Written by: Lee Grady
Article source: themordecaiproject.org
Dear Friends,
Thank you for praying for my recent trip to Uganda. I recently got home, and I felt poured out! I preached 32 times in seven towns, slept in seven beds, dedicated two new women’s empowerment centers, and drove approximately 955 miles throughout that beautiful country—some of those miles on dirt roads. We saw many people saved, filled with the Holy Spirit, healed from trauma and delivered from the temptation to commit suicide.
The most fulfilling part of the trip was seeing how the Lord is changing lives through our ongoing work. The girl in the photo below, Rebekah, is only 14. Her father was a peasant farmer, but he abandoned his wife and three children. Rebekah’s mother struggled to feed the family, and she couldn’t pay school fees. So Rebekah had to drop out. Then a much older guy propositioned her, saying that he would give her some money if she would sleep with him occasionally. When she got pregnant, he disappeared. So Rebekah and her baby son, Prosper, face an uncertain future.
Thankfully, she met people from Rehoboth Church in Masindi, and today she is receiving help from our women’s empowerment center there. She came to the grand opening ceremony on Feb. 8, when we cut the ribbon on the new facility. She already attends our tailoring classes, and she hopes to start a clothing shop later this year when she has been trained. We will be giving her a sewing machine in June. Best of all, she is being discipled in her new faith!
The second woman below, Maureen, gave birth to four daughters. Today the girls are 16, 15, 14 and 13. But her husband was angry that his wife didn’t give him sons, and he threatened her while she was pregnant with the fourth girl. While she was still recovering in the hospital after childbirth, the husband abandoned the family. This attitude is more common than you can imagine in parts of Uganda. Fortunately, this woman found help at our new women’s empowerment center in Masindi. She’s going to start taking classes in baking and cosmetic making, and we’re going to provide her with goats so she can raise them for extra income.
Below you can see Winnie, who is 17. She’s one of many women finding hope at our new women’s empowerment center in Masindi. Winnie’s father rejected her, so she went to live with her aunt. But then her aunt died and Winnie went back to her father’s house. “He had so many women and he rejected his own kids,” she told me. Winnie gave her heart to Jesus at age 14 and her dad chased her away for the last time. Struggling to find a place to live, she became a maid—but then the owner of the house raped her.
The sad story is typical for girls in Uganda. Because she lacked any family support, she couldn’t go to school, and today she is illiterate. But now she’s finding help at our women’s center, which we officially dedicated during my trip. Winnie will soon be starting literacy classes at our center.
My first stop on my Uganda journey was Kagoma, where Paul Wandera serves as one of our directors. Paul and his parents and his five siblings lived in a small mud hut with dirt floors in Kagoma. He slept in a vegetable sack and ate his simple meals on banana leaves. When he was a small boy, some rebels came to his house and murdered his father. That experience was so traumatic that Paul turned to witchcraft. Later, during a trip to Kenya, Paul saw a light in his room and he heard the voice of Jesus calling him. He surrendered to Christ and renounced witchcraft, and he eventually became a pastor. Today Paul leads Living Waters Church, and he’s making an impact on the region. I’m so honored to work with him and his wife, Christine. We’ve already started a women’s empowerment project, and now we are building a school in Kagoma for children who can’t afford school fees.
Below you can see our tailoring school in Kagoma. These women are being trained for eight months in how to make dresses, pants, skirts, children’s clothes and school uniforms. When they finish, we will give them a sewing machine so they can start their own home business. Many young girls in this region are forced into early marriages, and they have no skills. Their husbands often abandon them. We are offering a practical solution to break the cycle of poverty, and we’re also discipling them in the faith.
My second stop on this trip was to visit this couple below, Robert and Doreen Kaahwa. They lead Rehoboth Christian Fellowship in Masindi, Uganda, and they are the directors of our Mordecai Project outreach to women there. I’ve known Robert for 16 years, and he has spoken at my Bold Venture events many times. While I was in Masindi I did conferences for pastors, men, women and a Sunday service.
On February 8 we dedicated the Bethel Women’s Empowerment Center, and a new semester of vocational training classes started that week. Our residential shelter is big enough to house 28 women who are in crisis. This two-building complex will serve as a model campus for what The Mordecai Project hopes to replicate in many other communities in developing nations.
Below you can see some of the women students displaying the clothing they made during their classes. Other women took courses in hairstyling, literacy and how to make cosmetics, liquid soap, hair oils and other crafts. The women are also learning how to raise pigs, goats and chickens so they can have their own farm businesses.
My third stop on this trip was Katwe, a remote community in southwestern Uganda. Pastor Denis and Mary Lazaro (below) lead a church there, and last year we opened a women’s empowerment center. One of the biggest employers in this village is a salt mine, and many women in the town work there eight hours a day, multiple days a week, and yet they are only paid the equivalent of $2 a day. Pastor Denis would like to start a small women’s clinic next door to our empowerment center. We are already drawing up plans and getting estimates for this. Please pray with us, and please consider giving to this project. We want to provide medicines, treatments, and health counseling to women in need.
Below you can see my friends Gordon and Justine Karuhanga from Kabwohe, Uganda, which was my fourth stop on this trip. Gordon was an Anglican priest, but after he got filled with the Holy Spirit, his churches began to grow fast, and then some leaders started persecuting him. So he started a new ministry, and thousands of people come to his new location six days a week for teaching and ministry. We will be building a women’s empowerment center in Kabwohe, and launching an agricultural project to help women who have been abandoned by their husbands.
Below you can see one of the women’s meetings I did in Kabwohe. I preached from Numbers 27, about how the daughters of Zelophehad were given their inheritance rights in spite of previous traditions that forbid daughters from receiving land rights. So many women came to the events there because spiritual hunger is strong. They were so happy to hear how Jesus values them!
I met Medad Birungi more than 20 years ago when he visited the U.S. Today, The Mordecai Project has a women’s empowerment program in the city of Rwentobo, where Medad and his wife, Connie, run a school and clinic. We now have land to build a women’s shelter and permanent vocational training classrooms. In this region many women are abused or abandoned by their husbands and they have nowhere to turn. Our new center will be a beacon of hope. While I was in Rwentobo I did a three-day conference for men and a two-day conference for women.
Below you can see a group of about 30 women who came to the altar for salvation on the last day of the women’s conference. Some of them were students. The Lord is drawing the young generation back to Him!
Thankfully I did not have to travel alone on this trip. Below you can see my disciple, Eric Nzohabonayo, from Bujumbura, Burundi, a tiny country that borders Rwanda. He heard me speak five years ago when I was in Uganda, and we have stayed connected. When he found out that I was coming to Uganda, he flew to Kampala so he could travel with me. I always love to have a Timothy with me on my trips. Eric learned a lot, and now he wants to pioneer one of our projects in Bujumbura with his wife and a local team. Stay tuned!
The lady in the photo below, Dorcas, was living in the Democratic Republic of Congo when rebels invaded her area. Her husband was killed, so she and her six children fled to the city of Goma. They ended up coming to our Mordecai Project shelter there, and we have been providing shelter and food for several months. A few weeks ago rebels invaded Goma, and our director and his wife took the women and his family to a different place to hide. On January 28, Dorcas was killed by a bomb. Our whole team is grieving her death, and they are severely traumatized by the violence. Our team has returned home, and construction has resumed on our permanent shelter and women’s center. But they need our prayers. Please pray especially for these six orphaned children as we search for a home for them.
We need your financial support as our work expands. If your church or business would like to become a partner, please contact me. We desperately need a minimum of $100,000 to finish current projects. The needs are great but we know God is able!
To give to our overseas work, just hit the “Donate” button below and follow the prompts. To give by check, mail it to The Mordecai Project, P.O. Box 2781, LaGrange, GA 30241. We love you and we wish you a Happy New Year!
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Date published: 05/03/2025
Feature image: Lee and Deborah Grady
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