By Bishop Martin Nyaboho- Kigamba high School is located at about 45km from Makamba, Burundi. It is in a very rural area with a narrow and stony road. We opened the teachings with a word of prayer after which we separated the students into groups according to their genders. During group time, they were free to express themselves and we discovered that they don't know much about HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.

After we had delivered the UCE message, the students confessed that they have never heard such message in their village, people are dying with HIV/AIDS and young girls are being impregnated. After the outreach, with a lot of pleasure, the students decided to sing songs for us to express their joy with the message we brought. 353 youth jumped into a better way of living and committed themselves to abstinence and Christ.

UCE teams save hundreds of lives each month. Every day people are brought to Christ, and find joy in the freedom that His plan for our lives offers. A generous donor sponsored this outreach, but we need help to reach more schools in the coming year! It costs $250 to reach one school.  At each school lives are transformed by the saving Grace of Christ. UCE outreaches bring a message of hope, and of a brighter future. Youth are supported by UCE clubs formed at their schools. Please consider sponsoring one school in 2014, and impacting lives! Donate here!

By Nevaless Masika- I want to thank the UCE founders for what they have done for Kasese, Uganda. One day at church, I heard an announcement that all the youth should meet together as we would be hosting the UCE team from Kampala. I attended these talks and after the talks I chose to sign a chastity commitment card. Before I heard the UCE message, I had had a boyfriend who was married. I thought that I needed him to support me financially. After signing the commitment card, I left that man completely. I started a new journey of abstinence and the whole of me changed. I changed in terms of prayer. My behavior changed. My life changed, and I took opportunities to join church activities. Specifically, I joined the Legion of Mary and became a pastoral consultant. I began to share my story with young people, and talk to them about how abstinence until marriage was the best choice for the whole of one's life.

I then become a consultant within the Legion of Mary on how to abstain and live up to that promise. I gained courage, and I could share with them freely. After some time, the UCE program came to Kasese to start a new branch. I jumped at the chance to join the team, and received UCE outreach training. I started to volunteer with UCE Kasese where I found my husband, Francis, who was searching for an abstaining girl. So he saw me and my qualities and how I was committed to abstaining. I told him that we must wait until we are married before we engage in sex, and he was satisfied with that answer. We waited until 09/28/2013, when we were married in the church by Fr. Peter Masereka, who also serves as the UCE programs coordinator in Kasese. So far so good! Read More

Listen here to an in-depth interview about the ongoing HIV/AIDS crisis in sub-Saharan African and the success that UCE has had in combating the pandemic.  Bishop Michael Sheridan talks with Universal Chastity Education (UCE) co-founders, Drs. Kim and Ken Dernovsek, and their son, UCE Executive Director, Andrew Dernovsek.

 

Topics covered in the November 2013 radio/podcast include:

• Founding of UCE in 2004 as a non-profit organization to promote abstinence until faithful marriage, building upon the Ugandan success against AIDS
• Uniqueness of UCE outreaches with Christ-centered message as central teaching, supplemented by accurate medical facts
• The global HIV/AIDS crisis
• Why chastity?
• Success of UCE
• The Executive Director's experience as a Peace Corps Volunteer for over 2 years in Lesotho, Africa, living in a "culture of death"
• Chastity Sunday, the 27th Sunday in ordinary time, now shared by Uganda, Iringa Diocese in Tanzania, Makamba Diocese in Burundi and the Diocese of Pueblo
• UCE outreaches in Colorado
• World AIDS Day Agape Meal 

  World AIDS Day

Our 8th Annual World AIDS Day Agape Meal and All Night Prayer Vigil was held at Christ the King Catholic Church in Pueblo, Colorado. As always, it was an ecumenical event, and we were joined by Anglicans, Catholics, Evangelicals, Nazarenes, and others. Angela Guarnere, an UCE speaker on chastity, spoke on how faithfulness brings freedom. After a light prayer meal, participants took an hour during the night to pray with the Lord, pray for an end to HIV, pray for those affected by HIV, to pray for our UCE teams, for all the young people we have reached, and those we have not reached.

In addition to those at the Pueblo event, we were joined across the globe in prayer by well over 400 individuals from Uganda, Burundi, Tanzania, and the Philippines who committed to pray for one hour. Also, several UCE clergy members held services and prayer vigils.

A big part of World AIDS Day each year is remembering that we need to follow the Ugandan model in our daily lives. When asked, "How did you start this great success against HIV?" They always replied, and still do, "We fell to our knees in prayer." It is something that we must remember to do each and every day. We must not only pray for ourselves, our families, and our friends, but we are also called to pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ as well as those who do not yet know Him.

Our UCE Prayer Warriors pray round the year, if you are interested in becoming a prayer warrior, you can check out the program here.    

 

 

Universal Chastity Education, Inc. (UCE) is an educational organization established in 2004 and determined to be a public charity, exempt from Federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Its promotes through education sexual abstinence until marriage and marital fidelity as healthy lifestyles free from sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS. UCE operates  in rural Uganda. and launched in Burundi in 2007 and Tanzania in 2009 and in the USA in 2012.  
                            Visit the UCE website