by Dennis Dalman – news@thenewsleaders.com
A fundraising “Uganda Mission” concert will take place at 2 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 27 at Celebration Lutheran Church in Sartell.
Many local talents will perform at the concert.
It is free and everyone is invited. Free-will cash or check offerings are requested. Any funds will be used to help a group of people, mostly Sartell residents, go to Uganda to build a schoolhouse for orphaned children under the guidance of the Watoto organization. The purpose of Watoto, a wordwide effort, is to give shelter, sustenance and education to children in Uganda who have lost their families to war or disease or who are vulnerable for a variety of reasons.
Musicians who will perform at the show are four people who will go on the mission trip to Uganda – Kathleen Engel, Ezra LaFleur, Ethan LaFleur and Bob Ringstrom. The other musicians are the two-member group AKoustic and Roger DeBoer, Julian Euteneuer, Cherie Ploof and Cristina Seaborn.
The 15-member mission trip to Uganda is set for sometime in August. In the meantime, the members have been busy for months raising funds in order to pay their airfare and for the orphanage itself, whose materials will cost about $20,000. Several members of the group have been on previous Watoto missions to Uganda for various building projects to help orphaned children. They had established such a solid rapport there that the world-renowned Watoto Children’s Choir came to Sartell to give a concert at Celebration Lutheran Church. Most of the mission members are parishioners at that church.
Uganda is a country in central Africa that has been torn apart by conflicts, an AIDS epidemic and the brutal dictatorship of former tyrant Idi Amin. Because of the years of turmoil, disease and bloodshed, there are many orphans in the country.
Anyone who would like to donate to the Uganda Mission trip can attend the concert. Or they can send checks to Celebration Lutheran Church, 1500 Pine Cone Road N., Sartell, Minn. 56377. Be sure to write “Watoto” or “Uganda” on the check’s memo line.
For more information, call Maggie Broissart at 320-253-1044.