God Has Brought Us Full Circle
This year (2026) marks seventeen years since Frank and I first became involved in ministry in Kiburara, Western Uganda.
In 2009, we met Pastor Moses, a man with a powerful vision: That children in rural Uganda would be educated, discipled, and equipped to become leaders who would transform their communities.
From our earliest trips with teams from Covenant Life Church, we found ourselves drawn to the children and their future. That vision captured our hearts. Every year we joined in a trip to Uganda.
In 2014, we organized our first educators’ trip to Uganda, determined to learn as much as we could about Uganda’s educational system and how we could help fulfill Pastor Moses’ dream. Between 2015 and 2019, many educators joined us on these trips. Together, we helped build classrooms, provide school supplies, support teachers, and offer teacher training.
By 2019, we were working alongside Alpha Omega Secondary School, and Transformed Communities International (TCI) was launched. It marked the beginning of a new season, with a vision to help communities develop sustainable ways to provide education for their own children.
Then, in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic brought tremendous challenges. Through God’s provision, TCI was able to help cover teacher salaries at Alpha Omega and provide critical support to other Christian primary schools that allowed them to reopen when many others were forced to close permanently.
This support has continued, and today 47 students are being sponsored through TCI at Alpha Omega Secondary School.
Our current TCI Scholars with their new supplies for the term that began this month.
Then, in 2022, God led TCI to Karamoja.
The region was experiencing severe famine and widespread hunger, with many people dying. God opened doors into five villages that were receiving little or no assistance, and over time He built trust and friendship between our team and the people we serve. By His grace, we have provided food relief, Bible storytelling, discipleship training, vegetable gardening support, and a borehole. After years of drought, the villages experienced a small harvest in 2025—the first sign of renewed hope.
Since 2023, we have visited Karamoja each year, while Isaac and Gabriel have faithfully served there full-time alongside the villages. Initially, our focus was helping families survive and teaching them how to grow food. But our attention was continually drawn to the children.
Many were suffering from severe protein deficiency, affecting both their physical and cognitive development. Through nutritious corn-soy meal and ongoing support, we have witnessed remarkable improvements in their health and well-being. Many of these children are being raised by elderly grandmothers carrying an enormous responsibility. Through our partnership with Samaritan’s Purse, seventeen children have also been able to attend school over the past several years.
During our most recent trip to Karamoja in April and May 2026, as we sought God's direction for the future, He repeatedly brought one idea to our hearts: Early Childhood Development Centers (ECDCs) located within the villages themselves.
He connected us with ministries already serving through ECDCs, and we were deeply moved by the number of young children in the villages with little opportunity for learning and development. During a recent visit to Karamoja, Pastor Moses immediately noticed the same thing. His response was simple and clear: “Something must be done for these children.”
We realized that our calling is not simply to keep children alive. We want to see them thrive—physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. These children are eager to learn, eager to grow, and full of God-given potential.
And so, God has brought us full circle.
The same vision that first inspired our work in Uganda seventeen years ago—the vision of educating and discipling children—is now taking root in Karamoja.
We believe that by investing in these young lives today, God will raise up a generation of leaders who will bring lasting transformation to their communities tomorrow.
By Sue Robb