Faith and Fellowship: Adventures in Uganda. Part One.

A team from Saint Catherine's church, Pontypridd recently returned home from a two week mission trip to Uganda. St Catherine’s Church is twinned with The Bishop Wasikye Memorial Church, Namamtala.

Over the coming weeks Rev'd Charlotte Rushton will share details of their Uganda adventure with us.

Namatala is one of the poorest regions of Uganda with many families living in poverty. St Catherine’s partnership with the church to enabled us to support the Memorial Church in their ongoing mission to local schools, the women’s prison, the community and of course, to share the Gospel.

The relationship between the churches was facilitated by PONT (Partnership Overseas Network Trust); a small charity based in Pontypridd that makes a big difference in Mbale, Eastern Uganda. The region, which is one of the poorest areas of Uganda, has been transformed over the past 20 years through the work of PONT.

This charity works differently from other organisations as its focus is on Kingdom values of friendship, commitment and respect. A network has been formed where the people of Mbale tell us their needs and we share our time, expertise and resources to support them in creating a solution. This ethos permeates every aspect of the PONT’s works, including church relationships.

Rev Charles and I are in regular contact, sharing friendship and prayer requests. We offer each other mutual support and encouragement as we compare notes on how to share the gospel in very different contexts.

One of the projects that is directly supported by St Catherine’s Church is the tailoring project. Namatala has a high level of unemployment, social deprivation and poverty. The church wanted to enable to teach a skill to locals which would enable them to climb out of poverty and the Tailoring School was born. Namatala Parish Church built an extension to their mall church school and St Catherine’s raised funds to purchase and maintain seven sewing machines and a part time seamstress to teach tailoring skills. The project was an instant success with a waiting list for the six-month course.

The situation had changed since our last visit two years ago. Whiles the course was still well used, the newly qualifies tailors didn’t own a sewing machine and could not set up their own businesses. To step into this need and to help the Tailoring School become self sufficient, we are working towards restructuring the course to hold lessons in the afternoon only, so that graduates can hire the use of a sewing machine in the morning. Not only will this help the School generate additional income in order not to rely on our financial support, it will also be a real step in helping people set up their own business to step out of poverty.

Next week we'll hear more about the Schools Mission.