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Opening 2008 breakfast talks, Bob Lunt from SAMS reflected on 30 years of change. Apart from the
Falkland war Bob has spent
most of his time as a
missionary to Argentina. |
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The inimitable Joan Proctor (with the help of hubby Steve in a silent comedy double act), here modelling some of the beautifully patterned fabrics of the country, brought us up to date with the latest in Uganda. This country suffers not only from wars, deprivation and AIDS but all the normal daily difficult problems that its citizens have to deal with. Lake Victoria, on its southern border, outpours the source of the White Nile through the Jinja & Kamuli provinces. Here a Deaf School is perhaps the last institution one would expect to find and Joan illuminated how the difficulty of being handicapped is magnified in a country with limited resources. How the school and pupils deal with this was affectionately described through an art class and schoolboy football match. Joan's talk was accompanied by an excellent slide show of the locations and donations being spent e.g. the bee hives. Other pictures showed the major support area, the orphanage and its pupils. This will be the subject of a future talk by Pastor David. Their recommended essentials for a trip to Africa: a wind-up torch, ear plugs, strong shoes and anti-diarrhoea pills. The exit collection was donated to Uganda Learn4Life. |
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Linda Harvie, confiding that women are complex, quietly led us through a moving description of Mercy
Ministries (mission statement "Lives transformed &
Hope restored"). She described the shattered life of a typical
young women between 16 and 28 affected by drugs, sexual abuse, self
harm, eating disorders or one of the many other problems of Western
society. Founded on Christian principles it offers a six month
residential stay with counselling, life-skills training, mentoring
and daily Church services to heal broken lives. Currently they can
only accommodate women singly. A maximum of 12 women are housed at one time in the Yorkshire based Bradford home, which covers the whole of western Europe. The pressure for places is enormous and MMUK has plans to expand the number of dormitories to 20 and also open more healing centres in the south. An American initiative by Nancy Alcorn, Mercy Ministries is about to celebrate its quarter century and has a presence in most first world nations including Australia and New Zealand. Although self selecting but not self funding the cost of each stay is about £12 000 and while representing excellent value is still an enormous burden for this independent organisation. The exit donation was given towards the MMUK costs. |
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For the primavera finale of breakfast talks, Pastor
David Sseruwagi gave a short update on the work of the national body
Uganda Gospel
Rehabilitation Centre (UGRC). With his constant smile, wonderful
humour, biblical quotations and spirituality he led us through a
description of a secondary school at Nakaseke in the Luwero
District. The images of a school class standing proudly in their blue uniform and
an Upper school class in
red and white demonstrated how much progress has been made. The need for Science Education has now become significant with its mandatory status in the latest Government curriculum. However the implementation and equipping of a Science laboratory will be very expensive. The discovery of oil in western Uganda, the continuing health problems and the setting up of hydro-electric schemes are examples where scientifically trained Ugandan students are urgently required both now and especially for the future. This will help Uganda's recovery. This year Pastor David is accompanied by his wife Ester and Pastor Florence. The exit collection was donated to Uganda Learn4Life. To a challenging question about dependence on Charity, Pastor David's answer was that "Church people are the best supporters because we are all brothers and sisters in Christ" |
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