Out & About - June 2013
Page 11
Ugandan life on Spirit Lake
Grace Wurdemann, 15, carries a heavy load of sticks for fire. Ugandan women haul this wood and water three to five miles on foot. – Photos submitted
585881 32o
and the folks at Wilderness Fellowship. The specialness is noted by the dire need there. Uganda is one of the poorest nations in the world, with 38 percent of the people living on about $1.25 a day. HIV/AIDS and malaria are taking a deadly toll, killing over 25 percent of Ugandans yearly. Brask and other religious and government support groups are offering immediate relief with sex education and mosquito nets. In the Uganda calling, Brask reminds Christians of what the Lord said long ago and means for today: “Heal the sick.” (Matthew 10:8) She said God is calling us to fulfill those words in Uganda.
Evangelist Diane Brask and Wilderness Fellowship Executive Director Randy Klawitter kneel before a typical African mud and thatch hut home. Uganda is one of the poorest nations in the world, with 38 percent of the people living on about $1.25 a day.
585873 32o
by Wayne Anderson Special to the Leader RURAL FREDERIC - The plight and salvation of Africa’s Uganda was on display in local Wisconsin over Memorial Day weekend, where demonstration stations, pictures of daily life, were erected at The Wilderness Fellowship Ministries compound. Local world missionary and evangelist Diane Brask and the staff at Wilderness Fellowship were led to show locals what people in Uganda endure every day and how Christ’s workers are helping in their physical and spiritual needs. The Wilderness Fellowship was started in 1972 by Dick and Lois Klawitter. Its website states it is a “place of refuge and peace to many people in many ways,” providing a full-time staff and family cabins, recreation facilities and prayer retreats. Thousands have benefited from the “restoration and hope which is dedicated to helping people establish intimacy with God and those they love.” Last week, the fellowship had a practical, down-to-earth mission. “This is where our families can go and experience a typical day in Uganda,” said Brask. “A day in the life in a third-world country.” About 10 African stations were set up and scattered around the beautiful 240acre fellowship area near Spirit Lake. There visitors interacted with Ugandan life, sitting on a dirt floor mixed with cow dung (to keep the dust down); eating a universal meal of pinto beans and rice (one small plate a day); and telling Bible stories – without the Bible (illiteracy is high and books are rare). “This weekend is show and tell and do,” said Brask. “It is show and tell what is happening in half the world, and to do something about it.” Brask said she ministers in Uganda every year, as well as other parts of the world. Uganda is a special calling for Brask