Serving Uganda for Christ
(By Jun Lee)
Sarang Fund helped to raise $1,000 this summer to support Jun Lee’s summer internship project. Here is his testimony. Praise God of all nations!
My summer internship project
I have been privileged with the opportunity to intern for the summer at Hope Center Uganda, in a small city called Gulu, through the Shuford Program at the University of North Carolina. Hope Center Uganda’s mission is to foster a community of educated and creative youth by providing a safe and inclusive environment for learning literacy, arts, technology, and health. By offering youth and women technical skills training and encouraging innovative thinking, Hope Center aims to achieve individual and communal social and economic growth in Gulu.
Personally, upon arrival, I have been creating a financial literacy manual, catered to the needs of the people, which will be used to educate the community and train the Hope Center Uganda staff to teach lectures. Isaac Samanya, a student at the Islamic University in Uganda, has been working closely with me on every project I have been assigned so far. He is also an intern, and together we have completed the financial literacy manual for the center. We have been traveling into the local middle schools and high schools to teach the students about financial literacy and the unemployment crisis among youth in Uganda. We have also been applying for grants to different institutions to help fund the organization long-term and have been brainstorming innovative ideas for the overall improvement of the center, while also developing various weekend programs. I also participate in the Uplift Program, a micro-finance program that provides three-month loans to women in villages with a 5% interest rate.
What I learned more about God thru this trip
While in Uganda, I was reminded once again that God is not just God of the Jews or God of the Americans, but He is God of all nations. God reigns in all nations; therefore, God is the King in Uganda, and He rules in all of Africa. In the book of Acts, the Gospel of Jesus is unstoppable. The Holy Spirit is unstoppable despite persecutions toward the disciples and apostles spreading the name of Jesus all throughout Europe.
That Gospel of Jesus has reached Africa as well. Actually, Uganda is considered a Christian nation as the majority people confess to be Christians. I have learned that God really loves the people of Uganda, and that He has compassion for them. He is a faithful God, faithful to His people. He has not abandoned the African people, and He is working in Uganda. I feel like God wants to use Ugandan people to reach neighbor nations such as South Sudan, Congo, Tanzania, and Kenya.
Lessons learned
I have been reflecting on the importance of who I represent and work for. HCU is a nonprofit organization with good intentions of striving to make the community better for the people of Uganda. But let’s not forget this important question. Who is my Lord and Master? Who do I represent? I can do good things in this world but give no glory to Christ. I can also do good things and give all the glory and credit to our Lord Jesus Christ. The difference lies in who I am representing – to whom do I belong? As one who belongs to the Kingdom of God, everything I do is done in the name of Jesus Christ, and I am working for him alone.
Paul often says, “I am a servant of Christ,” and I agree with him: God takes all the credit for the work I do on earth. I think my internship program is driven by godly traits of compassion and love, but at the end of the day, what matters the most is that we do it for our Lord Jesus.
It is important to help the poor, widows, orphans, and sojourners. But the greatest takeaway is that whatever we do, do it in the name of Jesus and give him the sole glory because you belong to Him.
