1/1000th: Uganda Mission Report
Written by Sarah Loogman
In our team debrief, I asked the members of the Uganda SERVE mission team two questions:
What impacted you most in this experience?
What tension do you feel that still needs reconciliation?
I think it would be fitting in sharing a mission report to articulate my own answers to these prompts…
What impacted me most and has me excited is having identified the forward trajectory of Point One Vision’s work in Central Uganda. It wasn’t without friction, but I do believe that we bridged the gap between two cultures in creating a cohesive team of African and American. We were able to recognize and communicate our differences in order to maximize a balanced outcome of result and relationship.
The tension I still hold is that we’ve only just scratched the surface and my Western mind can’t help but to feel like that’s not enough.
From an American perspective, physical productivity honestly feels lacking. We built a shepherd’s home and completed the lighting to launch the goat farm of the Livelihood & Sustainability Project. We worked with a local network to distribute 500 mosquito nets and nearly 250 malaria antidotes. We facilitated a “mini” Full Armor Camp for a group of fitness discipleship coaches and managed to withhold the chaos of engaging 200+ kids in a day of physical activity and character-building. We fed people, prayed with them and provided basic first aid and health education. It all sounds great, but what’s left behind is a church without a roof, a need for more goats, a run down school, other villagers still without nets or medication, education without resource, kids without school fees, shoes, clothing or food. So in the face of Poverty itself, the honest truth is that it feels like our “work” is a bit…. lukewarm and watered-down.
But the thing is, our mission isn’t to Americanize our Ugandan partners or their methods. The objective of how Point One Vision operates its SERVE missions is to equip and empower local leaders and communities to impact their cultures from the inside out and not the other way around. And so how I know that we’ve take the right first step (if even out of one thousand) is that it looks more like this…
We set forward a strategy with our partners on how to impact a single, remote village in the long-term. We sat with community influencers to plant the seeds of relationships needed to achieve these markers. We had a community fall in love with their first-ever Mzungu (white people) visitors and endear, not to a White Savior, but to our foundation in a love for Jesus. We turned a village kid into a village coach. A few people lived their “best day ever” and learned what it feels like to be fully alive. We cried and laughed with one another and our Ugandan friends as we learned about one another’s experiences and stories. These are the points of impact that are much less tangible, but a lot more honest.
Here’s what happens next and the reconciliation to the tension that I pray for…
In one of the most remotely accessible areas of Uganda, we’re going to build a fitness facility - an open air “gym” where we’ll start with a youth program. We’ve identified the land and the partners to pull it off. We started training the local coaches on this very trip using a character-driven curriculum. You might be wondering why we’d do something like that when there are so many arguably more necessary needs to be met in this community (and all across Subsaharan Africa for that matter) and that’s a good thing to wonder if you’re going to get involved with us. The gym is merely a means to an end - it’s the cornerstone of an entire Community Center for the village of Katega and surrounding area. It’s what galvanizes our community to bridge the space from the “West” to a remote corner of Africa. It’s what teaches the next generation about the embodiment of hope, perseverance, discipline and empathy in order to combat the everyday demons of living in poverty culture and actually pull up out of it without the devastation of handouts. It’s not the goal, it’s just the second step out of many, many more.
We’re coming back tired. As I write this, I’m quite sick and I’m not even halfway through my 40-ish hours of travel back home. But this isn’t even close to the finish line and when I’ve had a moment to pause, I’ll be back to these things that I am so excited about and hopeful for. I hope at that time, you’ll continue forward with us.
