Submitted photo

Members of Christ’s Community Church are presented with gifts from Ugandan youth. From Left to right: Gary Hairston, Pastor Scott Rawlings, Alice Kay Rawlings, Marilyn Hairston

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Portia Williams

PDT Staff Writer

Christ’s Community Church raised $30,000 to dig two deep bore wells in Uganda. Pastor Scott Rawlings, along with three of the Church’s parishioners recently traveled to Uganda review the progress of their fund raising efforts.

Joining the Pastor was his wife Alice Kay Rawlings and Gary and Marilyn Hairston on a trip of more than 16,000 miles to Uganda in January.

“They drill very deep into the ground into the water table to provide fresh water. Sanitation in Uganda is atrocious. There are so many things that we take for granted here in the United States that they do not have over there,” Gary Hairston said.

Hairston said fresh water is so scarce in Uganda, that residents have to go look beyond their homes to secure it.

“Particularly, the people who live in the slum areas, have to go out into the country-side to find a stream or river just to get water,” Hairston said.

Hairston said the lack of proper sanitation contributes to problems such as high mortality rate and diseases.

“Our contact, Cyrus, told us that about half of the population of Uganda is under the age of 14 because the adults die off from lack of adequate medical care, lack of sanitary water,” Hairston said.

Hairston said the way the problem is addressed is to drill for water wells.

“It costs $15,000 to dig a single deep bore well. The wells provide a 20 year supply of fresh water. There are many churches and organizations around the world that contribute to the cause of digging deep bore wells in Uganda, and our church has done it now twice,” Hairston said.

The group from CCC also visited three different churches. One of the churches was in the rural area in which CCC financed a well. They also visited an orphanage called Destiny Village which houses 1,500 children.

Hairston said Christ’s Community Church’s future support to Uganda will involve working in conjunction with other churches and organizations to help to construct a new medical facility.

Alice Kay Rawlings said it is a wonderful experience to share their faith with the children there in Uganda.

“When you see these children at the orphanage, the fact that they have people who love them, they are good students, and when you show them God’s love, and they know that he loves them and they are going to be cared for,” Rawlings said.

Marilyn Hairston said it was an amazing, life-changing experience in Uganda.

“I believe it blesses us more than it blesses them to have the opportunity to have an active part in ministering to their needs,” Hairston said. “To be able to touch lives for Christ is such an amazing thing.”

According to Gary Hairston, the church is currently raising money to purchase chairs for the chapel services and toothbrush kits to send to the children.

Rawlings and the rest of the group will be planning another trip to Uganda in 2014.

Portia Williams may be reached at 740-353-3101, ext. 286 or portiawilliams@civitasmedia.com. For breaking news, follow Portia on Twitter @ PortiaWillPDT.