The Uganda team met back up on Tuesday at Refuge and Hope to spend the afternoon learning about what a well-established ministry looks like here in Uganda.
Refuge and Hope was started in the early 2000s by an American couple, Jade and Sheila Acker. They started working with a refugee camp in 2001, running a camp for the children who lived there. Taking what they learned there, they moved to Uganda and started Refuge and Hope as we know it.
At Refuge and Hope, they started teaching English as a Second Language and Christian Discipleship to the refugees in Kampala. The school has grown a lot in the last 15+ years. Over 500 students from all kinds of different backgrounds come every day to learn English.
Beth, my mom, volunteers with Refuge and Hope on Tuesdays. She teaches the second-highest level of Bible classes. She has been with these students since the Introduction class, where the class size was over 100 students. Now, her average class is about 30 students.
Beth says that the classes get smaller because, as the students get more fluent, they stop coming to class because they are able to find jobs. Refuge and Hope requires all of the students to take two Bible classes a week to stay enrolled in the ESL classes.
Worship and Fellowship at Refuge and Hope
When the team got to Refuge and Hope, we first shared a traditional Ugandan and Eritrean meal with some of the staff and volunteers. After the meal, the staff led us in wonderful and joyful worship. They sang worship songs that the team already knew, so we just got to dance and sing and worship the Lord together as one big family.
After the worship, Chris Uhles led us in a devotion, and the Refuge and Hope team prayed with us and led us in an African Hakka. One of their team members led it, leading the call and response with their team.
It was a showing of joy and family that I don’t know if words can describe. Later, during our mission team’s debrief about what has been impacting us, each team member highlighted the Hakka as something big and beautiful and meaningful.
Afterwards, the team split up, doing different jobs around the compound, like organizing the library and praying with the staff members. We brought two mental health professionals on this trip, and Refuge and Hope put them to work.
Nancy’s Experience with the Refuge and Hope Home Visits
Chris and I saw firsthand how Refuge and Hope truly brings hope to refugee families. We were privileged to go on two home visits with their social worker, Dan. These two families had sought out the organization for help with resources.
We started our afternoon with a visit to the local market to purchase beans, rice, sugar, and porridge for each family because you always bring a gift when you visit a home (these were purchased with your donations, Rock Church!).
The first family was a single mother named Rehema and her three young girls. When Dan asked her to tell us her story, she started from the beginning, when she fled Congo during a time of war at age eight, after enduring unspeakable trauma that I can only describe as revealing the utter depravity that humans are capable of.
She told us her story in tears for over an hour, of how, over many years, she came from Congo to refugee camps and finally to Kampala. She had come to a place of having no job and no means of feeding her three children. Before we had arrived, she had felt hopeless.
After hearing her story, Chris and I were speechless, but the Holy Spirit gave us words of hope for her!
Chris told Rehema how we had been preparing to come to Kampala for one year. God knew one year ago that she would be running out of food today and set things in motion for us to be there with that food for her.
We assured her that we see her and God sees her. Her eyes brightened, and she said, “Yes! I believe in God.”
The next family we visited was Moses, his wife, and four children. He had been working construction jobs whenever they were available to make a small living for his family. However, recently he was run over by a car on his way home and has been unable to work.
He said the car was literally sitting on top of him. Miraculously, he not only survived, but without a single broken bone! However, with dislocated shoulders and ribs, he was in much pain and couldn’t afford physical therapy or medication.
Unable to work, he had no means of providing for his family. He expressed gratitude to us for coming, hearing his story, and bringing food.
We let him know that it wasn’t us personally, but our church in Utah, in the U.S., that provided for him today.
I’ll never forget his words. He said, “I want to know about a church who cares about a little man like me in Africa.”
We were able to pray with both of these families and to pray over their children. God revealed Himself to these families as a God who sees those in need, understands their heartaches, and in whom they can find hope.
Praying for Future Mission Partnerships in Uganda
The team has spent the last several days talking and praying about what future mission trips to Uganda would look like. Refuge and Hope has so many good opportunities for short-term missions. We, as a group, feel like this is a ministry that we could serve alongside.
Please join us in praying for guidance here, as well as for Refuge and Hope. Pray for their ministry, the students, and the teachers. Pray that they are able to continue their good work in Kampala.
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