Sonya Herron stood beneath a small tent among a group of people with leprosy as well as others from the village and shared the Gospel with boldness. She called people to walk in the light as Jesus is the Light and challenged them to be fully committed to Christ. Afterward, an older man, missing one leg, came forward on crutches. He declared his allegiance to Christ in front of the entire group and put his faith in Jesus. The man, who suffers from leprosy, is one of almost 50 lepers in the village.
“You don’t hear much about these people, people with leprosy, because they are more hidden, and they are more neglected and forgotten,” Herron said.
Leprosy is endemic in Uganda, and there have been cases reported in 40 percent of the districts. It is a chronic, infectious disease that affects the skin, peripheral nerves, upper respiratory tract and eyes. It poses a significant challaenge for public health and community well-being.
When Nathan, the night guard at the Herrons’ compound, learned about this community of lepers who had no access to healthcare, he sought the Herrons for help. Sonya and her husband James serve as IMB missionaries in Uganda and know Nathan well. Nathan was moved with compassion and knew the Herrons would not pass up an opportunity to show God’s love to a neglected, vulnerable population.
“That was not the area that we initially saw, or we came here to work with,” Sonya Herron said, “but if you’re willing, you can always find opportunities to join God where He is at work, and where people have needs that you had not even thought of, and no one else has thought of them.”
Sonya and James moved to Uganda more than a decade ago in pursuit of those shunned by the rest of the world. Their ministry focuses on people who live on the islands of Lake Victoria, one of the largest freshwater lakes in the world. They regularly visit a community of outcasts on one of these islands – people who have no other place to go – lawbreakers, refugees, and others in desperate circumstances. They [1]