Greetings and Merry Christmas! We pray this season finds you well.  We loved connecting with family and friends during our 2 months in the US this year.  We are still sad at the loss of JoEllyn’s mother, but rejoice in renewed family relationships.

This Christmas marks 5½ years at UCU!  We are so blessed by the life and work and people here, though the challenges grow and change daily where we are involved in:

Transformational Leadership

Daily evidence renders this no cliché.

Doug is coordinating development of UCU programs to help Ugandan leaders better steward emerging oil sector resources.  Massive oil reserves discovered in Western Uganda will produce vast revenue and create 10,000 jobs.  UCU will provide accounting, legal, environmental, and social programs to help the industry.

JoEllyn’s office recently backed a student-led initiative to fundraise from students to help out their colleagues.  The “Save a Buddy” program raises money, but the lasting benefit will be improved attitudes among students toward helping each other.

Alyssa founded a “Schools for Schools” club to raise support for Invisible Children, a program for Northern Ugandan children hurt by war and poverty.  She enlightens schoolmates about the LRA and coordinates fundraisers.  She may also travel to Zambia in 2010 for a student leadership initiative.

UCU’s Vice Chancellor, Stephen Noll, will retire from UCU next August.  Stephen Noll helped transform UCU from a small college to a full-fledged University with excellent standing in East Africa.  We look forward to the next VC, to see which person of vision, passion, and experience will shepherd UCU.  Before he goes though, Noll has started stirring the pot at UCU a bit more.

For example, Doug is currently leading a comprehensive and unprecedented review of UCU’s 34 administrative departments.  His 25 member team will recommend improvements in finance, communication, human resources, and performance.  (JoEllyn heads the communication team.)

Doug facilitated UCU’s Cabinet retreat December 12-14 to improve leadership and consider reorganization.  Doug will also facilitate a retreat for the University Council in January, on  distance learning.

JoEllyn continues working with University Computing and the Bursar (Accounts) office to implement integrated information management systems. UCU is implementing modern data systems to improve services and management.

Transformational Leadership is also the new title for the last chapter of Doug’s Health and Wholeness book.  Over 8,300 students have taken H&W at 5 campuses nationwide.  This course equips future professionals to be ‘health leaders’ in any context in which they find themselves.

Anybody can make a difference in a country where 1 mother dies during every 200 births and 13% of children die before they turn 5.

Will Karamoja Develop?

Can UCU be part of a national strategy in transformational leadership?  Sure!  Maybe!  Consider Uganda’s remote Northeastern regions which house the Karamojong, a nomadic and fiercely isolationist tribe.  The region is economically depressed and famine-prone.  Cattle are the measure of a man; education has little value. 

Uganda’s First Lady, Mrs. Janet Museveni, is working to overcome this.  One strategy is to identify then assist qualified students to get a University education. 

The other evening, two young ladies approached Doug as he walked back from class.  It was 7pm on a pitch black evening.  Doug had just lectured on maternal health to 175 students in a large hall without a microphone – deaf from his own voice, it was hard to hear their soft spoken voices.

 “We are from Karamoja. The President’s office sponsors our tuition.  They also gave us $75 (equiv.) per semester to help with food and living expenses. Those at home will not help with our upkeep. We ran out of money and have not eaten in 3 days. This is starting to affect our studies.”

Doug helped them eat that night and referred them to JoEllyn’s office – but to do what? Find cash?  Pray?  Negotiate with the President’s office?  Answer: all three.  This is what JoEllyn does every day, why 900 students takes so much effort.   We’ll see what comes, stay tuned.

Thanks Received - Passed Along to You

The other day, a young woman visited us to say “thank you.”  She gave us a basket and a graduation picture.  A couple years ago JoEllyn and Alyssa found a student crying in the bushes near our house.  JoEllyn found out that she was going to have to leave UCU for lack of only a little money.  JoEllyn connected her with a work study gift from a UCU staff member and she earned a merit scholarship for her final two years. She has now graduated and is set to start teaching in High School! 

Another graduate – a nursing student we helped connect with sponsors - also left a hand crafted plaque that says “no words can express how grateful I am…”  We return glory to God and pass thanks to YOU for making it possible for us to be here.

We thank God for His work and your sacrificial support that makes this all possible.   Please pray – our days are long, and there are risks and dangers around.  Recent riots over tribal issues left gunfire ringing in our ears from morning to evening.  Generally we are safe and happy.   

Pray also for UCU.  We now have over 7,700 students; we start building the new science labs and the new library soon. Pray for our search for a new Vice Chancellor.

 THANK YOU, God bless you,

-Doug, JoEllyn, and Alyssa