Linda Darby: I thought I would be in an office and managing the staff that were already there but actually God used my legal skills within the field, networking with local government, doing advocacy work and starting new projects. I didn’t foresee the child protection work either.

Tim Darby: I went with a completely blank slate. I started off doing a baseline assessment [for clean water provision in Gulu] and looking at rural areas, seeing what the situation was and how it could be improved. And then the borehole projects came out from that. It was quite freeing knowing that I could, within reason, do what I felt needed to be done based on the research.

Lois and Joe Ovenden: I think one of the things we were surprised by was that being a safe space for other overseas workers felt like an important part of what God had asked us to do in Uganda too. That is something we ended up doing a lot of, being a community hub for long stretches of time. And because of the amount of support that we had from BMS, that gave us the capacity to be a support for other people.

Linda: I was really encouraged by the development within the team. Like seeing Jolly, who is the [BMS-supported] legal manager, from the beginning of her first year as a student and seeing her confidence, spirituality, and her heart and passion for the community around her grow. That was so encouraging to walk with her.

Tim: Yes, I think I was more encouraged by people than by the actual projects themselves. When you develop people’s skills then the projects kind of follow much more naturally.

Lois: One that comes to mind was being invited to the Gulu Down Syndrome support group meeting. That I was being invited to it! I wasn’t organising it, I didn’t set it up. They’re running it, these mums, and dads and also an uncle now, which is really encouraging. That I was now the invited guest as opposed to me trying to get everybody to come, that was super encouraging.

Joe: I think just seeing the team that we’ve built and the people we’ve had the privilege of working with – and thinking, you’re really sound, really functional and have lots of different skills and great working relationships. Knowing that all the ingredients are there for the work to be successful, and that it’s the right thing for us to be moving out the way.

Tim: I think we’re excited that nothing’s stopped. Not a single project that either of us or the Ovendens started is ending now that we’re leaving. All of the work is still going on, it’s just being done by other people and they still need support and they still need prayer just as much as we did.

Linda: I think we would really encourage UK churches to continue both financially supporting the work in Uganda, but praying too. I believe that the success of the projects has been through their prayer. Just prayer for the team in Uganda, how the community perceives them, that they will be a light and that they will continue working the way they have been.

Lois and Joe: Philippians 1: 6 talks about taking work to completion. Our part here is completed but the work isn’t finishing. We’ve just done our leg of the relay. And the baton’s already handed on and they’re already running! We’d love to encourage people to support Benon and Genesis [and our other Ugandan colleagues] and to see that work flourish. All of the strands of the work are carrying on and still need support and prayer and finances, but they’re carrying on with our Ugandan colleagues taking the lead and that’s really encouraging.

Linda and Tim: We would say thank you and that we are truly grateful. We’ve had such encouragement, emails, messages. When we visited churches we were sometimes totally blown away by how many people have been praying faithfully about every stage, from us arriving to us leaving. We’re just very, very grateful for their generosity, their time, their effort in reading our prayer letters and in keeping in contact with us.

Lois and Joe: We can’t really overemphasize how grateful we are for the faithfulness of people’s support. It is an amazing privilege to have people who you don’t know genuinely pray for you regularly. It never really ceased to amaze us how faithful people are in prayer and support and financial giving. They’re just incredible. So we just want to thank people for that, really, genuinely from the bottom of our hearts and ask that they will continue to pray for the work and for our colleagues and for BMS.