our farm the previous term as part of our Scholarship Program. In working on the farm he was taught stewardship, specifically the farming practices of composting and proper spacing of plants. When he returned home he realized that he had not been properly caring for his land and his garden of sunflowers was not profitable. So he dug up his sunflowers and replaced them with peppers. Modeling the practices that he had learned at ARCC about stewardship. By the time the field produced he had more than enough to cater for his school fees and tuition.

To borrow an old analogy, lecture tells students about fishing but values give our students the skills to fish. As Universities we need to take advantage of this golden opportunity to impact the next generation of leaders for Uganda by imparting in them the values that will bring about true transformation for our nation. Imparting knowledge does not ensure that our students will use that knowledge for the good of their fellow man but imparting values will direct our students to effectively use the knowledge they attain at University for the good of their fellow man and the development of this nation.

Monday, October 8, 2012

Values-Driven Education - Stewardship

At the 6th Annual Exhibition of Institutions hosted by the National Council for Higher Education ARCC was asked to present a paper on "The Role of Universities in Advancing National Cohesion and Integration." The following is a portion of the paper presented by Jeff Atherstone, the Director of ARCC, on the role of values in education for advancing national cohesion and integration.


EXAMPLE #3 – STEWARDSHIP
Uganda has been called “the pearl of Africa.” We have beautiful soil, abundant rain and sunshine, along with thick and diverse vegetation. Yet many people in our country are hungry and ranked among the poorest in the world. How can a country be so fertile and yet so poor at the same time?


Jesus Christ told us that “the poor will always be with you” and so we are not claiming to have the answers to end all world poverty. We do believe that we can do better and alleviate a great portion of the poverty around us through teaching proper management of time and resources, which we call stewardship.

In order to teach the value of time some of our students pay us in units of time rather than in Uganda shillings. In 2009 we established a Scholarship Fund to help students from disadvantaged regions of Uganda. Currently we have 85 students enrolled in this program. Each student is required to pay a small fee of less than 100,000 UGX per semester in addition to working 10 hours per week on campus. Students in this program are assigned jobs in the library, IT lab, kitchen, farm, maintenance and secretarial services.

With 85 students providing 10 hours per week this is the equivalent of having 21 full-time employees working for free. Between the Scholarship Program and our Friday Community Days, discussed under the value of community, over 40% of the human resource hours on campus last term were performed by students in a volunteer capacity. As I mentioned before, practicing values-driven education has the potential to save your university money.

Along with practicing stewardship with our human resource we also practice stewardship with our natural resources. Currently our campus has 20 acres of which only 6 are used for classrooms, offices and dormitories. The rest of the 14 acres were covered in weeds when we bought them 2 years ago. Our philosophy with land is that if we don’t have finances for buildings we will use the land for farming. Currently our campus has 4 acres of matoke, 4 acres of beans, 2 acres of potatoes and 4 acres of assorted vegetables, including pumpkin, eggplant, peppers, onions and tomatoes. We have also incorporated 250 fruit trees into the landscaping of the campus.

This term our projection is that the farm will provide over 50% of the food served to our 200 staff and students this term. With the majority of our students boarding on campus this represents a huge savings to the school that can be used in other areas to improve the library, IT and other student services on campus.

Our goal is to build a university campus that provides a model of our value of stewardship in the way we care for creation. We also have plans to add on solar panels to collect power from the sun and to build water collection tanks to capture the rain from our roofs to be used for our campus farm.

Click here to watch our Stewardship Video. 


Friday, October 5, 2012

Values-Driven Education - Accountability

At the 6th Annual Exhibition of Institutions hosted by the National Council for Higher Education ARCC was asked to present a paper on "The Role of Universities in Advancing National Cohesion and Integration." The following is a portion of the paper presented by Jeff Atherstone, the Director of ARCC, on the role of values in education for advancing national cohesion and integration.


EXAMPLE #2 -ACCOUNTABILITY
This is a value that we see as essential for the future of our nation. With continual reports of corruption among our leaders unrest and division is surely to follow. So at Africa Renewal Christian College accountability starts at the top.

Each term in the final week before exams the Director of Africa Renewal Christian College gives a term-end report to the student body. This report gives a detailed summary of all fees collected, donations received and other streams of income to the institution during that period of the calendar year. Then a report is given of all operational and capital expense detailing the amount in Uganda Shillings as well as the percentage of the overall budget.

Why would a school go to such length to report to their students?

Because we have nothing to hide. We are accountable!

The first time this event took place it was actually to address concerns some students had expressed over the schools finances. At the time they felt that too much was being spent on construction not realizing that we had received a large sum of donations designated for new construction. Once the report was finished they were so grateful we figured it only made sense to continue the tradition.

When leaders are accountable the people follow.

We also require our students to be accountable whether it be in paying their fees, reporting on time to class, handing in their assignments or citing sources correctly within their papers. We believe that students must be held to rigid standards in their conduct and academics in order to help them develop into responsible and accountable adults.

For there to be true accountability there must be an instructive consequence for behavior that is not acceptable. I have noticed that when a student is caught dodging school fees, cheating on an exam or missing an assignment their immediate response is to plead for forgiveness. As Christians we believe strongly in forgiveness but that does not necessarily mean shielding the student from consequences. We can forgive a student for missing an assignment but that does not mean that we have to give them credit for work they did not do. We can forgive a student for cheating but that does not mean that we will still allow them to receive passing marks for that class. We do this because we believe that consequences are a great form of instruction, which can lead students to right behavior.

We have been asked before why we use the term accountability rather than integrity. At ARCC we believe that the two go hand in hand. If you are accountable you will be a person of integrity. If you are not accountable you will not be a person of integrity.