Pilgrimage to Uganda

After more than 30 hours of traveling, our St. Philip’s team landed at the Entebbe airport on the tip of Lake Victoria in Uganda on Saturday, October 18. We then traveled an hour to the capital city of Kampala, the "City of Seven Hills." Out the window along the way, we observed the shores of Lake Victoria, people riding on boda-bodas (motorcycle taxis) and walking along the road, blue-and-white-striped taxi vans with signs on the back windows reading "God is Great" and "Praise the Lord," goats tied by the side of the road, and shanties (storefronts) selling dresses, chickens, produce, and fast food-samosas––thousands of Ugandans trying to survive the challenges of living in a developing third-world nation. After arriving at our destination, the guest house of Namirembe Cathedral, the mother church of the Anglican Church of Uganda, our team toured the graveyard of the British missionaries who gave their lives to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to this nation in the 1880s.

On Sunday, we attended a service at the cathedral, where we heard the familiar words "Almighty God, to whom all hearts are open and no secrets are hid ... " Near the end of the service, the priest, in full white vestments in a church packed out with mostly young people, motioned to the team and asked if “the people of a different color would please stand up." We stood as they enthusiastically welcomed us as visitors.

The Torture Tree at the Shrine of the Martyrs

That afternoon, we toured the Shrine of the Martyrs in Namugongo, where 24 teenage boys were burned alive in 1885 for their faith in Jesus Christ by the kabaka (king) of Uganda. It became the catalyst that spread Christianity like wildfire across the nation. Every June 3, thousands of Ugandans gather at the Shrine to commemorate the lives of the young martyrs.

Our team, which included three doctors (David Baird, Becky Baird, and Will Cramer) and a recreational therapist (Beth Cramer), visited the Uganda Christian University (UCU) School of Medicine (SoM) on Monday. Hosted by SoM Dean Dr. Gerald Tumusiime, the team toured the school, which graduated 50 doctors and 10 dentists last year, the first graduating class. Uganda has a population of approximately 40 million, and with only 500 trained doctors, that's a ratio of just one doctor per 80,000 people.

We left Kampala Monday afternoon and moved on to Mukono, the location of the main campus of Uganda Christian University (UCU), which has 15,000 students in five locations.

On Tuesday, the team gave a teaching about the Fruit of the Spirit at a local primary school. We then visited a local government (free) hospital in Mukono, attended community worship at UCU with 500 students, met with Vice Chancellor Dr. Aaron Mushengyezi (a PhD English major from the University of Connecticut), and visited the Business Innovation Hub, where students presented business ideas.

On Wednesday, the team visited Water Mission headquarters in Jinja and then headed deep into "the bush" to see one of their completed systems, stopping along the way to see the headwaters (the source) of the Nile River, which flows out of Lake Victoria north through Uganda and eventually to Egypt. Navigating the rutted dirt roads for the next hour on the way to our final destination, a village of about 2000 people in Luuka District in eastern Uganda, seemed an impossible task to us, but our driver, Happy, got us there. We saw the well, the solar panels that powered the submersed pump, the three 10,000-liter tanks on a 6-meter-high (18 feet) tower platform that gravity-feeds several spigots and showers of water in the village. They told us that the 30,000 liters of clean water supplies the village, which has no electricity or running water, with enough water for two days.

Because village women advocated on behalf of the young girls, who often missed several days of school due to their menstrual cycle, Water Mission provides a separate personal hygiene space for girls and supplies washable pads. Young boys are included in the teaching about God’s design for our bodies, normalizing  what had been a stigma that had caused ridicule and lack of respect for young girls.

After touring the water system, the team was invited to share the gospel with more than 500 junior high students in the Anglican church. We shared the story of creation, Adam and Eve, the Fall and redemption through Jesus Christ, and then we played with the kids in the yard. We asked whether anyone needed special prayer, and we went to two homes to pray for very sick young people: a 20-year-old young man who was blind and with severe disability in his legs, and a 10-year old boy with a severe eye infection.

On Friday, the team attended the Uganda Christian University graduation of 568 students with a plethora of degrees. The keynote speaker was Felix Theonugraha, the president of Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Michigan.

We came away with a clear perspective on the Christian contribution UCU is making to the country of Uganda, the deep and abiding faith of our Christian brothers and sisters, and the overwhelming needs of a country in survival mode.

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, "Your God reigns." ––Isaiah 52:7