Scott and Jennifer toasted us last week; here’s to the survival of your first term leading CSB alone. More than that, here’s to the survival of a crazy term 2 - the term which seems to have a habit of bringing violence at schools. We said a hearty, Amen.
In Term 1 (January to April) we, as a school, are all getting settled. It’s a new year with new classes and teachers and students are finding their pace, figuring out their schedules, making new friends and reacquainting with the old. Term 1 is also football season and the weekends are full of spectating and cheering and generally letting off steam. In term 3 (September to December) everyone is buckling down to serious study, disciplining themselves for those fearful and all-important end of year exams. Term 3 is short because of the national exams, and carries huge academic weight in students minds; it’s the cramming term.

But term 2 (May to August) . . . . It’s a term for discontent and distraction and disturbance. Students realizing all they lack and teachers realizing how ill-equipped we are to meet all the needs. Students need families - and families are absent and often ineffective. Students are teenagers craving relationship and the release of their hormonal urges; yet sexuality is rife with danger. They crave movement, action and the pushing of new ideas but they are within fences, held by class schedules and curfews and the restrictions of meal lines for every bite to eat. It’s a hard life for kids; and it’s hard for us staff, too. Boarding school doesn’t seem a natural environment for growing up. And Uganda doesn’t encourage exploration or independence or the valuing of uniqueness or new ideas or rebellion; all natural phases of growing up.

Of course we know why they’re here; here in this unnatural boarding school environment. They’re here to learn enough to pass national exams and have a hope of higher education. They’re here to learn that Jesus loves them and that He invites them into His family. They’re here to gain weight and increase hemoglobin through good feeding. They’re here to learn to speak and read fluent English. They’re here to learn to gain through service and to bring the Kingdom to others. They’re here to play sports and discover how amazingly their bodies can work. But it’s a challenge; for them, and for us.

So, last Friday students packed up and headed home. We were woken by happy singing in the morning, the singing of kids who are leaving school. Sort of disappointing to realize how happy they are to be going home, but also a dose of reality. School life, no matter how well-intentioned, does not replace family, community and freedom - no matter how lacking those things are for these kids.

Campus is empty now, except for our staff who are furiously marking papers and entering grades for report cards. Everyone is dressed in smart casual clothing and radios blare in the staff room - we are relaxed without the kids around. I commented to David how running a school feels almost ideal without students to worry about!!! David and I are trying to dig into the big picture, talks with staff and starting more projects. Thinking about things that daily life is often too busy for.

Next week we take off for a working week in Kampala; doing errands, using internet to explore new options for home and work and generally having a restful, caring environment to brainstorm and plan. Meanwhile 1/4 of our student body will come back on Monday to begin the Candidates Camp - three weeks of intensive study for those students who will sit for their national exams. One thing has ended, the next will quickly begin. I like the cycle but I crave balance in our family and home life and ministry life. We’d appreciate your prayers that we’d love each other well, that our kids would feel their value despite busyiness and that we would pull CSB staff together as a team; all the while taking care of the mundane and extraordinary daily details. It feels like a lot to juggle. So perhaps God has new things to show us, new ways to let go and let Him or to relax our standards for ourselves or others. Pray that we would give Him the time to speak and ourselves the time to listen.