Another day, another church! And another church combating the effects of AIDS through the love of God and through social enterprise.
Today we were in the town centre of Jinja with a small church called Faith Communty Church, headed up by Pastor Samuel and Assistant Pastor Simon. They have set up an orphanage adjacent to the church - a purpose-built home for 20 children whose parents in the outlying villages have died of AIDS, leaving them with no-one to look after them. They are brought to Jinja and the church cares for them here.
This is a wonderfully big-hearted church who have followed God's leading for these kids and are training them in the Christian life while also sending them to school and teaching them home skills and farming.
The church has a field on the edge of town currently planted with maize. We all piled into vehicles - children, older ladies, men - even a mother and baby - and roared off to work in the field. We were to clear weeds from the maize rows and pull lower leaves from the crops to aid growth. This was a great hands-on experience, and fun bit of team work with the Africans. Pastor Samuel traded his shiny shoes for a pair of wellies to join in. (This is the story of many of the pastors here - they muck in and get their hands dirty.)
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| Esther gets a lesson in tending maize, from an amazing lady who was out working despite being on crutches! |
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| Some of the orphans - they are just as at home in the fields as in church or at school |
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| Rachel makes a new friend |
I struck up a great conversation with Assistant Pastor Simon after we returned from the field, and he explained about the social enterprise elements which were helping the church to be self-sufficient rather then rely on handouts. He comes from Kenya and still has a family back there who he sees on holidays. As well as working for the church, he has a job with a timber company and also runs a second-hand mobile phone business - these Africans are an enterprising lot! During the course of our conversations, we were served some barbecued corn on the cob from the church's own crop - delicious!
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| The fruit of our labour! |
In the afternoon we played with the kids. They were wonderful - singing and dancing their theme song "Children of Destiny". This was a moving expression of how they now view themselves - once they were lost, but now they are found, given a future by the love of Jesus. Our games, songs and gifts went down well - especially the little friendship bracelets which our own kids from St Thomas' had made for us to bring. We prayed and praised together, even treating the church to some of our own more grown-up worship songs.
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| The "Children of Destiny" performing for their visitors |
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| Showing off friendship bracelets - brought from Scottish children to Ugandan children, with love |
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| New friends including Assistant Pastor Simon (second from right) |
Another wonderful day, where it feels like we have made lots more friends. It is amazing what this church is doing for these kids in Jesus' name, and we feel such love between us. Tomorrow is a rest/travel day as we prepare to spend a few days in a more rural part of the country.
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