A note of appreciation for the mission from a sister in Christ…

 

 “I particularly like this mission because it teaches people how to take care of themselves rather than just giving them handouts.  Most don’t need handouts unless they are in dire straits – like in Congo, Sudan or Ethiopia.  I remember parts of Kenya as being very poor, but most of the areas where we traveled, it was obvious that much of Africa is rich in resources.  They just have to be accessed by the people.  That is what the mission in Uganda has done.  I am pleased to support it, and you can count on Al and me to continue to support it. 

 

All over Africa, when times get tough, people leave their farms and families and travel to the big cities.  Of course that is a problem in two ways – the farms aren’t being tended and food shortages occur; at the same time, the cities are overrun with people looking for jobs, and of course, looking for food and shelter.  It seemed in Nairobi, public resources were being taxed to the hilt.  Then, that leads to various kinds of crime.  It was definitely not safe to be out and about in Nairobi.  I realize I am simplifying based on one experience.  But my point is that helping people to help themselves is a far better way to ease the problems in Africa than handing out food and supplies of other kinds.  And of course, the political issues all over Africa are terrible.  I am not sure how much we can do to help.  Even the world organizations like the UN are not stepping up because the problems are too complex and widespread, not to mention that there are millions upon millions of people who are in desperate straits.  About all we can do is pray for some relief for them.  Most just throw up their hands and give up. 

 

So I just want to thank you for all you have done and continue to do for the Uganda mission.  It is a Christian calling for you that is obvious. “

 

Till soon.  Katie Groth

 

Judy’s response concerning Mission Nyakishenyi

 

“Thank you for such an understanding of what I am trying to do in Africa in the village and that it is a small project, but, I believe one that unites us and teaches us many things about a different culture and in ways that helps us grow as Christians within ourselves and church communities.  I am thankful that God has given me and us this opportunity.

 

This is a kind message and coming from you Katie, who I have great regard and respect for as an educator in our county,  especially the feedback that lets me know that this project is helping by teaching and opportunities rather than just giving things, as you say handouts for people in dire straights.  Although,  literally, many of these people are in dire straights in these communities, where there are very poor people in Nyakishenyi.

Among the Bakiga, a cow is an important animal.  A cow gives life.  A cow is a symbol of friendship.  A gift of a cow is the greatest gift to get.   In marriage, cows are given for bride price.  The more cows the man gives for a wife, the more respected the man will be by his in-laws.  Among the Bakiga a man is expected to give not less than three cows for a wife.  In other societies like Ankole the minimum for bride price is 8 cows.  Cows are given for a wife because she is going to produce children for the continuity of life.

In our Bakiga tradition a cow is given when two people enter into a friendship. There it is known as a blood pact relationship. In this relationship, two different people choose to be in a relationship where they no longer see each other as friends but actually as brothers. They would cut on each other’s umbilical cord, get blood and drink each other’s blood. Then they would exchange gifts of cows. They now have become real brothers.

A man’s wealth is judged by how many cows he owns! With a cow he can get whatever he wants.  Where a cow is not possible then a goat is the best alternative for a gift. For bride price, cows have to be accompanied by goats. Among the Bakiga, three goats are compulsory.

In the traditional Bakiga culture chickens were insignificant but in the present they are also very much valued. Serving chicken to a visitor is a sign of high respect and honor. An important visitor will also be given a chicken as a gift.

The people of Nyakishenyi feel blessed to receive gifts of cows, goats and chickens from friends in USA. The feeling is that these are the greatest gifts they can ever get. Friends in USA are not only friends but actually brothers and sisters! These animals are symbols of brotherhood and sisterhood. What a relationship!! African Mission is indeed a “People to People” mission!” 

The Rev. Canon Jovahn Turyamureeba (Facilitator).

 

 

 

Dear friends in Christ,

In late August we were blessed with a visit from the Rev. Canon Jovahn Turyamureeba (our mission facilitator in Nyakishenyi, Uganda).  He traveled from his home in Kabale, Uganda E. Africa to visit with us before going on to Yale University.  He will be studying at the Overseas Ministry Study Center, located in New Haven, Ct. 

I want to thank everyone who welcomed the Rev. Jovahn, by hosting, greeting, visiting with him and supporting him with your prayers during his brief visit.   

During this visit we were given an opportunity to discuss the mission in Nyakishenyi and I received photos and a 19 month report on the Nyakishenyi Community Based Development Project, which began in 2007 and continues today.  It was a wonderfully detailed account of our project history prepared by our village chairman, Mr. Mutungi Collins.  I will be sharing this report with all supporters and those who wish to know more about the project.  Below are a few comments from the recent report.

 “The benefits of the water project are as follows:  A total of 82 homes are enjoying clean, safe gravity water established by this project.

1.  People drink clean and safe water, it has reduced a number of diseases like typhoid
2. People use the water to irrigate their crops.  It is used for watering of domestic animals such as cows, chickens and goats
3. Time is saved because people spend less time to fetch water unlike before the gravity water flow scheme; the time saved is used to engage in other profitable activities like agriculture.
4. Sanitation has improved in homesteads
5. It has generally improved the standard of living.”

“Poultry keeping:  This enables members to get enough eggs for home consumption and for selling.  After a period of one year the beneficiary is obligated to give 5 mature hens to another member.  This helps the project to extend its boundaries within Nyakishenyi which is composed of 9 parishes and so far a quarter of one parish has benefited from the project.”

These are just a few of the comments contained in the report.  The Nyakishenyi project has gone once again beyond the expectations of our original mission plans.  It shows not only the benefits to the people of the village communities, but of their desire to share with all the people within the surrounding parishes.  It shows their commitment to hard work to uplift their standard of living within their communities and to spread Gods gifts to all!

 “Praise God from whom all blessings flow.”  Thank you all for your continued support and prayers for the people of Nyakishenyi Village and mission. 

God bless you,

Judy A. Willson

Mission seeks to empower villagers Originally published August 22, 2009By Ron Cassie News-Post Staff

Courtesy Photo         Judy Willson, center, attends a wedding with the Rev. Jovahn Turyamureeba and his wife, Penelope. Turyamureeba will preaching at the Church of the Transfiguration in Braddock Heights next weekend.           Judy Willson always wanted to go on a mission. In April 2007, time and opportunity finally coincided and she has made the most of both ever since, working to assist the Ugandan village of Nyakishenyi.Over the past 2 1/2 years, with the support of her parish, the Church of the Transfiguration in Braddock Heights, as well as private donations, local organizations and foundations, Willson has raised $30,000 and helped coordinate a well project that has brought potable water to more than 1,000 people. She recently finished raising another $18,000 for an animal project, which has delivered 303 chickens, 162 goats and four cows to Nyakishenyi village families. The funds are also being used to build model chicken houses, furthering the animal project as a sustainable source of both food and income for the village. “The products from the animals will allow the owners to sell them and with the money they now earn, they can afford school tuition for their children, clothes, medicine along with other needs, which they can not afford without our project,” Willson wrote in an e-mail. “The animal project requires the first-born animal to be given back to the project to be redistributed.” This redistribution further allows the project to be self-sustaining, she said. “The people (in Nyakishenyi) have been amazing. They work very hard. They are always so well-prepared at every step of the way, surpassing every expectation. Each time, whether it be the water project, or the animal project, they are ready to go when something arrives.” During her first visit to Uganda, Willson met the Rev. Jovahn Turyamureeba, who is from the Nyakishenyi area, and his wife, Penelope. Turyamureeba is an old friend of the Rev. Henry Sabetti, rector of the Church of the Transfiguration. The two studied together at Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria. Turyamureeba and Sabetti will be reunited this week. The Ugandan priest will stay with Judy and Frank Willson before heading to Yale Divinity School, where he will study while on sabbatical from his duties as deputy principal of Bishop Barham University College. On Aug. 30, Turyamureeba will preach at both Church of the Transfiguration services. The public is welcome to attend. Turyamureeba risked his life by being ordained a deacon in 1978 and speaking out against Idi Amin, the infamous Ugandan president whose men had killed his archbishop. He returned to his country after completing his advanced studies in 1999, but never lost touch with Sabetti. During the Rwandan crisis in the mid-1990s, when an estimated 800,000 people were killed, many refugees fled across the border to Uganda. Families in cities like Kabale, which has a population of 43,000, and smaller villages like Nyakishenyi gave shelter to the Rwandans. These Ugandans are now suffering from a terrible drought, causing food shortages and a spike in prices. Although doctrinal differences continue to grow between the Episcopal Church USA, which includes the Church of the Transfiguration, and the Anglican Communion in Africa, Willson said the Nyakishenyi project succeeds because it functions on a “people-to-people” basis. She visited the village for a third time last spring, staying for three weeks. In summer 2008, she spent 21Ú2 months overseeing the completion of the water project. Her husband, Frank Willson, spent three weeks there as well. Judy Willson stresses the importance of allowing community leaders in Nyakishenyi to make key decisions on the projects. “They know best what to do, they know their needs better than anyone,” she said. Turyamureeba has been supervisor and facilitator, keeping the lines of communication open and documenting progress with regular e-mail updates. “I wish you were there to see a whole truck full of chickens arriving in Nyakishenyi village and the joy of all the people who were receiving their gifts of chickens!” Turyamureeba wrote in late July. “It was so exciting! All the people are grateful and thankful to you and all our friends who contributed the funds for purchasing all these gifts. We know God will reward you even with more for all this good work you have done.” Once the animal project is “comfortably” complete, Judy Willson said, mission organizers plan to provide 20 scholarships over two years, enabling young adults in Nyakishenyi to attend vocational training. She has already begun to raise the $20,000 needed for that project. Many students will be able to receive sewing, tailoring, bricklaying or driving instruction in their village, she said; a few may need tuition and living expenses to travel to schools 50 miles away. “The American dollar goes a long way in Africa, particularly for those at rural villages who don’t even make a $1 a day,” Willson said. Villagers just barely live on what they can grow on their land — if they have land. The mission of the Nyakishenyi project is to “empower the people by raising their standard of living, giving them self-esteem, and giving them better health by alleviating hunger and disease,” she said. “It is an opportunity for us all to grow in Christ by seeing the gifts of God through our partnership with the people.”

A message from Bornan, a young seminary student whom I have been praying for is now able to afford to get married on 9/12/09.  He is so excited!  It is a joyful moment for him for sure.  He has been saving to have enough money, cows and other animals to give as the bride price to the bride’s parents.  He has worked very hard in the last year to save for this big moment!     I wish I could be there for this big day.  God bless him and his wife to be!

OMG!!!  The cow I named “Bright Star” with the children in the village of Nyakishenyi gave birth to a male baby today!!!  I can’t believe it.  I didn’t know she was pregnant.  That is so amazing!  God is good all of the time!

Dear friends,

 

Another 127 chickens have been delivered to the village and 56 goats.  The chairman and committee of our village project have taken pictures for us of the distributions and on Friday another 63 goats will be delivered!!!Our facilitator will be in the village to witness the distribution also on Friday.

God is good all the time!!!

News from our facilitator:

Indeed God is in control.  I got a report from Mutungi this morning that the chickens our people received are laying eggs now and they have started selling and getting some income. Isn’t that amazing!! God is good all the time!

 

An update from our facilitator:
 
I wish you were there to see a whole truck full of chickens arriving
 
in Nyakishenyi village and the joy of all the people who were
 
receiving their gifts of chickens!!  It was so exciting!  All the people

are grateful and thankful to you and all our friends who contributed

the funds for purchasing all these gifts.  We know God will reward you

 even with more for all this good work you have done.”

The Rev. Canon Jovahn Turyamureeba, project facilitator/Nyakishenyi village

My Response

“Thank you for this wonderful news! I am so grateful for the gift from God and we owe it all to Him.  This is bringing such joy to me to know how they responded to the Chickens arriving. Please tell them my joy from here when you see them. Give them all my love and tell them, I will be there to see them and the animals as soon as I can. You have no idea how much I would have loved to have seen that site!  Only, it was not possible for me to live there so long.”

God bless,

Judy

 

 

 

 

 

Dear Friends,

I have just received news  that our village chairman Mutungi Collins has been able to purchase and transport 180 chickens in a big truck from Kabale to Nyakishenyi and now 9 families will begin rearing their chickens.  So, things are moving along for the people of Nyakishenyi.  We are only about half-way through the chicken purchasing and the remaining families are still building their chicken houses there to prepare for their chickens.

I am so thankful to those who have sponsored and supported our project and to those who are working so hard in the village.  It would be my wish to remain there and help them if only I could be there full-time.

The village is very dry now, so please keep the people and the animals  in your prayers.   Please pray for the rains to come!  So the people can plant their beans, millet, peas, maze and other crops to have enough food. Food has become very expensive there and many do not have enough food at this time.   There is famine in Northern Uganda and some in Eastern Uganda as well and many people are losing their lives.  Please pray for them…

Blessings,

Judy