ACF 2010 SUMMER MISSIONS REPORT

The Summer Missions’ trip to Uganda took place between July 30 and August 14, 2010.   The Seven team members from the United States came from the different chapters in ACF USA, Eastern Region (Baltimore, Northern New Jersey, Pittsburg and Washington D.C. chapters).   They were joined on the ground by ACF Uganda, including the young adults in ACF Kampala and ACF Kumi. ACF has two missionary sites in Uganda, the Fort Portal area in western region and Kumi in the eastern region of the country. The team went first to the site in Kumi district.

School Visit:

The team visited schools attended by ACF sponsored children the first two days of the trip.   During the visit, the team with the school authority, reviewed the academic records of the sponsored children, and received situation reports on each child. The team provided counseling to the children based on the report received from the school authority. Most of the children are doing well academically and in their Christian lives. However, a few of them are struggling with their studies while others have behavioral problems. ACF is working with the school authorities and the coordinators of our program to address the problems.

The conditions of students in one of the schools the team visited were very deplorable.   More than 75 percent of the students wore torn school uniforms and were on bare foot.   The team was informed that a good number of the students were sick.   The team being moved with compassion contributed money on the spot and gave to the school to buy uniform for about 27 students with worst condition.

Personal Witnessing:

Personal evangelism is an important part of ACF missions’ activity. It provides all the missionaries especially the young adults and youths the experience of sharing their faith with others. On the second day of school visit, some team members especially the young adults,

organized market evangelism.  The young adults came back with awesome testimonies of how the Spirit of God revealed to them some issues in the lives of the people they witnessed to, and how many of them gave their lives to Christ during the outreach.

 

Medical Outreach:

The next two days were used for medical outreach in Totolim village in the Panaka sub-county of Kumi district. The team went with five medical doctors and five nurses including a pharmacist that came with the U.S. team. According to report from community leaders and the residents, the outreach was the first of its kind in the community. There are no social services in the community, including pipe-borne water supply and medical services.   The only borehole that serves the entire community is several miles away. Consequently, greater part of the community depends on the nearby river for water supply.   The crowd that came after the first day of the medical outreach was so overwhelming that the team ran out of medical supply and drugs. The team ended up giving out clothing to those that were not able to see the doctors and receive medication.

The health conditions of the people in the community are so deplorable that one literally sees expression of pain and misery on the faces of the adult and children.   Skin diseases were prevalent. In addition, many of the adults counseled during the outreach complained of pain, coughing blood and urinating blood. As a result of the deplorable situation, the ACF Mission Director after the first day of the outreach, lost appetite and could not eat till the following day.   But the consolation of the whole situation was that ACF was able to make a difference in this community that seems to have been abandoned by everyone.   God used ACF to put smiles on the faces of the elderly men and women who came for the medical outreach. Many people gave their lives to Christ during the counseling session, and one of the team members confessed that he won more souls to Christ during this outreach than he has done for his entire 20 years in the United States.

  

Visit to the Government Officials:

The team was able to visit government offices, especially the District Health officer’s office for preliminary discussion on the construction of a medical clinic in the Kamenya sub-county in Kumi district.    The community had provided a piece of land to ACF for construction of a medical clinic during the 2008 summer mission’s trip. During the discussions, the District Health Officer and the team agreed that ACF will conduct a feasibility study for the project to address all the government and ACF concerns, before construction could be commenced.