Community members have an opportunity to learn about the world through a ministry in Uganda — Noah’s Ark Children’s Ministry Uganda. On Sunday, Sept. 11, the Island’s Community Church on Bailey Island is hosting Pete and Pita Buitendijk, founders of NACMU in Mukono, Uganda.

Noah’s Ark is a Christian-based organization that houses housing nearly 180 abandoned children. More than 200 children from neighboring impoverished villages reap the opportunity for education through individual sponsorship. NACMU operates its Family Clinic and provides affordable health care for the surrounding villages.

My husband and I visited NACMU in 2013 with our American based representatives, Safe Landings Ministries, located here in Maine. Safe Landings is the American extension of Noah’s Ark, and its mission is to provide a connection for the U.S. to help with financial needs, connect sponsors with village children whom are then able to attend school, eat at least one healthy meal and snack per day and receive medical assistance from NAMU. Safe Landings also visits NACMU for hands on mission work and awareness development.

Our Safe Landing group was there for 10 days and witnessed generous acts of service and commitment moment by moment. Our first morning we joined the Aunties (caregivers of the children) and the younger children for a simple porridge breakfast, where we were introduced to Silas in the Family Clinic. Most children when they first arrive need to be tenderly cared for within the Clinic setting before transitioning to the homes.

Silas was a 9 but about the size of a 4-year-old. He had been found tied up by his bony ankle to a post, left to starve and die. When he arrived by local authorities to Noah’s Ark he was near death. His legs were unable to hold up his skeletal body. Silas soon became the boy I was drawn to. Despite his tortured beginnings when he saw me coming to his crib he would lift his arms up to me, imploring me with his eyes to pick him up (He had not been taught to speak). Silas loved to be held, rocked and sung to and it was a gift for me to daily do so. Feeding Silas was disciplined and detailed. I would watch the doctor meticulously balance Silas’s mixture. Daily it was calculated, too little and his growth would stop, too much could be fatal.

As the children grow NACMU grows. In a newly built facility the older ones learn and experience vocational training, such as carpentry, mechanics, gardening and farming, in preparation for their futures when they leave their NACMU home. That day as our group moved on down the worn dirt road we encountered a police officer and an elder village woman cradling a 2-day-old infant, yet to be named. The infant’s mother had died in childbirth and left with no one to care for her. As Pete was inspecting and signing the official papers to include the infant into the care of NACMU he received a call and excused himself to take it. There was an urgent need, for in the neighboring city a little 3-yearold boy had been beaten and thrown out of a moving car, discarded and left. Pete immediately went to help. Our experiences at NAMU those 10 days seemed extreme, tragic, magical and life-giving were common daily experience for Noah’s Ark.

These stories of heart-rending beginnings almost always, where life prevails, transform into healthy, happy futures. Pete and Pita are very clear about their calling. I distinctly remember hearing more than once Pita and Pete say, “tears do not help these children. What they deserve and need is to be loved fully.” For Pete and Pita that means providing 24/7, tender, gentle, firm care, a home, food and clean water, education form nursery to high school and vocational training, so the children may one day fledge and make a difference in Uganda.

I can hear Pete saying, “If Uganda doesn’t change you, you will not change Uganda.” Uganda changed me and in some small way perhaps we can change Uganda. I invite you to come and hear from Pete and Pita, September 11, at the Island’s Community Church just past the store on the left. If you are not able to join us please visit nacmu.org and safelandingsministries.org, or find them on Facebook.