Our mission in Uganda is to share our gift of faith with our sisters and brothers. As stewardship parish we use God’s gifts to help all members of the body of Christ. We have been blessed to have formed such an unexpected bond with these beautiful people half a world away.
Our Story in Uganda
It all started in 2003 with a picture of a stick church in Sr. Juliet’s hometown of Nalweyo, Diocese of Hoima , Uganda and a promise to help build a much needed bigger church. Our parish and school children raised the money and we built this Church. In June 2004 our first mission group arrived to dedicate the church. In 2005 Jack and Barbara finished the church and gave them the BIG key!
Our Mission School
On our first visit in 2004 to our mission Church we asked what was the greatest need of the people and we were told a quality catholic education- a school so the children would have faith and a future. They depend on seasonal crops for food and very poor income. So we built the school under the supervision of our faithful Missionaries Jack and Barbara Spencer, beginning with classrooms, convent and teachers /Guest house, Library/Administration offices, School clinic , Study Hall/ Cafeteria, clean water, and today it is the best school in the district.
To give the children from outlying villages a chance to attend our school dormitories were needed- so we built two; one for 100 Boys maximum capacity and 120 girls consecutively.
- Today the two dorms are not enough for our students of 600+ more than 400 come from miles away to school. This leads to some drop outs and withdrawal by parents.
- Since 2004 we partnered with our African brothers and sisters to establish this vibrant, faith filled parish and school. But we were not done. We continue to seek special help from Parishioners and beyond for financial help and volunteers to help with the mission.
- As we celebrated our first graduating class they needed a quality high school in the district- so we are building Trinity Catholic, Uganda and we need help.
On our 2007 Mission Trip, Fr. Pat Sheedy our Pastor learned that although we had the main Church built, most of the Christians could not come to Church due to distance. Some were 15 miles away from the main Church. They prayed with untrained Catechists in the mission Churches out in the Bush.
Today we are helping Blessed Trinity parish in Uganda to train Catechists and to build 25 mission churches out in the “bush”. Fr. Pat goes each summer for two weeks to visit the fruits of our labor . Not only does he check on the building projects but helps the two priests in pastoral as he celebrates Mass at the Parish and each Mission.
We are assisting each one with materials like cement, lumber, roofing, transportation, and shutters. If they provide land, the labor, dig sand and make local bricks, it costs about $35,000 for each church which BT pays two payments to each mission each year. It takes five years (approx.) for each church to be completed.
Please contact Fr. Pat Sheedy at (352)-629-8092 if you want to help.