Changing Lives In Uganda

An update from Doug Hayes, Executive Director of Covenant Mercies...

My latest trip to Africa was full of reminders of how the Lord is using Covenant Mercies to transform lives. On a three-week, three-country tour with a video team, we captured many encouraging stories throughout. But perhaps the sweetest moment came on the final day of our travels, as we interviewed Sponsorship Program graduate Alex Karuhanga just hours before commencing our journey back home.

Alex’s mother, Jacqueline.

A couple of days before meeting up with Alex in Kampala (Uganda’s capital city), we visited his mother in her village near Kiburara to capture her perspective on their family’s story. Back in 2008 when Alex was first enrolled in our program, she had recently lost her husband to AIDS. She was HIV+ herself, in poor health, and struggling to hold on and continue caring for her son. As a direct result of his sponsorship, she was able to access the medical care she desperately needed to stay alive. 

The remote village where Alex grew up and his mother continues to live.

As we drove to her village on rough roads deep into the bush, it was evident why so many people had died of AIDS back in those days. Even after treatment became available at a hospital in the nearest major town (about 1 ½ hours by car), it would have been impossible for Alex’s mother to access that treatment from her remote village. Impossible apart from her son’s sponsorship, that is. Thanks to Alex’s sponsor, she was transported monthly to the clinic and followed up in the community by Covenant Mercies’ staff nurse. As a result, she remains part of her son’s life 15 years later. 

The odds would have been stacked against young Alex as well. Due to its remote location, Alex’s village is notably squalid. Poorer than average, in an area where average is not saying much. The kind of place where people might ask the age-old question, “Can anything good come from there?” Yet here we were in Kampala, sitting across from a competent, Christian young man, listening to him tell the story of what God has done in his life. Yes, something good can come from that little forgotten village. 

Alex helps with a water system at future Hope Community Primary School.

After graduating from our program with a diploma in water engineering and working for a while in that field, Alex enlisted in the military, where he has thrived. His commanding officers have been so impressed with his character and work ethic that they have put him on an officer track and sent him back for training. For years, Alex’s sponsor invested into his life through prayers and financial giving. How rewarding it is to see the good fruit the Lord has produced through that investment. We look forward to sharing this story in Alex’s own words when the video is complete later this year.

Whether you partner with Covenant Mercies by sponsoring children, investing in our schools and other projects, or lifting us up in your prayers (or all of the above), I hope you feel the Lord’s pleasure as I did while I was sitting across from Alex with tears in my eyes. The work we do is a long-term labor of love. We sow for decades, prayerfully anticipating a harvest that can only be produced with patience over time. 

How sweet it is when we finally taste the fruit. Let us not grow weary in doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up (Galatians 6:9).