Holly and I are working in the fields of peacebuilding and psychosocial care. Both are fields that often yield slow results. In a country with urgent and pressing needs, I am constantly presented with opportunities to help in very practical ways. For my sanity, I try to contribute to small but tangible requests of an individual or family. This is a short story of Pastor Nicholas and his family. He is helping to start a church plant in Lira and has taken the voluntary position of "Church Coordinator". He is putting four children through school and makes a small income by preaching and translating. We sat together for a short time and decided that we should try to restart a small bakery business run by his wife. We looked at all the costs for baking supplies and reconstruction of his brick oven. One of our friends from the U.S. has generously sponsored this project. He has already established small contracts to sell his bread and cakes to shops nearby. Eventhough this bakery won't put his children through school, it is a significant contribution that will hopefully grow in the next serveral years. When we visited Pastor Nicholas his children sang worship songs and prayed for us.
