As you may know, Drs. Kim and Ken visited Uganda in March. They met with UCE supporters, spoke on the radio, and attended outreaches with the local teams in Kasese and Masaka. This week, one student wrote a seven-page testimony thanking UCE for its intervention in their life and how profoundly the ministry has changed their future. It says, “We have known through UCE to make a decision to abstain from sex. It is a choice we decided to make it our heart, and we have not kept quiet about it. Thank you UCE for the love.” Additionally, the Diocese of Kasese said in their outreach report during the time when Drs. Kim and Ken visited, “We thank the almighty God who granted a safe journey to and from Uganda to our special God-given visitors from USA, Drs. KIM and KEN. We are humbled by their visit and the great work they did while in Uganda. During the month of March, Kasese witnessed 872 young people sign chastity cards.
As of March 2017, Uganda Kasese has led 13,801 youth to chastity since UCE began there. The team has also led 1,624 married people to sign faithfulness cards.
At an outreach on March 1, 2017 at Rewnzori Vocational Secondary School, the team evangelized and explained why a person should stick to abstinence until the right time for marriage and faithful thereafter. Teachers who are married were encouraged to remain faithful to their one partner. One of the team members shared her ruined past experience in fornication and prostitution and the negative impacts it has had on her since then up to now- how she is still regretting the life she lived. This moved the crowds, and they had to accept the message; however the challenge was still strong to voluntarily sign a chastity card. It was difficult for the students to openly pick the abstinence card while their so called boy/girl friends were watching. We know that not everyone will sign a chastity card, as it is a high calling, but we praise God for the 60 who did, and we continue to pray for the others to have a change of heart.
Nearby, at St. Mary’s High School, the crowds were more accepting of the message, seeing the hope it offers. In fact, the Head Teacher was pleased to say the pregnancy rate among female students has dropped from 5 pregnancies per term to 1 or none since 2016 after the UCE outreach, and he recommended the work done by the UCE team. They therefore invited the team to come back to St. Mary’s and pass the same information to the new school entrants. By the end of the day, 129 students were fished out and joined the UCE club now totaling up to 350 club members at the school.
The team also cheered on the teams of two friendly net ball matches, Cardinal Nsubuga vs. Holy Dove UCE sports clubs and St. Jude vs. Trinity Vocational School, respectively. The football teams also competed and brought out a large crowd of adoring friends and family.