Sarah Brown
The first time Bill Houtz laid eyes on the sun rising over the city of Lugazi in Uganda, he was hooked.
“It is beautiful over there,” he said. “I fell in love with it that very minute I got there.”
Not only is the climate “gorgeous,” he loves the red dirt roads, the lush greenery, the delicious food, the tea and sugar plantations, and the streets lined with little shops, Houtz said. Mostly, though, he loves the people.
After visiting the city four years in a row, Bill and Stacey Houtz, from Sweet Home, have decided to move to Uganda on Aug. 21, where they will serve as missionaries at Faith Children’s Home under Pastor Hudson Suubi. Stacey’s mother, Helen Whipple, from Lebanon, plans to move next door to them in November.
Pastor Suubi was raised in a family devoted to witchcraft in Uganda, but became a Christian as a teenager, and now serves as a pastor throughout the country and fosters 50 orphans, according to the Houtzes. Suubi visited Sweet Home in 2013 to speak at Full Gospel Church, where the couple first met him.
“I shook his hand and something told me then that I had to go over there, one way or the other,” Bill said.
Stacey told him to talk to her mom, Whipple, who’d been wanting to go to Uganda, and Whipple’s response was simply, “How much, and when?”
When the family makes a trip to Faith Children’s Home, they bring candy, clothes and school supplies. Whipple’s personal ministry is to supply Bibles in the native language. In four years, she’s distributed about 3,000 Bibles.
Some people, who’ve never had a Bible, will shed tears and hug her neck when she places one in their hand, she said.
“These people are so hungry for the written word of God,” Whipple said.
Bibles cost $10 for Ugandans; the Houtz’ estimate the average household income at about $1.25 a day.
“These people don’t have much, but they’re grateful for anything you do for them,” Stacey said.
Though Suubi and his wife, Mercy, have five children of their own, they take orphans in under their care and promise them a full education, Stacey said.
“There’s one kid named Bob, he was totally abandoned,” she said. “He was so malnourished that he was just lying in a ditch to die, and they took him in.”
Today, Bob is in first or second grade and is “flourishing,” she noted.
Though other western missionaries and doctors visit Lugazi, the children are amazed to see white people, Whipple said.
“They come up to you and they’ll pinch your skin to make sure that you’re not going to change color,” she said.
But they also show a lot of respect.
“The children, when they come and speak to you, they kneel down at your side and, until you speak to them, they don’t speak,” Stacey said. “You acknowledge them, and then they have a conversation with you. They’re highly respectful.”
Through fund-raising efforts over the last four years, the Houtzes and Whipple helped provide for the orphans a water tank, solar panels, a new stove, mosquito netting, septic cleaning and building repairs.
“Money over there goes a long way,” Stacey said. “One U.S. dollar is 3,600 shillings.”
What that essentially means is that it’s about twice the value. As an example, one soda can be purchased for a dollar in the United States, but two sodas could be purchased for the same dollar in Uganda.
“That is a prize for those kids, to have soda pop,” Whipple noted.
Of all they’ve done for Suubi’s orphanage, Bill’s favorite service is helping the kids, he indicated. During his first visit to the country, a boy named Elliott clung to his leg and wouldn’t let go. Elliott is now among several children the couple financially sponsors.
The Houtzes recently sold their home in Sweet Home and purchased two acres of land in Lugazi.
“On one acre, we’re going to put our house and a garden, and have goats and chickens, and who knows what,” Stacey said. “The other acre is going to go for widow and orphan homes.”
“It’s gonna be a little village and they’re gonna call it Faith Village,” Bill added.
Stacey explained that Suubi names everything with Faith: Faith Children’s Home, Faith Village, and Faith Farms, which is five acres of land sponsored by Full Gospel Church.
After they settle into their new abode, Stacey and Whipple will speak to congregations, and Whipple will continue her ministry of Bible distribution. Bill plans on teaching kids how to maintain a garden, and will likely raise some of the orphans in their home.
“We’ll foster them and raise them just like they were our own,” he said.
When they leave the United States this month, Bill will bring with him a bag full of seeds to start his new garden, he said. One thing he wants to introduce to the children is an American-style salad with leafy greens.
The residents of Lugazi eat a lot of cabbage, rice, beans, mangoes, bananas and pineapple, and they drink a lot of tea, Stacey said. They also eat African donuts and lentil-filled samosas, an Indian influence from early British occupation.
Of the stranger things offered, there are grasshoppers on a stick, she said. But Suubi is accustomed to feeding Americans, so he makes sure to provide more palatable plates for his guests.
“What’s really weird is they give you eggs – it’s like an omelet kind of thing – but it’s white, and we asked them one day ‘How come they’re not yellow? Do you take the yolks out?'” And they don’t. Their yolks are white over there,” she said.
Uganda is sandwiched between two countries fraught with war, Sudan and Rwanda. Thus, there are refugee camps in both the north and south of Uganda, and security measures that might concern tourists.
“There’s a lot of people coming from outside the country to get away from the wars around,” Stacey said. “”Everywhere you go there’s security.”
Anywhere they go, such as malls and restaurants, they are searched with a wand and cars are checked for bombs, she said. Even houses are fenced with barbed wire or broken glass on top, but despite all this, Stacey said she feels safe.
“You feel secure, you feel safe there, even though you see weaponry everywhere you go. There’s a feeling of calm and security when you’re over there that’s different than here.”
The Houtzes and Whipple all cited different first impressions of the country, but the one thing they agreed on was how wonderful the Ugandan people are.
“The people are so loving and very respectful,” Stacey said.
It’s the people that make Uganda special for Bill.
“The people over there appreciate what you do for them,” he said. “Not like here.”
Whipple too.
“I fell in love with the country,” she said. “They are loving, loving people.”
Anyone wanting to support the family with letters or donations can send correspondence through Lebanon Christian Center, 665 S. Airport Road, Lebanon OR, 97355. Checks can be made to Lebanon Christian Center with a notation for “Uganda Bibles” or “Ugandan children.”
“This is gonna be a great adventure, but we’re ready for it,” Bill said.