Uganda (MNN) ― Poverty remains high in Northern and Eastern Uganda's rural areas. Even though the government has made great strides toward overcoming poverty, it still affects about 46% of the population.
One condition that has a particularly severe impact on poverty reduction in Uganda is peace and security. Due to unstable political conditions in the north and west, large displacements of people and broken infrastructure, the condition persists.
In these isolated areas, like many other uprooted workers, pastors make roughly 30 cents per month, according to Sues Hyde with International Bible Society-Send The Light.
She says that's also why they resourced 160 pastors. "These pastors live in a highly-Muslim area. Most of them have been displaced at some point in their lives. They are faced everyday with decisions we will never face. "
Hyde was part of a small team of IBS-STL staff and volunteers who brought Bibles, reading glasses, and Bible training to rural northern Uganda. More than 160 pastors and church leaders traveled hours by foot and bicycle to attend the 14-hour-a-day conference.
Due to the overwhelming poverty these church leaders face, few would ever expect to have basics. A Bible can cost up to three times a pastor's annual salary. Hyde says, "For them to be given the tools to understand how to develop a Christian worldview is equipping them for life. That includes a lifestyle of evangelism and discipling."
Little good comes from having a Bible, however, if the person can't see to read it. So, the team brought more than 200 pairs of reading glasses. Older participants and teachers from a nearby school snatched these up eagerly.
Hyde says training and helping these impoverished church leaders provides invaluable support for future outreach. "The pastors were elated. Many of them would never, in their lifetime, be able to get a pair of reading glasses. First we handed out the glasses, and then the Bibles. I have never heard such wonderful praise as when these pastors were given these tools."
More Bibles are needed in this desperately poor region. Because royalties from the NIV family of Bible translations cover overhead, 100 percent of donations go to Scripture ministry. Visit www.ibsstl.org/ministry for more information.
