I spent December in Uganda. It was ATL month, which stands for Ask The Lord. We as a team prayed about it, where God wants us to have, where he leads us to serve. God provided in wonderful ways and connected us with amazing people. So here a short review on a few favorite things of mine we did in Uganda.
Jinja – a city at the source of the Nile River
James Place
We started the first 5 days of our ATL month spending at James Place. This organization called “heal-ministries” provides a place for abandoned women or widows to work and with that to assure a livelihood for their children. The women do different kind of work: pottery, sewing, making baskets or making beads out of paper for necklaces (see picture). Our ministry there was to pour into this women with our encouragement and helping them with their daily work. I met Florence (see picture) who is making beads and joined her on a fabulous church service one Sunday. On Saturday we helped with the kids program – we counted almost 600 kids – and handed them the Christmas bags out we made for their families as a Christmas gift from heal-ministries.
Bridge Calvary Chapel
Because of the Christmas break the organization takes, we had to search for another place to stay and work with. We had troubles finding a place to stay in our budget…but God is faithful and provided within time on our last full day being there a simple but good apartment under budget! Our apartment was part of the compound of the Bridge Calvary Chapel where other Ugandan families and missionaries lived. So we ended up staying there for 11 days and started building different relationships with people from the compound and with people from the town while visiting their stores. Because the Church was inside the compound a lot of people came there day by day. That was an awesome opportunity for us to connect with different people. For example, I built a relationship with a girl who started a women empowerment group. The women are living in a slum area without running water and without electricity (see picture). I went there once to visit their group, to encourage them with a word from the Bible in what they are doing and to just spend time with them. (Side note: African culture views visitors as a blessing. That’s why you are most of the time without exception welcome in their homes.)
One day we helped an organization called Soul Hope. They do awesome sustainable work in fighting against jiggers. Jiggers are a parasite who multiply themselves fast in unclean conditions. They enter people’s feet, breed and cause pain to the people. In worst case they hinder people to walk because of the pain it would cause. Every Thursday, the organization visit villages who are harmed by jiggers. They set up a clinic under tents where the medical trained staff removes the jiggers from people’s feet. We volunteered there by washing feet before the treatment and by taking notes for the staff where the jiggers are. Beside the treatment the organization educates people regarding prevention. Part of the prevention is to wear shoes because a lot of Africans living in remote villages walk barefoot. That’s why the organization dispense self-made shoes. And that explains the bad fashion statement in the picture with skirts and tennis shoes as well: Dress code was to wear a skirt to the ankle and recommendation to wear tennis shoes as a prevention of jiggers.
Another day we went volunteering at the Amani Baby Cottage. It’s a house for children where parents can’t take care of them. Some of the children are free for adoption. Our job there was to help the aunties with cleaning, feeding, playing,…. just helping to take care of the children’s needs. I was helping with six 2-years-old boys.
We also had the opportunity to join a choir from the Bridge Calvary Chapel to prisons in Uganda, they call it Prison Ministry. They were singing Christmas songs to them, playing a skit and preaching about the reason of Christmas. It was unique to experience that for most prisoners this was the only Christmas they get to experience every year. The choir travels every year for a whole week to around 10 different prisons in Uganda. I couldn’t take any valuables with me inside the prisons…that’s why there is no picture and I carry the memories in my heart only.
Mukono, Kyampisi – one of the top three cities where child sacrifice happens in Uganda
One of my teammates had child sacrifice on her heart for a long time. After praying individually about it, our whole team supported her in pursuing that as a ministry. We contacted different organizations and ended up working together with KCM (Kyampisi Childcare Ministries) for one week, our last week in Uganda. Peter, the founder of KCM is an impressive person who fights for the rights of trafficked and abused children who would not have any voice. Last summer, he got a Human Right Award for his work and stays despite that so humble in what he is achieving. He told us a lot of astounding stories in what ways God worked miracles in and through this ministry. For example, there are two airlines who have calculated in their year budget the costs for travels from children who survived the harm of witch doctors as child sacrifices but are in need of surgery in Australia. Why Australia? Because God worked the miracle that surgeons there provide without expenses the operations needed. There is so much more to tell about this week in Mukono…
…there is the “prayer mountain” which was an earlier place where children got mutilated by witch doctors for sacrifices. Now because KCM bought the land, it’s a prayer mountain where people come to pray. It’s a wonderful place to be silent and praise God who fights with the ministry for restoration, for an end to the dreadful practice of child sacrifice.
…there are trafficked and abused children in a home. It’s the first rehabilitation center in whole Uganda!! Some of them will never walk normally because their spine got damaged through the machete. Some of them are never able to speak due to the fact that their brain is injured because of the overmuch draining of blood. Some of them……there would be so many stories to tell. Stories who matters! Stories for the fight for justice!
KCM fights against child sacrifice, runs a rehabilitation center for the harmed children, manages sponsorships for children and provides education at their own school. Part of our ministry there was to help with paperwork, to spend time with women (we organized a beauty day for them), to spend time with the children from the rehabilitation center, to visit and pray for people at the village (see picture) and to help with Sunday school at the church service (see pictures).
At last, Peter took us for New Year’s Eve to the Kampala stadium for an overnight prayer event with 50’000 people…and fireworks! This is an event with international speakers and good music which Peter’s wife parents host every year. So by the way a happy and healthy 2019 everybody!
Yes, there would be more things to tell about KCM, about each of the children, about James Place, about Uganda in general. I honestly wouldn’t know where to find a decent end. So let’s keep it that way. And who knows “See you when you see me” – that’s what some of my Ugandan friends used to say – beautiful Uganda again!
