December 5, 2011
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Not sure everyone knows...
So it has become apparent lately that I have done a good job keeping everyone updated on our personal life, but not so much on the ministry. So I want to offer a little update...
We are ready to receive work groups!!! Though it is not our focus to raise groups, necessarily, we prepare the projects and receive them. The idea is that if someone is interested in coming to Uganda, as a work group, they should contact Worldwide Christian Schools (www.wwcs.org). They are the US founded and stationed group that manages the sending of teams from North America. I have prepared and submitted all of the information necessary for them to answer every question had for group sending. There is a gentleman there named Steve Geurink who is ready and able to explain the process and answer any question regarding work and team logistics. Those teams are called H.A.N.D.S. teams.
Our ministry here in Uganda is a little separate of the USA office. Yes they help in the ministry here in Uganda by offering some financial and resource support, but the Uganda team is a separate entity. The USA office supports projects all over the world. The Uganda office only supports East Africa. We have a number of cases that we are working with. Just in the construction side, we have over 20 projects! Soon we will enter in an agreement with Set Free Ministries and add another 6 projects. Right now, we have two WWCS Uganda projects that are totally ready to receive teams. When Set Free gets totally settled, their 6 projects will be able very quickly.
The reason we need teams... It is very difficult in this economy to find donors that just want to fund a project based totally on what a group can tell them. The easiest and most effective way to raise project funds is to offer a trip to mission groups on a short term basis (i.e. HANDS teams). Those teams not only raise the money to come and work, they also raise some money for the project. That money funds the work they do while they are here but it also offers funds to continue construction after they leave. So you can see how our ministry has quite a bit of dependency on these teams.
Our main goal when we came to Uganda was to assess school projects and prepare for teams to come and build. In the assessment, we would offer construction consulting and design services (Three dimensional rendering and Architectural planning). And we have done that for most of the schools on our docket (I have two projects that I have to finish yet). Because the US cannot offer assistance to every project, we have limited our list for HANDS team acceptance, down to two. We have researched the accommodation costs, building costs, and logistics. So two projects are ready RIGHT NOW!
Since we have been here, our ministry has evolved. If you have kept up on the blog and our newsletters, you would see that development. If you know the Neeley's very well, you know that we cannot settle for doing little. We inherently have to do as much as we can to serve. So we have been reaching out to the people we live near. We are not the typical Ugandan missionary. We do not live in the isolated missionary neighborhood. We live with Ugandans, mainly Muslim and some confirmed believers of witch craft. We do not have connections with the well off. We mingle with the people that need to see Christ's love. So we minister as we are able, especially to children. The Ugandan culture does not offer much attention to children. They do not get to see the love that can be ministered by playing and just having fun with adults, especially the foreigners. We have shared meals, helped with gardening, and just had fellowship with many of the non-Christians we live near.
We have been blessed as a ministry also. We have been given access to a projector that we use to reach out. We have gone to three places now to show films about Christianity. (which reminds me... if someone has access to the Jesus Film, in English or Luganda, we would love to receive it) We have reached over 800 people just through this blessing. Please pray for the people who had this opportunity as their first time to hear about Christ.
We have also breached our "comfort zone." We have been asked on a couple of occasions to minister to the youth here also. On one occasion, we held a forum on Christian relationships among a group of about 30. Another time, we were asked to come to a church and preach to the youth about stepping out in faith at any age. If you don't know, these are not the areas that we would feel the strongest, but we do it. We just ask that the Holy Spirit use us as a vessel to say what the youth need to hear, Kevin Rigg style!
Also, since we became a part of the Uganda country team of WWCS, we have not settled to wait for funds from foreign aid. We have developed a model that has communities support the schools that need to be built. We frequent these places and we speak to the school boards and community members to offer them advice on how to motivate the community to contribute. We explain that even if money was falling from heaven in excess, it is not good stewardship to just give it away. If the communities saw that a school was being built miraculously and looks so beautiful compared to the surrounding homes, it would be alienated. The worldly mind would take control and the school would be ransacked of its blessings. So getting the community buy-in gets accountability for the school. It gets the community in a mindset where they CARE about the school. Not just because it offers an education to their children, but because their blood, sweat, and tears were put into. (Don't tell the Muslim folks that we sneak in a Christian education!)
I know that we are not able to measure our success in schools built yet. Much of our success will only be measured in heaven not on Earth. But we can see now how we are helping communities. We can see how the children here are learning about Christ through our actions. I will write soon about a success story of the Uganda team here. Though we were not directly involved, it gives us sure hope of the ministry when we leave. So remember Budembe Primary School...
So if anyone is questioning what we are doing, I hope this helps. If anyone is worried about their "return on investment" I hope this can offer some relief. If anyone is interested in joining or starting a work group to the Pearl of Africa, let us know. If you want to chat with the most popular Mzungu's in Kyamula, Kampala give us a shout!
Chad Neeley
Volunteer Construction Coordinator - WWCS Uganda/USA
