The key to a successful mission trip? Keep going back.

The Rev. Patrick Wildman knows from experience: He has been on several mission trips to Uganda with Christ Church Overland Park, where he serves as rector. Teams from the church have been traveling to the country since 1997. Just last month, Wildman and a Christ Church team of 15 returned from a 10-day mission trip in the Gulu region of Northern Uganda. Because of their long-term, committed partnership, one trip builds on another and relationships grow strong.

“We are planting kingdom seeds, and these seeds need a long time to grow,” Wildman says. “The transformation of Africa for God’s kingdom is not something that is going to happen in a day or two. We need to have the kind of mindset that sticks with it for 100, 200 years, and longer.”

Christ Church Overland Park and the Church of Uganda have history, in the best sense of the word. Christ Church has been traveling to work and minister in Uganda since the ’90s when Christ Church hired a priest named Alison Barfoot, a longtime friend of Bishop, and now retired Archbishop, Henry Orombi. In 2004 Alison moved to Uganda to serve on his staff, and, still in Uganda, she currently serves with Archbishop Stanley Ntagali. Thanks to that ongoing relationship, Christ Church came under the oversight of the Kampala Diocese in 2005. So for a time, they were all Ugandan clergy.

Thanks to that shared past, Bishop Johnson Gakumba, bishop of the Diocese of Northern Uganda, invited Christ Church and another Ugandan church, St. Francis Chapel at Makerere University in Kampala, to partner with his diocese and minister in an area still reeling from the devastation caused by the warlord Joseph Kony and his guerrilla army. Upon arrival in Uganda, the Christ Church group joined forces with the group from St. Francis and rode 10 hours on a bus to Gulu. In Gulu, and a neighboring village called Pakwelo, the team focused their efforts on youth, the diocesan high school and a large vocational school, and widows.

The trip, while grueling spiritually and physically, was relationally rich. Christ Church, always careful to avoid the “white American saviors” complex, put themselves under the leadership of the St. Francis team; side by side, they led worship, prayed with students and shared the gospel, ministering to many and even some who were suffering from demonic oppression. They then led a retreat for the clergy and spouses of the diocese and helped at a Compassion International host site.

“[The Ugandans] are the ones who are in charge, determining what we are going to do,” Wildman says. “They know the intricacies of the culture, things that we would never know. It allows us to be there as a support, and it’s our privilege to follow their lead. It’s a great learning experience for us.”

Relationships also grew amongst the team. Wildman will never forget watching his daughter thrive as a first-time member of the mission team. She was nicknamed “the one who loves tirelessly” by the villagers in Pakwelo. Wildman delighted in working closely with her and the other parishioners for a shared purpose.

“It’s a very powerful experience on a relational level as a pastor,” he says. “There are few other ways for a pastor to spend that kind of time with church members. A mission trip is a significant way to get to know people and to pastor them.”

According to Wildman, one of the great things about being Anglican is that our church is all over the globe.

“I find our relationship with Uganda helpful and enriching and would encourage any church to pray and seek out a connection in another part of the world,” he says. “And if you choose Uganda, I may see you there.”

Learn more at http://www.christchurch-op.org.