Telling the gospel story among the Ik
The Ik TIMO (Training in Ministry Outreach) team has been living on the Ik ridge for over a year. Lucy Profitt gives us an update.
80% of Uganda is engaged in agriculture. The healthy economy of the 1960s was crippled in 1972 by the expulsion of the Asian business community, and then virtually destroyed by tyranny and wars. It has steadily improved since 1992. Under previous government regimes there were restrictions on persecuted Christians, but there is now freedom of religion.
In 1918, as a group of AIM missionaries made their way to Congo from Kenya, they were held up in Uganda waiting for one of their members to recover from severe sickness. Whilst there the Church Mission Society (CMS) asked them to help feed those facing starvation during a famine that year as CMS had a shortage of personnel. Following this, the group was then asked to stay and help reach out to the people west of the Nile, where CMS were yet to share the love of Jesus.
So, AIM settled in Arua and baptised the first 26 new believers. Although the church in that area got off to a slow start, 40 years later, thousands had been baptised, hundreds of churches were in existence, and Ugandan Christians were being ordained as pastors in the West Nile area.
Now, in the 21st century, a 2002 census showed that approximately 80% of the country’s population said they were Christian. As a result, the work of AIM is directed towards encouraging believers to live their whole lives in a biblical way. We work together to share the love of God with those we come across and look to engage the unreached within Uganda, in neighbouring countries and throughout the world. Those who come to work with AIM in Uganda do so alongside Ugandans in many different situations, from youth work to hospital work, schools, hospitals, orphanages, businesses and farms.
The Ik TIMO (Training in Ministry Outreach) team has been living on the Ik ridge for over a year. Lucy Profitt gives us an update.
I partner with churches in Moroto to encourage believers to reach out to rural communities with the gospel.
Donna Morrison reflects on the insights she gained into leadership working in AIM’s Central Region Office during her last term at Dwelling Places…
After four years serving in Uganda, James and Claire Gibson give us an insight into what it’s like for young people to grow up in the church in Uganda.
The Karimojong live in Karamoja, northeast Uganda. Historically they have been marginalised and ignored. This isolation is brought about through their reputed fierceness.
Suzanne Betts has been serving on a short term placement among the Karimojong of Uganda. She shares with us her first impressions.