- November 19, 2024
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Ten minutes before their performance, 22 Ugandan children, dressed in costume, clasped hands in a circle in the choir room at First Baptist Church of Palm Coast. In unison, they sang praises to God. Then, each child, eyes closed and hands in prayer form, broke out into their own individual blessing.
The hopes of two members of the Ugandan Thunder children’s choir, Irene Kimala and Nassim Luswata, were that when their group sang in front of a standing-room-only crowd Thursday night, the audience be changed.
“We give glory to the Lord because He has made this possible,” Nassim said with a big, contagious smile.
The children had only been in the country barely 24-hours when they took the stage. They made it to America two weeks later than originally planned because of delays from the Ugandan Embassy.
“The embassy in Uganda does not like adoptions or exchange students,” said Ted Moody, founder of Pennies for Posho, the nonprofit Christian ministry that sponsors the choir. “They feel like America is getting their best and brightest kids — and these are some the brightest in Uganda. When you bring Ugandan kids to America, they want to know full well that they’ll be taken care of and that they’ll be returned.”
Moody, who has now made close to 20 trips to Uganda, founded his organization eight years ago to provide food, clothing, shelter and clean drinking water for what is now 14 orphanages in the area. They feed three meals a day to 5,000 children.
“It’s posho and beans, but it keeps them alive,” Moody said.
Posho is a staple food in Uganda — and many countries in Africa — made from ground corn meal and water. The outcome is a thick consistency much like a batch of mashed potatoes.
About half of the children at the 14 orphanages are orphans, and the same goes for the members of the Ugandan Thunder.
The choir members range in age from 8 to 16, and they are from the Royal School and Orphanage and the Morning Star School and Orphanage in Uganda, East Africa. Last year, the choir, which changes members from year to year, visited 23 states. This year, on the group's six-month tour, they will stay in the Southeast with stops in nine states.
“We give concerts away,” Moody said. “It’s part of our ministry. We sing in churches, mostly; that’s where we really make our living.”
The living Moody refers to is the funds raised to buy food to feed the 5,000 children his ministry services in Uganda.
But when the children of the Ugandan Thunder take the stage, their struggles disapear. Their life shines through with everyone note they sing, every move they dance and every smile.
“We love to sing,” said Kimala. “I thank God because He gives us the voice to sing and He has made us able to come to this place.”
The Ugandan Thunder will perform again 10:30 a.m. Sunday, Jan. 19, at Community Baptist Church, 956 S. Old Dixie Highway, Bunnell.
