Results from the Field

Paul and Pam - Next Generation Ministries (Paul in shower)

See interview

 

My dear friend, Brian Harrison, from Blackfoot, Idaho, has been with me for the past month.  He returns to the States tomorrow.  We have had a marvelous time together and our ministry together has been so much fun and so effective.  We have been able to do together that which neither of us could have done by ourselves.  I am going to really miss him.

While Brian was here in Uganda he was sending back articles for the newspaper in his hometown.  I loved the one he wrote today and he gave me permission to reproduce it here for the benefit of everyone praying for us.  I know you will enjoy it!

Love you all,
Paul

The Widows of Naminya
February 14, 2008

Our friends, Paul and Pam Hunter, know some widows who have a bakery in a tiny village four kilometers from Jinja City called Naminya  After hearing about them the whole time we were here, we finally got a chance to visit them on Wednesday before Valentines Day.  We arrived at their quaint little mud hut shop to find them rolling and cutting out doughnuts and cooking them in oil heated over a wooden fire.  They had just pulled the banana bread from the mud oven and freshly washed dishes were drying on the grass.

Baking oven - designed with help from the states

Flowers and bushes and fruit trees beautifully adorned the landscape.  The red dirt floor that is all around the compound had been carefully swept. In spite of what felt like extreme poverty by American standards, I was deeply touch by the attention to order, cleanliness and beauty.

The Bakery

As we sat down to have some fresh banana bread, Sara, one of the widows, brought a bowl, a bar of soap, and a pitcher of water so that we could wash our hands. As we sat and talked and enjoyed the fresh bread, I felt a deep peace on the entire place as well as a wonderful joy and hospitality from our hosts.  I asked them to share some of their story with us.  This is it.

Serving Banana Bread

In 2001 Timber Valley Bible Church (TVBC) in Colton, Oregon sent a small team of people to the nation of Uganda on a mission trip.  During that trip the team first met the small group of widows at a local church.  The widows all had children who needed school fees and so their local pastor solicited TVBC for monthly support for them.

After two years the church realized that none of the money they were sending was reaching the widows, though the local Naminyan pastor was keeping the widows indebted to him by bringing them a little flour, sugar and salt.  When the group returned in 2004, confrontation of the pastor proved fruitless.  The local pastor tried to intimidate both the widows and mission team from the Oregon, even threatening to kill some of the them.  But one of the widows was a former secretary of Idi Amin named Sara.  She fled his tyranny 34 years ago and hid in the bush with her baby and husband.  She had faced intimidation and control before and with her help and encouragement from TVBC, the victimized widows courageously left the local fellowship that had turned cultic and sought refuge in a context of genuine relationship and accountability.

The Timber Valley mission team found a young business man to administrate their help of the widows and the ministry to them continued.   But people from Timber ValleyTimber Valley flew back to Uganda to teach them how to make raised donuts.   In a little stick hut with a wood fire to heat up some oil, the widows of Naminya began frying donuts and selling them two days a week.

The business prospered and two years later Tom and Pam Sparks and Art and LaFonda Dunlap advanced the business of  the widows by teaching them how to bake.  The Dunlaps, with the help of the Sparks, constructed a mud oven in their back yard based on instructions they discovered in a book.  Once again they returned to Uganda with their ingenuity and helped the widows build an oven of their own.  Baking classes began as LaFonda and Pam taught the local women how to bake using only local ingredients available nearby.   They also taught foundational principles on how to live in genuine freedom without being victimized or controlled.

Two years later the widows are now baking six days a week.  Yesterday they fried 45 dozen donuts, baked cakes and the best banana bread you have ever tasted in your life.  The widows are also some of the most prosperous people in the village.  Several of them are expanding their enterprises as they have begun individual businesses.  Sara has 135 chickens who lay eggs which she sells to the local market.  She also just got word that a milking cow is on its way.

Margaret                                Sarah and Florence

The most exciting part for the church back in Oregon is the healthy relationship that continues and that fact that the widows are no longer dependent on help from the outside.  These courageous and empowered women have proven themselves astute business women who work hard and are reaping the benefits.  What’s more, they are not acting like orphans, striving to find some sponsor to support them, but they live as legitimate heirs of the Kingdom of God who have only a future and a hope to look forward to. They are at the point where they can give a hand up to others.   They are no longer thinking and behaving like victims, but serving others and prospering themselves.  They have tasted freedom, joy, community, self worth, purpose and satisfaction from succeeding at life while running a corporate business enterprise.  What an awe inspiring discovery I made under the lush green mango, jack fruit, and banana trees that surround a flourishing business deep in the bush.  African has truly yielded some amazing surprises.

Note from Paul - What's next

Hi John - This is developing into quite a story of the goodness of God in bringing His Kingdom to some powerful women in a small village named Naminya.  I will take photos of the Moo-law project if we can secure a dairy cow next week and sent to you if you like.  We are also going to help one of the other widows begin an egg farm with 200 layers as soon as $1,200 is wired to us.  This will purchase the chicks and feed, vaccinate, and take care of other needs for 5 months until they begin laying and producing eggs for profit.  We hope to teach Alice how to manage the funds, save cash for the next batch of layers, and increase her financial base for further expansion.  Teaching Africans to save is a BIG issue for us.  Abdu appreciates what you sent him about cash flow and he is being diligent to commit to saving and having cash.  From culture to Kingdom!