Dear ITEM Next Gen Partners,
If you have been a part of the ITEM family for any amount of time you know that there is one thing for certain here in Africa and that not much of anything is certain. More about that in a minute.
THE ORIGNAL PLAN
The original meeting with students from Kampala International University was scheduled for 5-8pm with time set aside for dinner. When I met with the leadership of Apologetics Uganda (AU) on Monday, they asked if they could interview me today on the topic of worldview and I agreed. That was scheduled for 3pm.
Jim Glasscock, ITEM missionary and my host this week, showed up at the restaurant where the seminar would take place at 5. It wasn’t conducive to an interview but one of the AU guys know someone with an office right around the corner. Jim took us there. It was a perfect location. In fact, he had a recording studio right there in his office. I will put a picture of the interview in the album. The interview went well. It will be edited, and I will be sent the link. I am not sure how soon I will get a link to the video. It will be on You Tube somewhere. When I get it, I will forward it to you (if I am still on this trip).
WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED
We got back to the restaurant before 5 and helped set up equipment. 5pm and only 3-4 were there. 5:15, 5:30… so one of the organizers said other students would be coming at 6 and we would start then. Then it became 6, 6:15 and a few students were trickling in. So, I suggested that we serve dinner and start at 7 and go to 8, when we were originally scheduled to be done.
At about 6:45 I suggested we start at 6:55. About that time, one member of our two-man organizing left to look for the other guy (organizer). So, 7pm came and neither of the organizers were present so I walked up and introduced myself and we started.
NOW THE GOOD STUFF
During out long wait, I had time to talk to Eddie, the campus pastor and one of the organizers, about the emerging generation here and he confirmed that their beliefs and struggles are like those of the emerging in the US. Individualistic, autonomous, and searching for meaning and purpose.
Knowing that I was going to focus on worldview (how one sees, interprets, and responds to the world and God) and how culture, tradition, musicians, actors/actresses, educators, and social media can impose a worldview on them that isn’t biblical or Christian without them realize what is happening to them, I wanted to find out as much as I could about the group.
In my talk on worldview, I spent a lot of time talking about how so many things surround them daily, competing for their attention and attempting to form their worldview. Then I went through a list of worldviews.
I told them that every worldview must answer questions about the origins of the universe, what it means to be human, where morality comes from, where meaning comes from, and what happens after we die. Then I assured them that every person in the world has a worldview because every person has an answer for each of those questions.
The list of worldviews I talked about were Biblical Christian (God is personal and involved in His creation), Deisim (God is not personal and is not involved in his creation), Naturalism (there is not God and everyone is on their own to find meaning and purpose but there is no life after death, Nihilism (hopelessness due to no unifying story, meaning, or purpose), Postmodernism (no absolute truth can be known), and Scientism (if it can’t be verified in a science lab, it cannot be known to be true.
After the talk the host (a local pastor who set it up) asked for questions and there were 4-5. One wanted a review of naturalism and nihilism. One wanted to know what our God-given purpose was. One wanted me to compare the naturalism of Cicero (and natural law) differed from naturalism. I didn’t see that one coming. I tiptoed around Cicero and simply re-defined naturalism from the philosophical realm; naturalism (no God, no supernatural) compared to supernaturalism (God exists, the supernatural exists).
It ended up being a good (short) night. One young man who had stopped going to church stated that he wanted to attend the church that was sponsoring the seminar. We thank God for that decision.
That is all for Thursday. Friday night I speak at the host church. There will be a public audience. Whoever shows up will show up. The pastor wanted me to talk about the Christian worldview again and compare it with African Traditional Religion. The scheduled time is 6-8. I will let you know tomorrow when we started and stopped. Because as you know the only thing certain here is that nothing is certain.
I’ve added several pics of the drive through town and some of the meeting last night and tonight.
HERE IS THE LINK TO THE PIC ALBUM
One more meeting here with the general public Friday night. Saturday, I re-connect with my longtime friend, Julius Twongyeirwe, and his wife before heading back to Nairobi Saturday night and a couple of days to rest before heading to Nigeria.
Pray again, please, for the meeting tomorrow. That there will be good results from my talks.
By His grace,
Steve
Speaker/Apologist
ITEM Next Gen Ministry
