Marsali Campbell
I have finished working with Dwelling Places in Uganda, and will finish serving with AIM at the end of the year.
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.
I have finished working with Dwelling Places in Uganda, and will finish serving with AIM at the end of the year.
The Ik have been granted their own county. The significance of this may not be fully evident to you, but for decades, if not centuries, the Ik have lived under the dominance of neighbouring tribes.
The unreached Ik people live in northeast Uganda, perched on the edge of the great Rift Valley. Terrill Schrock gives us this insight into a typical day for an Ik child.
AIM’s desire for the Karimojong of Uganda is for them to be set free from darkness; to be set free from the bondage of destructive traditions; and to be transformed into the full measure of Christ.
We’re getting ready to send a Training in Ministry Outreach (TIMO) team to the Ik. As we share news of preparations, will you consider your part in reaching the unreached Ik with the gospel?
Lydia Morrell had just graduated from the University of Ulster with a degree in Physiotherapy when she left Northern Ireland to go on Short Term mission to Uganda. Here she shares her experiences: