Sarah Bill, Uganda

Uganda 2011
A young boy draws a picture in my notebook of a helicopter with a soldier shooting down at the village below. I ask the boy if he remembers this and he says through our interpretor that he remembers the helicopters and the soldiers as he was one. This was something I wasn't expecting to hear. Tony was 15 and had spent 3 years as a child soldier.
These were the people we were encountering as we visited villages in northern Uganda. The war may be over, but the memories still remain.
We had traveled to Uganda to work with MAP a partner of the Leprosy Mission. The people we worked with where keen for us to visit as many projects as possible. As we visited the projects we would work alongside MAP staff who where providing basic medical services to the villagers who otherwise wouldn't be able to access the services.
For the villagers when the MAP staff arrive the whole village comes out so this gave us the opportunity to interact with the children and adults alike. We sang songs, played soccer, painted nails, made paper aeroplanes and showed the Jesus film in the local dialect.
The more time we spent in Uganda the more stories we heard from the locals and MAP staff about the 20 year war we had never heard of.
The villagers had lived in camps for most of the war and had only returned to their villages in the past 2 years.
One village school was under a group of trees , another village had 1200 students in a school with 29 desks... Another school when they heard we were coming came back after their summer holidays just to meet us.
We did a lot of travelling while in Uganda, we met lots of people and saw lots of needs. Everyone in the group was challenged in different ways during the trip but the big questions we asked ourselves as we returned was what next and how can we help these people. There There are a lot of NGO's working in The region but the one need we saw that we felt we could help with was for young men and women to be discipled and encouraged to be the new leaders of the schools, churches and communities.
Matthew 28:18-20
18 Jesus came and told his disciples, "I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. 19 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age."
Many thanks must be given to the individuals and organisations who made this trip possible by financially supporting us. Top of Page