The Sloan Family
Introducing Marine Reach’s Africa project - Uzima
Swahili for Life, Health and Wholeness
By Brian Sloan, Marine Reach Europe & Africa Director
Dr. David Livingstone the famous missionary doctor and African explorer, was a hero of mine. Brought up in Ayrshire, I was not far from Livingstone’s birthplace of Blantyre, Scotland. Dr. Livingstone died working to bring the ‘light’ to the ‘darkness’ he described in the interior of Africa. There, people had never heard the gospel of Christ, had no access to medical assistance, and lived in fear of the spirit world and the slave trade. Over 130 years later, little has changed. Outside of the main towns there is little to no medical assistance or education and people still live in fear of the spirit world. Slavery continues, but is often ignored.
Lyle and Jette Hall are an American/Danish couple brought up in Africa by missionary parents. Together with Marine Reach, they seek to reach out to the poor, ‘forgotten’ peoples that live around the Great Lakes of Africa. The nations of Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi, Congo, Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique are their borders. It is the very same area that Dr. Livingstone himself travelled.
Uzima’s vision is for small vessels equipped with medical facilities and supplies to reach out to the poor, isolated communities on and around the great lakes of Africa. Completely landlocked, several of the lakes are hundreds of miles long and are difficult to reach by traditional methods. Uzima’s doctors, dentists, teachers and other volunteer teams onboard will demonstrate God’s love through: Health Care, Community Development Programs, Church Planting, Education, Evangelism and Discipleship.
Most of our staff have been working in East Africa on and off for many years and we are blessed for their experience and the wonderful African staff that work with us. We are in the process of buying a large house in Kigoma, Tanzania. Our first three staff will move into the house at the end of July with the Halls joining them a month later. Other staff will continue to arrive in the coming months. By March 2006, a team of two families, two couples and at least two singles should be settled in and ready for our first venture down Lake Tanganyika. By then, a container of supplies should have arrived from the USA and Europe and further suitable accommodation secured for the medical facilities and visitors.
Like all of us in Marine Reach, the Uzima team are volunteers and raise their own support from churches, friends and family. This allows us to keep overhead expenses low and ensure that donations towards our work do not ‘disappear’ into large administration costs and wages. However, there are still many expenses to be met: funding for the container shipments, payments for the house and medical facilities and, ultimately, a suitable vessel.
In order to help the often ‘forgotten’ people of this region we need generous donors to partner with us financially and in prayer. We are grateful for every gift, no matter how small and ask you not to forget these precious people in Africa. For more information and/or to donate, please contact one of our regional offices or visit our web site www.marinereach.com and look under ‘locations - Africa’. This is a huge vision, but with God’s direction, your partnership, faith and determination we shall see Dr. Livingstone’s dream come to pass and the “people of the lakes” will see the Great Light!