During Moody’s spring break, Women’s Ministries professor and chair Pam MacRae traveled with eight female students to Uganda for hands-on training and experience working with suffering women and children. The trip was arranged through Vicky Wauterlek and  Hands of Hope ministry in Barrington, Illinois.

Q: Why did you select this particular trip?
A: I wanted our students to experientially learn about the needs of women around the world and think more broadly about what women can do for women. We need to seek to understand how God might want to use us differently than he has in the past.  

Q: Your team worked diligently to raise $12,000 for a well to be built in Ruhaama, Uganda. Why is a well needed in this area?
A: Approximately 35 percent of people in Uganda do not have immediate access to clean water. Many women walk great distances each day for clean water. With access to clean water in or near their homes, the health of their families can be more secure and women can use their time much more productively to work and provide for their families. One well has the potential to favorably change the economic condition of an entire village.

Q: During the trip, the team presented money for the well to Uganda’s First Lady, Janet Kataha Museveni. What was her reaction?
A: She was very touched! She was surprised, impressed and grateful. She is a Christian woman possessing wide influence in her country not only as the president’s wife, but also as a member of Parliament. She was also recently named a Minister of State for the district of Karamojoe. She uses her influence to create many projects that address the needs of her people and is greatly loved by them. She has prayed for solutions to meet the need for clean water, spending much of her time working to raise money for wells. Our money is the first gift of a $3 million project with Living Water International, which is an organization that drills wells throughout Uganda. 

Q: This trip was also an opportunity to partner with Hands of Hope ministry. How did this partnership enhance the trip and ministry experience?
A: Our entire trip was set up through relationships Vicky has established. Hands of Hope has raised almost $3 million dollars to address the needs of women and children in Zambia and Uganda. They have funded projects involving goats, chickens, wells, schools and hospitals. She greatly inspired us to understand the importance of women helping women. 

She believes Christian women are especially responsible to help address the needs of women and children globally. It was her prompting that encouraged us to bring the $12,000 for a well. She encouraged us to pray for creativity in raising the money and to go beyond how we might normally think to see God do a new work in and through us. As we saw the impact of her ministry on the lives of women we realized how little it takes to entirely change the lives and futures of entire families.

Q:  What, in your mind, was the most valuable lesson the students learned from this experience? 
A: As believers, we are to take care of people who suffer. Many suffer greatly without the very basic necessities of life, and we must respond. It takes so little for a family to become financially stable. The life of one family can change from dire poverty to economic stability with as little as two goats. As believers, we need to do all we can for those who are unable to sustain daily life. As Christians we are responsible to see and acknowledge the need, but also to act. We went to learn, and now we are seeking God for what should be our next response.

To learn more about the trip to Uganda, please visit the Moody Uganda Trip blog, or listen to their February 23 interview on Chris Fabry Live!