2024
My favorite part of going to Uganda this year was quite possibly the opportunity to teach and befriend the P7 students.
P7 is a big deal. It is the end of primary school (*the typical age range of 14-19 years old). Collectively across the country, they have a big test coming up in November that will tell if they essentially get to go on to High School... or if their education is done. Some of our goals were as simple as exposing them to English (since their test will be entirely in English). However, it became quickly apparent that we wanted to do a basic life training class. As Sam would say, "Teaching them what godly parents would teach their young teens" if they were able. I was informed by the Head Mistress at Hosanna School that most of the information I had shared was new to them. Some of it was even new to her.
Sam and I split up the guys and girls, ages 12+. After praying over what topics would be most beneficial (he picked similar topics), my excitement grew and grew. I don't typically enjoy public speaking, but when I have something on my heart to share? That I'm passionate about? With years of life experience to lend a hand to my "qualifications"? I'm suddenly all about it. As their peer I wanted to offer them something of value and I prayed and prayed the Lord would use it for them.
I landed on four main topics.
Health and Cleanliness, Emotions, Men and Friendships.
I wanted to teach very simple information on health, such as washing your hands and food before you eat, taking care of your body, how it works, etc. Hormones. Followed by an introduction to emotions. Now, being "self-aware" about what we are feeling is a fairly western concept with pros and cons, but not without merit. I especially highlighted anger, sadness, hopelessness and sensuality since those are new and heightened with hormones. They may sound like rough topics, but I wanted to be as useful as possible to them, and in my observation, those are useful to have God's perspective on! We talked about what to do when we feel them and how to honor God. "Just because you feel it does not make it true!" became the mantra. Feeling hopeless is just a feeling, it is not your reality. One might feel more sensual, but the truth of the matter might be very different from the sensation that temporarily blinds us. Feelings are real but fallible; they must not rule us as god. You get the picture. We talked about asking God for help, recognizing when we are upset and shouldn't make big decisions, and finally we talked about the good context some of these emotions can exist in!
Doused in a lot of Scripture, we talked about men. I'm not sure these girls have ever been truly warned about the dangers of hook up culture. I expanded quite a bit, but mostly wanted to let them know that there would be smoothe talkers promising them the world... but that good men do exist, even in their town. We talked quite a while about what Biblical love is, what God says a husband should be, about waiting out the test of time to see if someone is true, and finally, letting these girls know they have value. I took a poll and was so shocked that only two out of all the girls asked believed that they had value. (My next teaching decidedly would cover this in depth. I wanted them to know Who God is and as a result what He has to say about them!) (*We also covered what to do if men were not new to them in one form or another. I was of course aware of the sensitivity of the subject but would be sorely amiss to omit it... as I'm sure that sadly that was majorly the case... in one way or another. This is where the Gospel comes in that we all so desperately need! Whether sin or abuse we addressed it in as much love and empathy and truth as I could pour out... while keeping it viewer sensitive to the other young girls.)
Lastly :)
After prayer I realized that there is one topic that is underrated that will really make or break your life: and that is friendships! Who you choose to be around will shape you and effect you in untold ways. A good friend will be life-giving. We talked about how to be a good friend. That the enemy likes to destroy friendships, so how to have humility instead of pride during conflict. We talked about bad friends and when to leave. About praying for good friends. And honestly, although all the information felt important, this topic oddly pressed on me as the most important. Random examples include that they might never go out to bars to meet destructive men if they have healthy friendships at younger ages. They might not struggle with unwanted emotions if they have healthy friendships that encourage healthy behavior. Who knows how their life might change if they have faithful friends to turn to, laugh with and lift each other up!
*I ended on a quick note about honoring our parents. Not necessarily emulating in some cases. But honoring them as the Bible teaches.
At the end of the day, if there is one thing I wanted for these girls... one thing I wish I could impart to them... one thing I most deeply prayed for... it was for genuine hearts to love the Lord. The Lord can do anything with a soft heart! And everything we teach or they hear will just be useless information without genuineness of spirit to receive and respond to it.
I will share some photos from our various teaching days in this post :)
Some of our P7 students
Love, Sarah
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