Christian Practices – Philanthropy
History dates Christian giving back to the birth of the church, to the story of the coming of the Holy Spirit and to the followers of Jesus. History also tells us that the early Christians shared their possessions to help each other and the wider community. All who believed in Christ and the teachings of Christianity sold their possessions and goods to distribute proceeds to all that had needs or were in the most vulnerable state (Acts 2:44). The commitment to giving, to helping others and being concerned about the poor, the weak, widows, and orphans was rooted in the life and the teachings of Jesus, the scriptures and the Jewish tradition. Over the years, the practices have been taken over by what is still known as church and Christianity through teaching of the scriptures and attempts to live the life that our forefathers lived.
Worship Harvest, a church with 13 locations with over 4,000 church members believes in the movement of the gospel, discipleship, and transformation; catalyzing spiritual, social and economic renewal in our immediate communities and as a result the world; this is where the Giant Killers belong. The Giant Killers is one in a cluster of cells within the church called Missional Communities (MCs) whose main objective is to be church each day by causing community transformation, sharing God’s love, reaching out to the needy and giving back to communities. Through the MCs, the church believes that it can have more impact in the society but above all reach out to more volunerable communities by extending God’s unending love and generosity.
The name Giant Killers was picked from the story of David and Goliath. The bible says that Saul and the Israelites were facing the valley of Elah when David hurled a stone from his sling which hit Goliath in the center of his forehead. The same scripture says that Goliath fell on his face to the ground and David cut off his head. Similarly the Giant Killers believe in transforming communities through solving problems (the Goliaths) that destabilize people. For the past three years, our giant has been Kito Community School. A frontier that the team picked on after their headmistress expressed the need to support the children with basic needs, school fees and other scholastic materials. Kito community is located in Lugazi about 37.6km from Lugazi town, this probably seems close to town but the levels of vulnerability within the community are surprising.
The community school caught the attention of these young men and women of the Giant Killers, over the last two years the team has implemented projects like installation of solar panels, water gutters to the girls and boys dormitory bathrooms, painting classrooms and even built a classroom block and girl’s toilet. The team is currently implementing a water project; the idea is to pump water from a nearby well to the school to stop the children from going to the well. Beyond the hardware projects the team conducts career guidance and counseling to the students, holds parent-teacher financial training, plays a mediation role between teachers, parents and students, provides scholastic materials to the students every term, provides bursaries to some students and other basic needs like clothes, sanitary pads to girls and so much more.
The opportunity to serve this community has been a blessing to the Giant Killers. The realization that we are causing transformation to the community by our little acts of generosity and giving back has been the best choice we have made as a team that commits a percentage of their earning to enhancing the wellbeing of others.
