A Long Overdue Update

Dear Friends,

Many of you may have gotten this in my recent supporter update, but I wanted to include it here as well for my online readers. : ) It's a bit overdue - just catching you up on the final update from my internship last fall.

As you may remember from my original letter, I was not 100% sure what I would be doing upon arrival in Uganda. I knew that I would be working with the sponsorship program, but no details. As it turned out, my main role was tutoring. God’s provision was evident from the very beginning… the first month of my internship, I was part of Every Child Ministry’s summer team. We held a vacation Bible club for children in Tegotatoo Village (formerly an Internally Displaced Persons’ Camp). The plan was for me to remain behind as the only American working with ECM in N. Uganda once the team returned back to the states at the end of July. However, one girl on the team, Melissa Rogers, decided to stay behind as well, extending her one month trip into September, and later extending it again until December! I was so thankful that God saw fit to provide me with a roommate. Melissa is a certified teacher which helped during our tutoring ministry. I learned a lot from her!

ECM’s work in Northern Uganda is mainly child sponsorship for children whose families have been affected by a 25 year war. Many families have been displaced by the war, separated from their homes and livelihoods. Many cannot afford to put all of their children in school, so ECM’s sponsorship program provides a way for that to happen. There were around 50 sponsored children, but Melissa and I created a tutoring program for 22 of them – the first, second, and third graders. Tegotatoo is an isolated area so there is a big shortage of teachers. The first grade class in Tegot Primary School, for example, has 120 students and one teacher. If a child is struggling with a concept, they just can’t get the help that they need. This was why tutoring was so important. With children whose lives and families have been torn apart by war, and whose home situations are not yet stable, putting them into a classroom like that is just setting them up for failure. How do you get a question answered, or help with a difficult subject, when you have 119 classmates and only one teacher?

Once we took the 22 sponsored children aside in an after school tutoring session, they immediately began showing improvement. The better student/teacher ratio gave them what they needed to make progress on a weekly basis. Children in these grades get out of school around 1:30 in the afternoon, so Melissa and I held a tutoring class for them two days a week after school while their older siblings were still in classes. We worked on foundational concepts that they were still struggling with – basic literacy and math skills. Every class also included a Bible story and a memory verse. It was incredible to see the progress that they made, from not being able to write their own name at the beginning to reading an entire sentence in their own language at the end of our time with them. Just being in a smaller class and actually having the opportunity for one-on-one attention from a teacher made a huge difference.

The second class we established was once a week for children in Tegotatoo who aren’t in school because their parents can’t afford it and they haven’t been sponsored yet. Some are 9 or 10 years old and have never been to school. This was our most difficult class because we had a wide range of children in both age and experience in schooling. We tried to focus on basic foundational things to prepare them for when they will hopefully be going to school. We also always incorporated a Bible lesson and memory verse.

The third thing we focused on was a partnership with another organization in Gulu called the Zion Project. This project ministers to Congolese refugees and vulnerable girls who have been affected by the war. They have a home for young girls who have recently been rescued from abusive situations. We had our third class there. These girls had also never been to school, so we began preparing them for when they would begin attending school. We worked on basic literacy and math concepts as well as Bible lessons. Sarita Hendrickson, the director, now reports that they are in school and doing well.

This was the longest I have been on a cross-cultural mission trip, and as a result, I was able to see some of the results of the seeds we planted and the ministry we did. Seeing changes in the children’s attitudes and abilities was so exciting! There were difficult moments, but there were also priceless moments and stories that make it all worthwhile. An example of those moments is Odong James, a child from our sponsorship tutoring class. He never seemed to be paying much attention to our class, or at least never seemed very excited to be there. I was often concerned about him, especially about how much he was really gaining by being in our class. At a parent meeting towards the end of our time there, his mother spoke to some of the other staff to tell them how much James had learned in the tutoring class - and to tell them that little James had been coming home in the evenings and teaching her the alphabet and other things he had learned!

It is a crucial time in N. Uganda and for the Acholi people. Devastated lives are being rebuilt and restored slowly and one at a time, and the ministries of ECM and Zion Project are being used mightily by God to have an impact in Gulu and the surrounding areas. I know that the love that is shared there will continue to spread, reaching more villages and more families with the hope and peace that can only come through knowing Christ. The Acholi people have been on my heart for over 5 years, and it was such an honor to finally be with them and learn from their resilient hearts. In spite of the pain, fear, and desperation that they have experienced over the last 2.5 decades, they are the most hospitable, friendly, and generous people I have ever met. I can’t begin to describe the impact that Mary, Simon, David, Agnes, Sharon, Winnie, Barbara, Kwo-tek, Concy, and so many others had on my heart and life.

I have been home from Uganda since December. I spent several months working at KinderCare with the two-year-old class, and then this summer I was on the summer staff team for Mission Serve (www.mission-serve.com), an organization based in Atlanta. They organize youth group mission trips in various cities across the US. I was a “project office manager,” meaning that I got to travel to several of their week-long projects to set up the office and make sure paperwork got done! I really enjoyed the summer and met many wonderful volunteers and participants at each project. I got to watch as God worked in the lives of hundreds of youth this summer, softening their hearts toward missions and those less fortunate than themselves.

Thank you so much for your prayers, support, and encouragement, and for taking the time to read! I hope that it has been an encouragement to you to hear how God is working around the world. Another post coming soon to update you on my upcoming return to Uganda to continue in ministry with both Zion Project & ECM!

With Love,
Sarah