Project Trip: Safe Harbor

Hi all! I got back from my project trip a couple days ago and it was a blast. I have a lot to catch you up on (so much happened in a week and a half) so I will spend the next several days posting about various aspects of the trip. First, here is some more info on the Safe Harbor International, the ministry that we served while were there.

Safe Harbor has been such a blessing to northwestern Uganda for many years now. The hospital is the nicest around for miles. It has a maternity ward, childrens ward, and several operating rooms. The church has seen much growth in a region that is more than 95% Muslim, many of which are refugees from Sudan. A second church has even been recently planted in Arua (about three hours away). The Christian primary school provides the best education in the area. Many Muslim families are sending their children because it is so much better than the alternatives.

The main purpose of our trip was to help develop some land has been recently donated to Safe Harbor. There are two sites that are about half an hour outside Midigo. Choro is the main site where many of the staff members currently live and is 43 acres. The second site, Wogo, is a few kilometer away and has nearly 80 acres of completely undeveloped land.

The goal for the land is to develop an agricultural facility to generate revenue so that they are less dependent on supporters and can bless the community in more ways. The goal is to develop Wogo into lots of farmland to grow maize, rice, beans, and sweet potatoes. They also would like to create several fish ponds so that they can raise their own fish. Choro will then become a processing facility that will include mills to turn the maize to flour and several chicken coops for egg production. They will also use the mills to provide milling services to local farmers that would like to mill their own maize.

Currently a large percentage of the fish, eggs, and other produce is shipped all the way from Kampala (13-14 hours away). Hopefully, this will create a more sustainable ministry for years to come. Eventually, they would like to build classrooms to help train locals farmers with better farming practices.

Tomorrow, I will give you more info on all the work that we did while we were there.
In the mean time, here are a few photos of the place we stayed. Many more photos to come soon…




A view of the compound from the water tank tower.




This was our living area for the week. Each had a couple sets of bunk beds and a small shower room. They are called tukles (Lugbara for small hut).




The eMi “office” for the week.



Me on top of one of the large rock formations on the property.



A view along the road outside our compound.