[UPDATE] Hope Moves Forward: SWOH’s Response to COVID-19 and Global Events

We continue to pray and to hope all of you are safe during this unprecedented time of quarantine during a pandemic. Many of our jobs and lives have transitioned in unexpected ways, and there are still more unknowns than knowns. We have prayed for you all and for our nation.

We also want to say, “Thank you,” to our sustaining donors and prayer partners. Thank you for your committed, monthly support and one-time, significant gifts during this season. Your generosity assisted our transition to be “social-distance friendly” in the United States. Furthermore, we have been able to support several vulnerable populations in Uganda, including our orphans at the school and our teachers.

Quarantine life in Uganda has similarities to life in the United States. Shut down schools, bare highways, and shut down entertainment venues characterize life in Uganda. Unfortunately, Uganda, as a developing nation, and Sovereign Wings of Hope, as a ministry in rural Uganda, experienced new challenges due to lack of infrastructure. 

Many businesses came to a complete halt because of strict social distancing regulations. Little or no funding went to Ugandans who were unable to work or who lost their jobs due to social distancing measures. Country border guidelines necessitated that we postpone our summer missions project. Due to shutdown of local transport, many of our hospice patients could not meet us in our hospice for outpatient care. Our students missed valuable time in the classroom, and there was no online option available to remedy it. In most cases, parents pay school tuition directly to the schools in Uganda, so school teachers were furloughed for months. 

And yet in the midst of the very little, God continues to do so much. Similar to the widow woman who supported her child and the prophet Elijah during the three year drought, we saw God use SWOH to deliver food to our orphans at our school. We want to thank Pastor John, and our principal, Simon, who worked faithfully to serve our 20+ teachers and 700 students. They have been encouraged by our gifts and prayers. We were able to pay a partial teacher’s salary to sustain our teachers and their families. We invested in PPE so that we could continue to serve the hospice patients that we could reach. 

Our vision this fall and the rest of the year is to “Retool to Regrow.” Our COVID-19 response includes working with our local partners in Uganda to assess current and future needs, to develop realistic projects, and to continue essential hospice ministry and school ministry work. We hope to continue our missions ministry as soon as possible, and we are exploring virtual methods to continue training pastors and teachers. We are excited about starting school in the fall and about building up an infrastructure that will handle local quarantines should they arise. 

- President Jeremiah Situka