Going for supervision

In their final year of their studies, our students have two pastoral placements:  Sunday placement, where they are placed in churches in Mukono, Kampala, and Namirembe Dioceses, and block placement, where they are placed in churches for three months prior to their final semester.  When I was a student, my Sunday placement was at the Cathedral next to UCU, and my block placement was at Christ our Lord, in Lake Ridge.  In both cases, the students are supervised by staff who drop by to observe them and see how they are doing.  I’m inferring that I caused a bit of a kerfuffle because no one supervised me while I was on block placement.  Clearly, UCU wasn't going to send anyone to the US to supervise me; I didn’t know I was supposed to find my own supervisor!

Block placement runs from October through December, and since there’s really no point in supervising the students in October, as they’ve just begun at the parish.  I take my annual leave in October/November, so I am falling into a pattern of doing my visitations in early December.  We try to sort our discipleship groups geographically so that we will supervise the students who we disciple.

I’ve been assuming that I would return to Soroti this year to supervise my students, and I was quite looking forward to it, as I’ve had those students in my discipleship group for two years, and know them well.  I was very much looking forward to meeting little Luke, who was born in June, and for whom our group had prayed.

When I returned from the US, I learned that I’m not going to Soroti; I’m visiting students who are near-ish to Kampala.  To say that I’m disappointed is a great understatement.  Apparently, some of the students had to be shuffled.  It happened while I was gone, so I don’t fully understand.  I had tried to lobby to have this settled before I left; I’ll try harder next year.  I really want to be in Soroti to see my students be ordained.