God is using a Bible school and widows to bring healing, new businesses and renewed life to communities in Uganda.
“Due to years of war and disease, the number of widows and fatherless children in Northern Uganda is extremely high,” the ministry team at Terebinth shared.
Terebinth Ministries, one of World Challenge’s partners in Uganda, had its origins in outreach to those who’d had their lives upended by invasions by rebel soldiers or had family members killed during the decades of violent conflict. They began building a Bible school to help believers grow in their faith but also to raise up church leaders in a region that had been devastated by loss.
These trainees and pastors in their Bible School are sent out on a weekly basis to minister to widows. “Once a widow is selected to participate in the program,” the team shared, “she is put into a small group with other women in the program. Once a week they meet with a committee member and go through the discipleship curriculum together. Often, the families and communities join those women in fellowship, Bible study, and prayer. This allows for strong community to be built and a safe place for these women to share together and be encouraged by the church.”
Finding Forgiveness and New Life
After Margret had lost her husband, life became very bitter for her, not unlike Naomi in the Bible. She rarely had enough food and was isolated from the church, which led to bitterness, lack of forgiveness and contentious relationships with her neighbors.
After she was enrolled in the widow’s program, Margret began receiving a monthly food supply and was visited weekly for the discipleship program. She learned more and more about scripture, and her walk with God grow. As a direct result, her relationship with her neighbors quickly began to improve.
Today, Margret is a very different person than she was only a few years ago. Her joy illuminates her face as she goes through her day. She is now a committed member in the church and actively participating among the prayer team as well as the team’s farming enterprise.
The Terebinth team explained that “Women in the program are provided with a monthly food package. This food package includes high quality posho (a staple food of Uganda), beans, rice, sunflower oil, and eggs from BAM Enterprises. This not only meets the immediate physical needs, but allows for the women to then save the money they’d have otherwise spent on food.”
Growing Food for the Family
Terebinth’s farming enterprise is allowing an entire community to receive fair prices for their crops and create sustainable jobs. During the pandemic lockdowns in Uganda, the program was still able to feed 40,000 people like Margert who’s livelihood is still fragile and might’ve otherwise been upended by one more wave of disaster.
While she has been growing spiritually, Margert has been working on cultivating her garden as well. The farming enterprise gives widows posho as part of a loan without interest. All of the widows receive this benefit, but Margert has been determined to make the most of this windfall. She has been planting posho plants and then selling up to 10 bags of posho each month. This is more than enough to pay back the loan, and it provides extra income for her family, so she’s planning on expanding the business.
Many of the widows like Margert take in children who have lost their families, particularly when the widows are able to work and have plenty of food. Through this incredible spirit of generosity and Christ’s love demonstrated, Terebinth estimates that some 1,500 widows and orphaned children are being fed in the widows program each month.
The team plans to keep expanding the widows program and to bring God’s redemptive care to Uganda, one household at a time.