Uganda

One widow is following God’s calling to witness to his goodness, especially to those neighbors who have left the church.

In Uganda, a country that has already weathered several economic downturns, government restrictions in response to COVID felt like an extra affliction to many locals. For others, though, it was merely one more opportunity for God to move.

In parts of the world that are racked by war and violence, World Challenge’s partners are offering survivors a listening ear and a message of hope.

The Swahili word tutapona means “we will be healed.”

The word would come to have deep significance for Carl and Julie Gaede. They were living in Wisconsin with their two daughters, working as psychotherapists. Life was good and pretty normal, but they began to feel as if they needed to be doing something…else.

Africa has not featured heavily in much of recent news, but they are still being deeply impacted by the specter of the coronavirus.

In the middle of March, the coronavirus came into Uganda, and it has devastated our economy like it has for many other countries in the world. The problem that we have here is that there are no government structures in place to deal with it.

World Challenge partners in Uganda are working to help those who have escaped Kony’s reign of terror find healing and new life in Christ.

Esther was abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army in 1994. Three years before, Joseph Kony had launched his brutal campaign supposedly to defend Acholi tribal rights in Northern Uganda, leaving a wake of thousands murdered or mutilated.

God is working through the church in Burundi to help widows and orphans survive great emotional and economic hardship.

“My husband abandoned me and our two children,” one woman in Burundi shared with a World Challenge partner. “He’s a ‘pastor’ and now on his third wife.”

One widow remembers her harrowing childhood being taken captive by Uganda’s LRA and then barely surviving a tragic accident in a refugee camp.

How many of you remember the Kony2012 video?

It was a call to action, a cry for us to stop the human rights violations and atrocities that the Lord’s Resistance Army was inflicting on central Africa. In a few days, the video garnered millions of views.

World Challenge partners in Sub-Saharan Africa are faced with another outbreak of one of the worst diseases in modern history.

This June, the first Ebola deaths occurred in Uganda.

The infections in Uganda confirmed that the deadly outbreak has spread for the first time beyond the Democratic Republic of Congo.

A drug user and alcoholic turns to God and becomes a respected member of his church and community.

A Hard Crash

Francis was a renowned weed smoker, drug supplier and drunkard in his Ugandan village.

“The bee is more honored than other animals, not because she labors, but because she labors for others.” —John Chrysostom, "Doctor of the Church"

“Hopeless as a penny with a hole in it.” These were the words of some Kamdini residents to describe Robert Moro as they knew him a few years ago. 

You would be hard-pressed to recognize him anymore based on that description, and these days his neighbors are the ones seeking him out for help.

One village sent out someone to track down help for them, and today their lives are transformed.

In February, heat shimmers over the road. This is Uganda’s summer season, and temperatures soar to 95 degrees or higher at midday. This heralds the beginning of the Lira sub-region’s rainy season. 

Orumo’s residents are gathered under a mango tree as Steve Voyen, World Challenge’s director of Sub-Saharan development programs, and Dan, Uganda’s development director, pull up.