St Hild student Paula Holmes-Patel went on a life-changing two-week mission trip to Uganda in August 2021, where she worked in a ‘Babies Home’. She had lost her son in 2012 and felt she needed to participate in the Fountain of Peace charity.
‘I looked after the babies, painted Christian murals in the homes, and went to teach and help out in the local primary school. It was very humbling. I saw lots of babies that had harrowing back stories, been abandoned and left to die.’
Paula and her team built vegetable kitchen gardens, repaired houses in the village, built a well, read stories to the children, did church services and visited families in the village. Paula was impacted by the joy and faith of those she met in Kyenjojo, Uganda, many of whom lived in poverty and despair. She felt they were content with their lot and even offered what tiny bit they had up to God at the offertory: a few grains of rice or a handful of flour.
‘I remember thinking about three days in why had God brought me here: our baby son Jacob Samuel had died, and I could not understand why he had put me back in the mire amidst such poverty and desperate circumstances and stories and babies left to die down latrines and on the roadside.
‘I remember thinking about three days in why had God brought me here: our baby son Jacob Samuel had died, and I could not understand why he had put me back in the mire amidst such poverty and desperate circumstances and stories and babies left to die down latrines and on the roadside.”
As the veil began to clear, I learnt that God had brought me to a beautiful place, where God is their only hope sometimes. A place of love through rejection and hope through fear. I have never met people in such abject poverty who had such joy in the Lord. It made me really rethink my ways: my material life, my views on climate change and ‘just having enough’ and learning to love what we have and share in our common world.
‘The Fountain of Peace home and the local school are very special places and show where love, joy and faith have won poverty and sadness. A place where hope prevails and faith is cultivated.’
Regarding her studies at St Hild, Paula feels it is a place where she can ‘truly be myself, feel supported by others and feel closest to God. St Hild is a special place for me. Its sense of community and theological formation had really changed me in many ways.’
