Over 28 years in East Africa John Wright has been neighbour to Ugandans, Sudanese, Congolese, South Sudanese, Kenyans and a sprinkling of ex-pats from the UK and the USA. He has seen something like a million refugees from South Sudan streaming into Arua, the 50,000 population township in which he lives and works. After a robust lockdown Uganda experienced a lull in the pandemic followed by a surge, with only five percent of the Arua population having had a vaccine jab. So the situation is now becoming much worse.
John left his home church, Holy Trinity, Boston, Lincolnshire to work with YWAM (Youth With A Mission) in development directed at mission. He leads training programmes for potential leaders from the medley of churches in the area – Catholic, Anglican, Baptist. He is on good terms with the Muslim population. When he is not leading training courses, he pitches in with manual work in local agriculture, tractors being in short supply. The YWAM campus does not have Sunday services as trainees are encouraged to support their local churches. But a New Wineskins project provides weekday worship. Mission in Arua is not a white/black enterprise. It is Christ’s mission and a multi-ethnic initiative empowering Africans to grow in biblical servant leadership.
John is married to Vikki, a USA citizen from Washington state on the West Coast. She remembers ash falling from the sky when the local volcano, Mount St Helens, erupted. She went to East Africa with the USA Peace Corps. They met and fell for each other as a result of a common interest in YWAM. They were married twice, once in Uganda, a second time in the USA. Their oldest son Aidan is about to start the second year of an engineering course at university in the USA. Like his two siblings, Aidan enjoyed the benefit of new-style on-line home-schooling. It helped him to learn self-schooling, self- motivation, he says.
With schools, hospital, teacher training college and a university in prospect, Arua is racing to join the modern world. John is helping the local churches to be strong in their leadership as change alters life-styles.
See the website: ywamarua.org
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