We spent today with another church community - this time Bugembe Miracle Centre. They run an extensive farm whcih is managed by Joy, the lovely wife of Pastor Robert who leads the church.
The church exists to bring glory to God by living those affected by AIDS. 61 orphans live with them in Begembe Children's Home, and the church also runs a Primary School. The orphans have all lost their parents to AIDS. This is so tragic, and yet the church has redeemed them through God's love.
After enthusiastic singing and dancing performances from the young people, Pastor Robert explained that they had arrived sick, stigmatised and hopeless, but that through the love of God and His church, we were now able to see the confident, happy, well-adjusted young people we met today. Truly this is a miracle of God's loving grace and transformation through his church.
The farm exists solely to fund these activitles and also to send the older children to secondary school, for which they need school fees. Pigs, cows milk, and lots of eggs are sold and pay for these children to be given a second chance in life. Joy walks three miles every day there and back to manage the farm - it is very tiring she says, but necessary to keep the whole enterprise alive. She, Robert and their Administator (aptly named Hope) are such wonderful people.
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| Kathryn with one of the the farm's cows - they have 4 day old twins |
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| The farm helps to fund the orphanage and school which gives these children a loving home |
Robert explained that they are outgrowing the children's home and showed us the hillside site where they plan to build ten new homes, each of which will house 8 orphans and one couple from the church who will be their foster carers. This is a huge enterprise costing $26,000 per home (over £16.5k) per home. I expressed my amazement at the size of Pastor Robert's vision and he gave me this memorable quote:
"The size of the vision is always bigger than the visionary."
He believes that God will provide for the forgotten victims of AIDS, and for him it is not important whether it happens in his lifetime or not - the vision will come true.
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| Pastor Robert explains to Jack about the dream for new orphan's houses |
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| The view from the hilltop site. "The vision is always bigger than the visionary"- Pastor Robert |
We really had a wonderful and joyful day with this community - so gracious and so filled with hope despite such challenges. Our games with the children were simple enough, yet gratefully received and the kids loved performing for us. I wish there were more we could do for them, but again I think our presence was a blessing at any rate.
Tomorrow we lead a church service and so we spent the evening preparing. Bring it on!
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| What it is all about: praising Jesus with these rescued children |
All these years and not one comment from those that went there?
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