When we began our work in Arua, our focus was to find a number of budding entrepreneurs and support them as they grew their businesses to the next level.
We have learnt so much by taking this deep dive into the life of Arua. This learning has shaped the agenda of this latest trip (June 4 – 15).
Our focus is still primarily with business people. Over the years we have come to realize that while there are many people who would like to build businesses, very few have the ability to do so. On this particular trip, we will concentrate on a group of about 15 men and women who have the potential to change their communities through their business skills and just plain hard work. As before, we will meet with many of the group, one on one, to discuss the specific issues and opportunities that they face but we will also bring the group together for a one day “Expert Seminar” to teach business at a deeper and more sophisticated level. We are looking forward to a highly interactive session focused on marketing, business risks and an open forum with questions driven by our entrepreneurs.
However, we have come to understand that we can’t work with businesses in isolation. There are so many other factors that impact the economic environment. Two in particular are the church and the government. The church, through its teaching, creates a culture that either helps or hinders. In our first interaction with the church we discovered that business was considered “evil” and therefore not something in which good Christians should be involved. We have built a good relationship with the Bishop of the Church of Uganda in Arua. We are regularly invited to preach about work from the pulpit of the largest churches and a year ago I was asked to conduct a one day seminar on the Theology of Work for a group comprising the Bishop and some 75 of his pastors and church leaders. Gradually we hope to be changing the widely held view of work. We look forward to the day when the people of Arua see their role as stewards of this wonderful part of God’s creation that they have been given to “work and tend”.
We will also be meeting with the Mayor and MP for Arua on this trip. Why? Because there are so many infrastructure challenges for people in Arua that can only be solved by enlightened government policy and investment. We will focus on three elements in particular - water, power and roads. We take these for granted in our western communities, but they are a real challenge in Arua. Power is often out for days at a time (imagine running a manufacturing operation), and water has become increasingly unreliable, particularly in the dry seasons. Just recently the town water supply dried up for several weeks, forcing all 60,000 inhabitants of Arua and its surrounding region to fetch water from bore holes in jerry cans.
It is only in the integrate effort of the church, business people and politicians that the future will be bright for Arua. We hope in some small way to be a catalyst for this discussion and process.
We’ll try to Blog on a daily basis to give you all an insight into our trip. We covet your prayers. In the field it is often hard to pray consistently. This is when we feel the prayers of others holding us up and bringing us to the Throne of Grace.
Blessings
A
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