“step out”
In June this year I had the privilege of leading a Missionary Ventures team to Kitgum, Uganda. Kitgum is in the far north of the country and, for the past 2 years, has been enjoying relative peace after 20 years of troubles. The people are slowly returning from the internally displaced camps to rebuild their lives in their communities.
The whole trip was an amazing experience for myself and the team. Before we went Rob and Karen spent time with us in training to prepare us for the cultural differences that we would encounter. These sessions were superb and invaluable as they gave us so much insight into the strengths of the team as well as more understanding of the people of Kitgum.
Rex and Melinda the field co-ordinators in Uganda met us at the airport, their friendly faces and warm nature quickly dispelled any fears the team may have had about being in Uganda for the first time. We travelled the 9 hours asking questions, sharing stories and stopping occasionally to use the ‘latrines’… something we would get very used to in the days ahead. The sights were wonderful, red dry dust roads, women carrying babies on their backs, pots on their heads, bicycles going by with at least 6 people on them! Not to mention the baboons slowing us down whilst they played in the road. It was like something from an old movie.
Our ‘project’ for the 10 day trip was to hold women’s conferences in the morning and workshops in the afternoon. Pastor Otto and his wife Christine greeted us with the words ‘be free ladies!’ The team were a lively bunch so there wasn’t much difficulty there. Armed with tambourines and ribbons, we quickly handed them out to the delight of the women and children. Africans can sure teach us how to worship! Each member of the team took part either speaking, dancing or in the workshops. We bonded instantly with Kitgum ladies who joined in eagerly with our programme.
The workshops in the afternoon were a real treat, handing out coloured pencils and crayons they got to work drawing. The theme was ‘draw close’ which we did through Psalm 23. Many of the ladies had never held a pencil so it was completely new to them. It didn’t take long to work it out and they were soon creating their own ‘masterpiece’. The days ended with filling the ladies dry, thirsty hands with cream which they massaged into each other. The atmosphere was electric as the fragrance filled the air, everyone broke out in praise and thanks to God. The days ended with the Ugandan ladies putting on their own shows, with amazing dance routines just for us.
One of the highlights was visiting the ladies in their micro-enterprise businesses. There were a group of bakers, and a tailoring school which we had previously bought sewing machines for through fund-raising. As a thank you the tailors had been busy and presented us with an outfit each which we were all very proud to wear.I have worn mine several times since I got home with pride! The tailors shared stories of how the tailoring school had changed their lives. One lady said people used to call her ugly because she had no education or skills but since she graduated from the tailoring school she has been treated with great respect and they have given her a new name, ‘beautiful’.
Whilst we were there the bakers acquired a shop on the local high street. They were delighted as we gave out the baking kit we had brought them. We also took 7 wedding dresses for the tailors to hire out which hopefully would enhance their growing business. The groups work so hard, the cakes were in big demand (especially the chocolate cake) nothing was too much trouble and they desperately wanted to succeed whatever the cost.
Our last visit was to a rural area called Padeba, these people were so poor. They didn’t have a building to host the conference and had been working extremely hard to build one for our arrival. One man cycled over 20 km to bring tarpauling for the structure. It was perfect; they put sacking on the roof and even made us a stage from clay! At the end of the conference out of their extreme poverty they took an offering up for us and also presented us with 5 live chickens! We felt completly humbled as they delighted in giving us these gifts. These lovely people loved God with all their hearts and trusted Him completely with their lives.
We decided as a team to raise funds on our return to enable this amazing community to build their own church from hand made bricks, with sheet metal for the roof to withstand the rains. It will be a place were different church groups can come together in unity to worship and encourage each other. We thank God that He has allowed us to be a small part of the wonderful work He is doing there.
If you are contemplating going on a mission trip for the first time I cannot recommend Missionary Ventures enough to you. Everything is taken care of, they care as much about you as they do the people in the third world and you will definitely receive a blessing from God and come home changed for the better … step out ‘be the change’; encouraging and showing love to one person can change their life forever!
Carol Halton
Chorley