THE Wrights
in UGANDA
Our Latest Newsletter
What's New With Us
Bob, Martha and Bobby have moved to Mbale to focus now on several different ministries. There's so much going on that we want to share with you.
Our Family
The Wrights consist of people currently on three different continents.
Update on Our Work
The years have rolled by. My first trip to Uganda was in 98, and we moved the family here in 2000. Our lives were taken up with figuring out how to get things done quickly, because everything needed to be finished before the real work could begin. We camped for the most part of the first year-
Martha and the kids stayed in Mbale until we could get someplace built for the children to sleep. Sickness was part of our daily routine- either we were sick or the kids were sick. No reasonably functional medical facilities were within a 2 hour drive. I was struck in the neck by a shattered carborundum disk and had to be rushed down to have my throat stitched up by our friends at CCURE hospital. We also rushed a pastor’s child to CCURE who had been run over by a water trailer. The roads were pretty good in those days because there was almost no traffic- it consisted of two dirt tire tracks with grass growing between them.
Looking back we can see the Lord’s hand of protection on us. All of the cattle raiding, all of the cobras and mambas we killed, all of the sickness and injuries- and we always came out fine. We were new and idealistic, having worked in Eritrea before which, though having an even harsher climate and more difficult living conditions was an amazing and beautiful experience for us. We thought we would spend our lives there but the Lord had different plans. Sixteen years went by as we worked in Karamoja. Our girls grew up and went off to school. Martha started an educational outreach and literacy project. We kept building and fixing things, drilling wells when we got the chance or repairing vehicles. Usually 6 days a week until 6 at night. The Lord had again a different plan for us.
Now we are in Mbale working with a project we had heard about in the planning stages for many years. Martha has been asked to teach and be the dean of the school of education for LivingStone International University and I have been asked to be the project manager for the construction of the new campus. Living in a town has been quite a transition for me. We laugh and say- in Karamoja we drank warm beer and took cold showers- now we get cold beer and take warm showers.
It is wonderful to see Martha back teaching in an academic environment. When we were in the states I knew she loved it- and she never complained about the transition to rural Africa. It has been fun for me to be back on a large commercial construction project. Right now there is a lull in the work as the University raises the funds for the next phase of work. There is plenty of site work to do but we can't start digging footings until we have a clear plan of paying for the cement for concrete.
Bobby and I will keep running the crew out at LivingStone but will be heading out to do a couple of drilling projects, solar pump installs, and other projects to keep food on the table. We are thankful for the work we have and look forward to assisting a few other ministries with their work in the meantime.