Bringing Food And Faith To The Other Side Of The World

By Gordon HopkinsThe First Baptist Church of Fairbury will be holding a concert the evening of Sunday, December 12, at 6:30 p.m., to raise funds to build a church for a poor community in Uganda, Africa. Poverty is a severe problem in Uganda and over the last two years the COVID-19 pandemic has made an already dire situation drastically worse.A driving force behind this movement to build a church is a man named Mwanga, although he is better known as Pastor Jimmy. FJN recently spoke to Sharlyn Kroeker, who explained how a church in Fairbury, and others, became involved in the creation of a church on the other side of world, “So about seven years ago, my mom and dad (Donna and John Kriete) went down with their church to Uganda and they met Pastor Jimmy, and he is basically an orphan. His mom and dad died from AIDS. And he had four siblings who also died. So when mom and dad were there, he asked, ‘Would you be my parents?’”“And so mom and dad have been connecting with him ever since then. I had the desire to start raising money to send Bibles. I felt like I was supposed to get my Bibles over there. So I started connecting with him,” said Kroeker. “So we sent 200.”Then the pandemic hit.Kroeker said, “The people are very poor. In the Ugandan newspaper, it said 24 million Ugandans are suffering from hunger through this COVID.”“They were short of food, and money for soap. They just were going from three meals down to two meals. Some families were not starting to be able to eat. So then I’m like, okay, we need to raise money for food,” said Kroeker. “So I sent out an email to family and friends, and was able to send them maize flour and salt and soap. So we did that two or three times.”Next, donations were raised to send seed so that the locals could raise their own crops in two villages. In addition, Kroeker said, “We also started a goat program, where for one village that doesn’t have electricity (Luuka, in eastern Uganda) we bought, I think it was 10 goats, two males and eight females.”Kroeker said, “So now those villages have food, you know, going into the future.”Pastor Jimmy began his first church in his hometown of Iganga. Luuka was the second.Kroeker said, “And the people in Kamuli, this third village, if they knew Jimmy was coming to Luuka, they would walk over to Luuka.”So Pastor Jimmy started a third church in Kamuli and travels between the three villages on a donated motorcycle. Kroeker said, “There was one couple in the church who gave $3,000 for a motorcycle.”Kroeker said, “But Pastor Jimmy said this, ‘I’ve never done this before. This is the first church where there’s like, 70 people already wanting to be a church. I have no leaders, you know, so I need to go with some other leaders from these first two churches, and we need to train and raise up disciples to lead this church.’ Because each of his churches has a pastor, they have a secretary, they have a treasurer, they have someone. So he’s built leadership in each of these.”Currently in Kamuli, the congregation is meeting under tarpaulins. Kroeker said, “And they’re right on, basically, on the equator, so it is hot in the sun. So my goal, my desire, is to raise money for a church building to be built.”Kroker also noted, “Pastors over there do not receive a salary, you know, like Americans do. They are just at the mercy of the people. So, during the COVID, the people don’t have money, they don’t have money.”Kroeker noted, “But to raise a church, that’s thousands and thousands.”And that is the reason for the concert on Sunday. Kroeker said, “So the concert I’m just going to sing two songs, some of my favorite worship songs, with our worship team and share pictures of Jimmy in his ministry and possibly share how I came to know Christ.”For those who can’t make it to the program, Kroeker said donations are welcome, “Make checks payable to Full Life Church (my parent’s church) with Uganda in the memo line, and send to me at 915 5th St, Fairbury. This is how we have been processing all the money that comes in. (They need to request a tax receipt if desired.)”

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