Monday, October 5, 2009

Mercy Uganda

For many years, our church has had a close relationship to the people of Uganda.  Our local church is Covenant Presbyterian Church.....a member of the Presbyterian Church in America.  One of our pastors, Bob Hayes, began going to Uganda in 1992....this is a link to his website .......with Dr. Henry Krabbendam of the ACTI ...African Christian Training Institute...  They work to train pastor's in Uganda to spread the gospel in the local churches.  Be sure to click on the ACTI link on this website to see and hear Ugandan preachers and learn more about the people.

But the work is so much more than training pastors.  Even though I've never been to Uganda, I have listened with fascination and seen many pictures of the work being done there.  Many people from our church have gone as teams to minister to the people there, doing things like.....helping to build schools...working with the women to form a pregnancy resource center....meeting phsycal needs......even helping pool their own money together to help send people to a doctor or hospital.

The needs are so many in Uganda.  The schools would shock you, they are so primitive, yet children are thirsting for education and the people of Uganda are thirsting for the gospel.  

There are many needs there and one particular woman in our church  Laura Knetzer, has been led to start a ministry for women and children called Mercy Uganda .   Here is just a bit I copied off of the website so you can see what their prayer need are.......

Areas of focus are: improving conditions for safe drinking water and nutrition, providing for needs of basic hygiene, sponsorships for children in education, identify and assist with medical needs,teaching and training in issues related to pregnancy, childcare, HIV/AIDs, and literacy. 

Please visit both these websites to get an idea of what a great need there is in Uganda. As one of the visiting Ugandan preachers pointed out....if Christians don't help, Muslims will gladly step in and train them. 

This is a picture our pastor took on the most recent trip (two weeks ago).....



Please click on the picture to see how one man transported his cow!

I just clicked on the picture and it doesn't really get bigger.....this man is transporting his cow on a motorcycle.  Nobody is sure how he got him on the bike and it would have been interesting to see him get OFF the bike!  

Please check out these websites, especially Mercy Unganda.  The site is new and I'm sure there will be more pictures soon!



 

4 comments:

Dawn said...

It is so interesting how different churches are directed to different parts of the world to concentrate their mission work. Ours is in Peru at this time.

Wish I could see the picture better!

Amy said...

That is so awesome what your church does with their international outreach. I wish our old church did something like that :-(
Your picture made me laugh though :-)
btw not sure if I emailed you on facebook but I've moved my blog to rosemary-files.blogspot.com

Midlife Mom said...

Our sister church is in Senegal Africa. We have two young men from our congregation there now and actually talked with them via Skype in the morning service! It was so exciting!! We have sent teams there on 4 0r 5 occasions. I know what you mean about the needs being many!

Gigi said...

How awesome to "sister up" with a church in Uganda!

Really? A cow on a motorcycle? You have to wonder what that cow was thinking!