They're one of our most active communities, and their first project was to raise chickens for the church. A poultry farm for income generating? Not quite. They agreed as a church that they wanted to improve in hospitality – a tough challenge from our perspective, as we’re of the opinion that the Acholi are some of the most hospitable people groups in the world! But hospitality and food are very important here, and they saw room for improvement, so as a church they decided to start raising and keeping chickens so that they can serve chicken to any guests who visit them.
It’s always humbling to see what people can do when they’re united behind a goal, and it’s a reminder of the importance of one of the key principles of CHE: community ownership and leadership. In CHE we don’t dictate to the community what they should do, or how they should prioritize their needs, and Adilang’s is a good reminder of why.
And they’ve been doing more than just raising chickens! They have started a weekly joint Bible study with all of the churches in the community, and organized an intercessory prayer group to support the CHE ministry. They have selected their committee and finished 60% of the committee training, on pace to be the fastest parish to finish their committee training. And the CHE trainers and committee members are all hard at work improving the health of their homes.
We were especially encouraged to hear that the CHE ministry has been promoting church unity between different denominations in Adilang. The committee members are drawn from all of the local churches, and as they have worked together they have reported a change. We pray that God keeps building them up!