Monday, August 2, 2010

The McCalley's Visit Uganda

We were able to spend three weeks in July visiting Jade and Shelah in Uganda, which we hope is our first trip of many! We initially got connected with Jade and Shelah through Cooperative Baptist Fellowship about a year and a half ago, when we emailed them to find out if there were any field personnel working with former child soldiers. We had no idea that connection would eventually lead us to Uganda!

While we were in Uganda, we were able to experience a little of each Refuge and Hope project. We spent several days at the Center of Hope, experiencing their outreach to refugees in Kampala. Here is a picture of Stephen working on the computers...internet was a source of frustration, especially after the July 11th bombings damaged the cable!


We traveled to Greek to meet members of the community and do a little construction on the community center. Here's a picture of Courtney with students at the school in Greek. We were the ones taking a break from the soccer games.

We then went to visit the widows and Arrow Boys' gardens in the Kaberamaido district. We enjoyed working side by side in their fields and seeing the how hard they've worked to support themselves and their families. Here is a picture of us, members of Riverside Baptist Church in Alabama, Jade, Harriet, Pastor Julius, and the widows holding some recently harvested cassava!

Finally, we met with Pastor Stephen Bamoleke to discuss the DRC education project. Our church (First Baptist - Winchester) has been involved in sponsoring the students in the program, and we were able to discuss ways to develop our relationship with the students. Unfortunately, we were not able to meet the students on this trip, but I'm sure we will be able to get to know them in a future visit!


We are so grateful that we had the opportunity to visit Uganda and build on the relationship we've started with Jade and Shelah! The highlight was meeting with Pastor Bamoleke about the DRC project and being able to give input into the project's development.

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