On Mission Global is sending a team of five to the Upper Rhino Refugee Camp in western Uganda. Terry, Jill, KC, and Meg will leave from Denver on January 3rd and land in Uganda late at night on January 4th. There we’ll meet up with Julie, a native Ugandan that has partnered with us in ministering to the refugees. 

Several big things will be happening during this trip. First, we’ll be holding a training day for Sunday School teachers. These teachers will be using curriculum provided by Lifeway and modified by On Mission Global so that the lessons and activities are appropriate for kids living in the camps who may have experienced trauma and who can’t do the same crafts American kids might engage in due to their limited resources. In addition to training teachers in the Baptist Association that we have partnered with, there are people from several other local churches that have asked to be included in the training and in receiving curriculum. Jill will be taking the lead and training these children’s leaders. 

Following the training day, we’ll be holding a four-day Youth Conference. In Uganda, “Youth” means anyone 12-30 years old, so we may have quite a range of age groups at the event. We’ll begin every morning with worship and a lesson. Then we’ll have breakfast followed by an hour and a half Bible-training class. After lunch we’ll meet again for 4-hour long vocational training sessions (including soap making, wood working, quilting, and crocheting). There will also be time for sports and movies. (There’s no electricity provided in the camps. Everything runs on solar power. … little tiny panels of solar power. So running a television for the length of a movie on battery-stored power should be interesting.)

The team has been meeting via Zoom weekly to prepare. It’s been great getting to know each other and talk through expectations, needs, etc.

In addition to proving Sunday School materials and training, as well as hosting the Youth Conference, we’ll also be taking over 11 crates full of books for a library. Terry has done an amazing job of collecting books — everything from pastoral study materials (Thank you, Mike!) to a series of student readers and other reading material. We’ve also collected books that are related to the vocational classes we’ll be teaching so that even after we’re gone, students will be able to continue learning and adding new skills.

But libraries are not common in South Sudan or Uganda and learning how a library works will be an important part of the training that Terry will be giving on one of our last days in the camps.

These are just some of the books that are packed up and ready to head to Uganda. And the building at the top of this post is the new library, ready to be filled with books. 

We hope to post updates from the camps, so please tune in to our Facebook page – https://www.facebook.com/OnMissionGlobal – to see how things are going and to learn what you can be praying for. Thank you!