Restoration Gateway is a non-profit organization located in Uganda, Africa, dedicated to joining Christ in restoring peace and healing wounds among the vulnerable children and war-torn people of Northern Uganda. The organization's vision is to develop a Christ-centered, model community that will foster God’s heart for physical and spiritual restoration among the people of war-torn Uganda.
Children in Northern Uganda
The Genesis of a Ministry
The ministry of Restoration Gateway was birthed in 2004 when seven Ugandan men began meeting to pray under a tree on the land presently held by the project. Their prayer was that God would send someone to help restore all that the enemy had stolen in their land. God answered those prayers and issued a call to Dr. Tim and Janice McCall in early 2005 to move to Uganda.
The McCall's were missionaries in Nigeria, Africa from 1983 until 1994. Between 1994-2007, they lived in Waco, Texas, USA. In 2005, God gave them a dream that they would be back in Africa, but this time in Uganda. In their dream, God also promised them 700 acres of land that overlooks a large body of water. The McCalls trusted the Lord, sold everything they had and moved to Uganda to start a ministry to provide restoration to the people of Uganda from the Northern and Southern Ugandan war.
The first trip by the McCalls took place in May of 2005, and the land for the project was selected. After a few short weeks of looking for land, they found property in Karuma, Uganda. It had 700 acres of land and overlooked the Nile river.
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Development and Infrastructure
Tim McCall, M.D., moved onto the raw land in 2007, built a road to the project, and began developing infrastructure. His wife Janice and another missionary, Ms. Peggy Stratton, joined him that summer.
The project site is located approximately 1 hour south of Gulu near Karuma Falls, a little more than ¾ of the drive from Kampala to Gulu. The (RDFI) dba Restoration Gateway office is located in Waco, Texas.
Key Programs and Facilities
From trusting God, their ministry flourished and grew. Restoration Gateway now consists of an orphanage, a primary school, a church, a library, and a dentistry that is open to the public. Other programs include a modern agricultural farm and a radio station, primary, secondary and tertiary educational institutions.
Among many other projects, Restoration Gateway serves as an orphanage for the children of Northern Uganda. They want to do everything in their power to raise up this generation as Christian leaders for their country. One of their steps to doing this, is to provide proper schooling for them. Their schooling consists of everything a modern, American elementary school would have, with the addition of Bible studies. The school is named 'Oaks of Righteousness Primary School' after Isaiah 61:3.
Oaks of Righteousness Primary School
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Housing and Community
In Uganda, mortar bricks are very rare and expensive. So, at Restoration Gateway, they make their own bricks. This allows for a cheaper alternative and provides work for Ugandan citizens. With the bricks they make, they build all of the homes on the compound.
These homes are broken into a specific system. There are three "pods" with seven "units" in every pod. (A pod is similar to a cul-de-sac and a unit is similar to a common room house.) These units house all of the children, house moms, and mission teams.
A house mom is a Ugandan native who lives with the orphans and acts as the mother figure in a household, helping the children with chores, and cooking meals for the children. Each unit is filled with four girl orphans, four boy orphans, and a house mom. The mission teams that come each get their own unit. These units are all decorated differently on the inside with different scriptures and paintings on the walls.
Restoration Gateway Hospital
The hospital at Restoration Gateway has approximately 180 beds with large outpatient, operating room, lab and x-ray facilities as well. This facility is becoming the hospital of choice for the people in the surrounding districts. It is nearer to many of these people, and increases the bed capacity in the area by nearly 50%. The hospital is part of a master plan to rehabilitate war-ravaged northern Uganda, that was drawn up in 2005.
At the commissioning ceremony on Thursday 12 April 2018, President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, committed to extending the national electricity grid to the facility, to reduce the hospital's dependency on diesel fuel electricity generators.
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Currently, there are eighty+ orphans, eight house moms, a primary school staff, seven native Ugandan employees, multiple interns, more than seventy employees, three long-term missionary families, and the ministry is still growing.
| Aspect | Details |
|---|---|
| Founding Year | 2005 |
| Founders | Dr. Tim and Janice McCall |
| Location | Karuma, Uganda |
| Land Area | 700 acres |
| Facilities | Orphanage, primary school, church, library, dentistry, hospital |
| Hospital Beds | Approximately 180 |
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