MROLEC Widows Ministries is a Christian based non-profit service organization located in Mbarara Uganda East Africa. Our mission is to plead the case of, provide assistance to, and promote the spiritual growth and ministry of widows.
“Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”
To visit the widow in their
distress, we have been assisting widows in a number of areas (including
home repairs) since…...
For widows in Uganda the outlook can
often be quite bleak. Government agencies as well as local churches are
often limited in the types of assistance they are able to provide to
help meet the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of widows in
their particular area.
It is therefore the mission of MROLEC to:
- plead
the case of,
- provide assistance to,
- and promote the spiritual growth and ministry of widows.
Pleading the case of
Based on
Isaiah 1:17
“Learn
to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed,
judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.”
MROLEC
strives to fulfill
the Biblical mandate to “plead for the widow” in a variety of ways,
including:
- speaking in churches
- conducting seminars
- volunteer recruitment
- raising mercy fund
- News letters
- Short term mission trips
Providing Assistance To
The widows
with whom we most
frequently work are:
- feel lonely and abandoned
- endure multiple health problems
- own their own homes
- have been neglected by immediate or extended family
- live in high crime areas
- are prime
targets for con artists
Based on James 1:27, MROLEC programs of assistance try to meet these very needs through: friendship and companionship; legal, financial, and personal counseling; assistance with utility and medical bills; transportation for groceries and doctor appointments; and home maintenance and repairs.
Promote the
spiritual growth
and ministry of widows.
Weekly
discipleship Bible studies are conducted at several locations around the
city. These groups not only provide opportunities for widows to study
the Bible, but also help break racial and cultural barriers.
The widows are able to meet one another’s needs through mutual encouragement and prayer. It is our ultimate desire to see the widows who attend these Bible studies disciple the growing number of younger widows (including single mothers).
It is our belief that widows play a crucial role in the life of the church and society through the ministry of prayer (We further believe that Anna the prophetess, who’s life as a widow was spent in prayer and fasting (Luke 2), serves as an excellent Biblical role model for any widow who is seeking to answer God’s call of a life devoted to prayer.
Since 2006, this ministry has sponsored a
monthly widow’s prayer luncheon. Widows from across the city have
recognized this very vital calling on their lives and gather to pray for
the unity of God’s people in Uganda, many of the missionaries serving
locally and abroad, and for God to raise up other widows prayer groups
to help establish a national prayer network.
Who we consider to be a widow
Our definition for a widow is any woman that has been
married and now finds herself in a “bereft” (meaning of the original
Greek word for widow in (1Timothy 5:5) situation because of the loss of
her husband. There are virtually no limitations on age or circumstance.
In other words, we respond to the needs of women of all ages whose husbands have either died, divorced them, abandoned them, or perhaps are in prison or in a nursing home.
The responsibility for the care of widows
1Timothy 5:4 states: "but if any widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to practice piety in regard to their own family, and to make some return to their parents; for this is acceptable in the sight of God.
And in verse 8: "but if anyone does not
provide for his own, and especially for those in his household, he has
denied the faith, and is worse than an unbeliever."
(The household that is spoken of here would also include widowed mothers and grandmothers.)
Even though the Bible uses some very harsh language about families not taking care of their widowed family members, we do not believe that a widow should be penalized because she has been neglected by her family. We do feel, however, that a family that is neglecting its widowed member should know how severely our heavenly father regards this.
Widows who qualify for assistance
Often we are asked by widows, “What do I have to do to qualify for help?” and “What do you charge for your services?” The answer to the first question is simply that you must be a widow, but the answer to the second is a little more involved. We never actually charge for any of our services. Because we are primarily a volunteer organization most of the work done on widow’s homes is done by volunteers, and therefore the labor is free.Challenges.
1.
Lack of enough man power. We need more volunteers to be able
to
accomplish the task placed before us by Him who has called us into the
service of His dear son Jesus Christ. Volunteers need facilitation,
training, equipping, etc more especially in the field of counseling and
guidance. Most widows resort to evil practices like alcoholism, drug
trafficking for survival, secret societies, all in the name of
forgetting their trauma, anguish, desperation, rejection, and financial
constraints.