Depending on God: Pastor Achibu Joseph prays with a member of his church.
How do you help a community which has - literally - nothing? Do you provide vital tools like watering cans and bikes or do you freight in the aid and essential supplies? And how do you ensure that the help is sustainable, leading to nothing less than genuine transformation?
The answer is found in the local church being supported to live out its calling in the best way possible. We call this church mobilisation and it revolves around the belief that all people have a God-given creative talent to change their environment and be fruitful. Church mobilisation holds fast to the belief that while bikes and watering cans and food parcels are good and important gifts, it is the hands that pass them on - the long-term relationships between Christians and their communities - which are the key to building truly sustainable change.
The Ugandan village of Ogongora is a perfect example of what happens when a church is mobilised to care for the the physical and spiritual needs of those around it. In 2003 the community fled the village – as the rebels advanced. In 2005, after two years in camps, the residents returned. With they had nothing. Houses were burnt and destroyed. Crops, cattle and all livestock gone. All appeared lost.
What was left – by the grace of God – was hope, and the raw potential in the people to improve their own lives.
Pastor Joseph worked with Tearfund partner the Pentecostal Assemblies of God (PAG) to begin church mobilisation in Ogongora. They used a three-stage model lasting several years, moving through phases titled ‘Awakening the Church’, ‘Mobilising the Community’ and ‘Implementing the Projects’.
Pastor Joseph explains how the approach ‘has helped me to change the role of the church to be more practical. It has made church have a lot of love for each other. It has also helped this community by teaching them how to meet their needs.’
So what next? The church is fully awake and the community have begun to be mobilised. Over the next decade Ogongora will see even more projects grow, with spiritual and physical needs met.
The Ogongora community plan:
- To install a grinding machine, allowing the community to grind their crops into flour
- To develop the recently started church nursery school, constructing a building for this and enabling more poor families to educate their children
- To drill a borehole, enabling community members to have clean water close to home (currently some do a 4km round trip)
- To purchase a bull and plough for the community – enabling more land to be opened up and planted.
- To establish a medical clinic – providing vital help for pregnant women and children affected by malaria.
This community has already come so far, but what lies in store in the months and years ahead is even better.
Join us and share in the journey.