Pastor George

Every time I travel to Uganda, my faith in humanity is restored.

Each year I meet unbelievable people who are doing amazing things with little or no money, just a desire to serve others. My first two years I got to know Sally and her King's Daughters. Third and fourth year I was lucky enough to spend time with Duncan and learn more about his work with his children at Elohim. Today I spent an amazing day with a man named Pastor George.

George is a soft spoken man with an amazing oratory skill. I could have listened to him for hours and I can imagine that he is an captivating preacher. We met with him to arrange the delivery of the books from the Gulu Resource Centre that Niteo created last year. Due to a conflict with the Diocese where the centre is located it has been closed for at least three months. We want to get the books out and into the hands of people who will use them.

This man has built 5 churches on land that he has purchased in and around Gulu. First he buys land and builds a church. In the villages where he builds the churches he asks the leaders if there is a need for a nursery school. Children aged 8 and above can walk the 5-10km to attend primary school but the little ones cannot walk so far and so they miss their early education. This contributes to the high dropout rates. If the leaders say that there is a need and they prove it by doing a census of the village (about 40 nursery school aged children are required) then houses are built for 2 teachers and a caretaker. He hires the staff with the understanding that there is little money for their salary but housing and food will be provided.

Parents do not have to pay for the education at these nursery schools but they are expected to donate food for the children when they have some to spare. They donate fresh vegetables, dried grains, and flours. Today the children were eating a millet porridge when we visited Kiceke school. Pastor George said, "When you don't invest in something, you don't value it." This is why he requires donations of food.

Once all his parcels of land have churches and schools, he wishes to create medical centers for the villages. Currently there are beautiful medical buildings that the international community has built but there are no doctors or supplies. George does bring in doctors once or twice a year that spend 2 weeks visiting the villages to provide free medical exams and medicine.

His vision is also to create children's centers where kids can go to read, play, and be safe. This reminds me of the Eva Ruf Centre in Ntinda.

When he is building a church and the houses for the teachers, he hires local vulnerable young men and boys to make the bricks and to build the church. In exchange for their labour, he pays for their school fees. He believes education is necessary to open up their future.

Also, he is helping the villagers become accustomed to being back on their land. It is now illegal to encourage people to stay in IDP camps but the people who lived there during the war are not used to having to do anything for themselves. When they return to the villages they don't have easy access to water and they must work the land to sustain themselves. George first builds a well where he wants to build a church and then he helps the villagers learn about the best practices for their farming. If he doesn't know then he gets someone to come and help. Today he was showing me groundnuts. A kg of groundnuts will fetch about 3,000 shillings ($1.50) at the market but if the villagers learn to process them into groundnut butter like our peanut butter, that same kg of groundnuts will fetch 8-10,000 shillings ($4 to $5). The people need to be shown how to get the maximum value from their land.

Pastor George's vision and dedication to serving the villagers who are trying to rebuild their lives in Gulu after the war are amazing. He earns nothing. He relies on the generosity of national and international donors but no one big, just individuals who know other individuals who know other individuals.

I hope to maintain contact with this amazing man and be involved in his projects in the future.


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