The Village - What We Do

The village of Keleele is about 25 km from Mubende in the Mubende district, 100 km from Kampala to the Northwest.

The church building as we arrived
This is our 14th church that Central has partnered with in order to finish out a church building.  Our role in the partnership is to put on windows, doors, and a roof atop a brick building finished to the roof ring.  It's a great way to partner in that the church does what it can - making their own bricks, affording a bag of cement here, a bag there, and so on.  It can be a project lasting months and years.  But, once the building is completed to the roof ring, we come with project funding and partner with them.

The event itself, believe it or not, can change lives for an eternity.  We hear many stories of how folks living nearby the churches, hearing and seeing the work going on, are curious enough to ask - and end up coming to Christ, along with their whole family.  Wow.

Teachers (L to R): Constance, Generous,Ralph, and Debbie
While the church building partnership brings us to the village, we also do more.  Teaching children, women, men, pastors, and other leaders. We spend months ahead of time preparing for these short moments of teaching and building relationships.  In addition to teaching, there are games (including playing with the parachute , which we always leave behind for the school and church to play with after we have left), crafts, and a lot of worship - singing, praying, dancing.

My focus was leadership development of church leaders - mostly men but with some women, too.  When I wasn't doing that, I helped with the kids by telling stories, leading them in songs, and helping them with a craft - a necklace with beads and a little foam medallion that said "Trust God".  These were all prepared ahead of time, loaded in little baggies, placed into bins, weighed, cataloged, and, of course, prayed for. The only reason I could step into that role so easily (even after preparing for Leadership Development lessons) was all the prep work that went into it beforehand.  This is the team approach and it works.

Children of a TAPP client
Recognize that everything we do - building, teaching men, teaching women, etc. - required similar prep work, too.  These trips take so much effort but the organizational planning and effort is worth every moment spent.

We spent two days there doing what we planned, but also what we didn't plan for: TAPP (Tumaini AIDS Prevention Program) visits.  More on that in the next blog.

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