Visit with Gospel Cross International

Tuesday 21st Feb

Today we went with Gospel Cross International to Buyengo - a rural village about 1 hour from Jinja. This was a follow up visit from when Gill visited last year to talk to the women about cervical screening.

After a warm traditional welcome from the pastor of the village baptist church and his wife the children went outside with a group of us and the women were then free to learn with us. 

About 30 women attended and were eager to listen and learn. 

Using Psalm 139 and Proverbs 31 (wife of noble character) as a basis for the morning Gill encouraged the women - that they were made in his image, were known intimately by God and God had a purpose for each one of them. 

Gill shared a personal story from her own marriage to illustrate loving and respecting our husbands as women of God, then Jayne talked about healthy eating and eating food from different food groups. Amerrah (a U.K. nurse visiting Uganda whom we have met since being out here) talked to them about reducing their sugar intake to reduce the risk of hypertension, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. The women asked a number of questions as this was news to them. 

Hazel and Linda then helped the women think about how they could manage the ‘affairs of their household’ by budgeting. They introduced the concept of saving from the first part of their income - this fascinated the women. They shared with us what they needed to spend their money on. One woman who ran her own small business said she was now going to save! 

Harriet from Gospel Cross translated each section of the talks so they women could understand in Ugandan. Some of the women were making notes as they learned. 

After worrying we didn’t have enough content for 1.5hrs we ended up cutting some of the programme! 

While we were delivering the talks to the women the rest of the group entertained the children outside……all 56+ of them!! The children enjoyed story time, blowing bubbles, playing with balloons, singing songs and the fun of the parachute! They were a complete joy to be with and they especially liked the Hokey Cokey!

We then handed out donated gifts to the new mums and their babies before saying goodbye and giving lots of hugs. A big thank you to Harriet, Betty, Jimmy and the Pastor of the Baptist church for the warm welcome, transport, introductions and interpreting skills!