Salt And LightSample

When the Church acts as salt and light it transforms lives. Such was the case with Elizabeth, a 64-year-old grandmother of fourteen living in Uganda. Eight years ago, her church began using Tearfund’s principles which helped the local church work within their community to address their needs using their own resources.

Elizabeth’s community discovered afresh God's purpose for their lives. She said: “Studying scripture through this process helped awaken our church.”

Instead of thinking their church had nothing, they discovered there were resources at their disposal. Together, the community identified their greatest problems and started to work together to change things.

Before, lack of water was an issue. People were having to walk three miles every day to fetch water for cooking, cleaning and drinking. This process led them to dig wells closer to home. 

They also suffered with very high mortality rate for mothers in labor. With the nearest clinic eight miles away, if a mother went into labor at night, there was no way to get assistance. So, the community trained ten birth attendants. 

So much has changed in Elizabeth’s community. Now people are using bricks to build safer homes, rearing more animals, digging fish ponds, planting citrus trees, and cultivating more crops. Incredible transformation has taken place in their community because the Church sought to be distinct, to be the hands and feet of Jesus.