Pastoral Support
The Need
The Arua district in Uganda has 178,481 refugees and a host community population of 891,700 (UNHCR, 2019). There is great spiritual need in the area. The Diocese of Liwolo, our delivery partners, supports 75 churches and pastors from South Sudan spread over a vast area of Northern Uganda. Currently, Bishop Joseph and his team, who run the discipleship programme, have pastoral oversight for 100,000 church members, all of whom are refugees.
Our Solution
- Supporting Pastors. The pastors can provide sensitive, supportive spiritual care through CRESS funded discipleship activities, and explore the Christian faith with those who are seeking God and have spiritual questions. We have supplied bibles and reading glasses, discipleship material and bicycles for the pastors.
- Engaging the community. During the pandemic we helped support loud speaker systems which deliver local news, spiritual reflections and debates to over 7000 refugees and poor Ugandans.
- Showing the Jesus Film in remote communities.
Discipleship Achievements
Stories
In December 2021, Bishop Joseph Aba of the Diocese of Liwolo commissioned 16 women into Mothers’ Union membership, licensed 31 Mothers’ Union Lay Readers and confirmed 930 Christians in Imvepi Refugee Camp.
This is thanks to the continued work of the pastors and DOL team within their communities.
Joel, Literature and Discipleship Officer for the DOL reported:
The Jesus Film has been one of the most effective evangelism tools that helps to raise up leaders so that the gospel of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be heard by many boys and girls, women and men, old and elderly and the kingdom of God will continue to grow in the all Nation. In these two days, we encountered tremendous achievements.
Songa with his reading glasses glasses and bible:
- Before I received the glasses, my eyes would tear when I read for long but now, I don’t experience it.
- Reading in an open place under the sunshine affected my eyes in a way that letters seem mixed up and the words appear black. But now I don’t get disturbed under the sun while using the glasses.
- During prayer service in the church, the lighting is so low that I cannot read the bible without glasses but now that is possible with the blessing of the
glasses given to me.
Thank you so much.