Mark, Karen, Martin, Stela and Matilda travelled to Luwero on 19/07/25 and returned 3/8/25.
For all of us this was an experience that we will never forget and some of us are already dreaming of the next time we go.
St Andrew’s Leyland has known Gabriel since when he first came to study in the UK, and we have been praying and supporting the Luwero project from the start. However, this was the first time that we have actually travelled to Uganda and visited the project. We wanted to encourage Gabriel and Deborah in their ministry, and while doing that, try to serve in any way useful while we were there for the two weeks. The church family had contributed with lots of crafts, school and sports equipment to take as well as books, children’s clothing and some medical items. We had 7 large suitcases crammed with donations besides our own personal luggage. We praise God that nothing was lost or damaged and everything was quickly put to good use.
While we were there, in the first week we did some lessons in the different primary school and nursery classes. We learnt about what happened when ‘God said…’ and we learnt to draw animals using our hands. The top years were so good we even got some Ugandan crested cranes! We also had much fun with the sports day, including sack races, skipping and parachute games.
Visiting Jerusalem farm was so encouraging to see all the work that has already been done and the potential for so much more. It was great to meet Joel, the farm manager and to see where the new farm church meets on Sundays for service.
On Sunday we had the privilege to join in worship with the church and to take part in the service. We all felt so blessed and it felt like a preview of worship in Heaven. As it was Deborah’s birthday, we had a fabulous family party in the evening with plenty of dancing and laughter. During the second week we spent time at the secondary school and got to meet many of the pupils. We had the opportunity to do a morning assembly, where we talked about ‘Two ways to live’. We also did a session on identity and what makes us ourselves. After the session, boys and girls separated and we then spent nearly two hours answering questions that they had written anonymously. This was a wonderful time, with some challenging questions and also many themes that are common to teenagers across all cultures and countries. At the end, we had many one to one further conversations and also the opportunity to pray with students individually. It was a full day but a very rewarding and fulfilling one. Other days we ran art lessons, focusing on drawing skills like perspective drawing and face proportions. We also had on the final day, a sports day where they played ultimate frisbee and did some traditional British school races like skipping and the three legged race.