Kent & Cathy Fourman on Visiting Uganda

Cathy dancing with Mama Blessed Favor during worship at Divine Farm Church.

Six years and four years respectively seemed like an eternity since the last time Cathy and I had visited Uganda. Covid got in the way. We had maintained contact with our sponsored children and my involvement on the board kept me close to the ministry, but being there is so much different than seeing photos, reading stories and hearing the tales of recent visitors. We were excited about seeing all the new facilities, rekindling old friendships with the staff and especially getting to hug our children for the first time in many years. We were not disappointed.

During our recent trip, we had the opportunity to visit Divine Hope, Divine Grace, Divine Farm and two secondary schools. We would have loved to travel to Karamoja, but there just wasn’t enough time.

On the first full day, we visited Code Academy and St. Michaels High School where children who graduated from the Divine Care program attended. We were able to visit with our son Elisha and to our surprise, was introduced to his twin brother, Elijah. We learned that twins are a great honor in Uganda society. How could we leave Code without letting Elijah know he’s loved as much as Elisha so we decided to sponsor him also.

We spent a full day at Divine Grace with many highlights including being entertained by the entire student body and faculty to Ugandan praise music and dancing, touring the beautiful new classrooms and spending time in each classroom greeting the children and doing Q&A. We visited the completed staff quarters which were in the beginning stages of construction when I visited in 2019. I also had the opportunity, along with my other American friends, Patrick and David, to meet with all the teenage boys to discuss issues related to human sexuality and other “men” topics. Cathy did likewise with the teenage girls joined by Margaret and Fran. We ended the day with a session with the Grace staff fielding questions about marriage. We also had the pleasure of spending time with our three Grace children. The day was jam packed and awe inspiring as we saw God at work in so many ways.

Over the next few days, we visited Divine Hope and Divine Farm. Our Divine Hope visit was brief but meaningful as we toured the new student dormitories and were privileged to speak to the Sunday morning gathering in the church. Our Farm time was spent in worship (wow do the Ugandans know how to worship), sharing our greetings and faith with those gathered and eating another fantastic meal prepared by the staff. We were pleased to see two of our daughters, one attending post-secondary school and the other building a women’s clothing making career. One of the highlights was witnessing the joy of the Women’s Empowerment group sharing the quilting and sewing work they had done. Cathy was thrilled that the menstrual pad project she initiated back in 2014 was still embraced by the women.

We were disappointed to leave, but as with every one of our previous visits, we left feeling totally reenergized and excited about what lies in store for the mission. One of the primary objectives of our American visits to Uganda is to let the staff and the children how much God cares for them and how much we care for them. As we always tell the Sozis, we always take away so much more than we could possibly ever give.

-Kent Fourman (Longtime sponsor and Chief Executive Volunteer ;)

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