Oh Africa. I just love you.
Here I am now in Uganda, and time is flying. It’s a weird place to be, knowing that I will be home in 47 days. And yes, the struggle to stay present is very much real right now. But I also am soaking in every moment of these last months. Africa has been full of surprises for me and I keep finding myself doing things that make me stop and think, “Is this really happening?” For example, last week Team Kwitanga spoke to a group of farmers on “Farming God’s Way” for 3 ½ hours. How we managed to do that is still unbeknownst to me (and says more about God than it does about my abilities). Side note, I keep asking myself, “Why have you never wanted to come to Africa??” I don’t know why I didn’t want to come sooner.
So, want the scoop on what my team is up to this month?
My team and I are staying in a little town called Rukungiri, in western Uganda. We are working with Reverend Enoch and his ministry as part of the Anglican Church of Uganda. Enoch works for the Diocese as the youth minister. Part of our ministry this month is working with teen moms. Every week the women come over to our house and we make paper beads. It’s actually cooler than it sounds. Enoch’s wife, Constance, has taught us, as well as the girls, how to make the paper beads in hopes that the girls can one day make the jewelry themselves and sell it for profit. We are also planning to host the women for a Beauty for Ashes day-retreat in a couple weeks and pamper the women, share the gospel, and remind them how special they are. I’m pretty excited about it.
So far we’ve also had the privilege of speaking at a couple of different boarding schools during their chapel services and getting to know the students there. We’ve also started the “Farming God’s Way” lessons with local farmers in the community, teaching them biblical principles for farming. Enoch wrote the curriculum and we pretty much just present it. But my teammate Jennie Kate, who is an actual farmer, had been coming in clutch this month.
I’ve been the most impressed with our host, Enoch, this month. Enoch doesn’t have his own church building, but he does an incredible job reaching out to the community and educating his neighbors and others in the community in life skills and how to be self-sustaining. One day, our team and a group of farmers in the community went to the property of a woman named Susan, who is also a farmer. She has an incredible piece of land where she grows banana plants, coffee beans and other crops. She also uses the manure and urine from cows as bio-gas (don’t ask me too much about this because I probably couldn’t answer any question). All I know is that we use this gas to cook with (again, not as bad as you might think) and it’s something that Enoch is encouraging others in the community to do as well. I love that Enoch doesn’t limit his ministry to those in the church but is passionate about educating and reaching those outside the walls of the church. I feel very fortunate to have met him and Constance this month. Here’s a picture of Enoch (on the right) when we were at Susan’s farm.
As always, thank you so much for following my journey and stayed tuned for another update from this month (if WiFi cooperates). 🙂
