North Harbor Community Church members Susan Nuss (Left) and Susan Lucas celebrate the completion of a handmade storybook (pictured in back) about the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well from the Gospel of John. The two will take the books with them on a trip to Uganda where the books will be presented to female tribal members. (Photo courtesy of Susan Lucas)

Members of New Harbor Community Church will be embarking on a two-week trip to Northern Uganda to promote the Gospels to the tribes there.

Missionary trips to African countries are nothing new for the church, which is designated as Baptist although member Susan Lucas says the doors are open to anyone who wants to attend. In fact, Kelly Patchin, the church’s senior pastor, has made several trips to northern Uganda in the last few years. However, for this particular trip, he wanted to do something different.

“The last time my pastor was there, his men that he’s been working with this entire time requested that the next time we were able to come, we’d bring a group of women to help work with their wives so that the wives would be able to minister to the other women in their tribes and the young girls,” Lucas said.

New Harbor raised about $15,000 for the trip through donations from church and community members. The group going to Uganda will consist of Patchin and his son Blake as well as Lucas, Susan Nuss and Angel Harris. They will fly into Lira where they will be working with 80 to 100 people from northern Uganda, the southern Congo, southern Sudan and Kenya. The women will be working with other women in Uganda. One of their activities will consist of sharing picture books they created— using materials like construction paper, cloths and buttons— about the story of Jesus and the encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well from the Gospel of John.

“We’ll be using that story because there are a lot of parallels with traditional African culture and some of the things that Jesus deals with in this story,” Lucas said. “Each picture tells a little bit of the story that we’re making in this book.”

“It’s been quite a project,” she added.

The first three and a half days will consist of working with pastors from other churches in a convention-like setting. Afterwards, they will be doing training sessions at the hotel and then will go on to deliver ministry to the tribes. The women of the congregation will also be bringing feminine hygiene kits to the women and girls.

“As teenage girls (in Africa) become more sexually mature, they end up missing a lot of school,” Lucas said. “They don’t have the types of feminine hygiene products we have here, and they basically end up not being educated. We’ve made these reusable hygiene kits for the girls so that they don’t miss school. We want them to continue to get an education and break free a little bit of that being a male-dominated area.”

Lucas hopes the trip will bring a sense of positivity to Ugandan villages.

“We wanted to show these women that there is love and there is a God that cares about them unconditionally and that we’re just there to give them hope,” she said.

New Harbor Community Church is still accepting donations for this trip to reach its goal of $16,000. People wishing to donate can do so by calling 745-4448 or by visiting NewHarborChurch.SecureGive.com. Simply click on “Give without an account” and enter the amount you would like to give next to “Uganda Trip Support.”

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