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About
If you know us, Dave & Andrea Bouffard and family, you know that we’ve been serving God through Christian Camping ministry for many years. God has led us to a new phase of our journey by doing camp ministry…in AFRICA! We are missionaries with New Hope Uganda, and independent mission organization that has been working with orphans in Uganda, East Africa since 1988. Their mission is to bring the fatherhood of God to the fatherless children of Uganda. Now, they have started a dynamic new arm of their ministry in order to further share the love of Christ with all they minister to… Musana Camps. In a country that has been plagued by war, disease, poverty, and hopelessness, Musana Camps seeks to change lives by encountering truth within the unique and powerful context of a Christian Camping ministry.Musana Camps will use Training Programs that will immerse young men and women in biblical truth in order to learn how to live in true biblical manhood and womanhood, develop a Christ-centered worldview, learn new life skills, improve old life skills, and have a chance to be actively involved in ministry, thus developing them into Christ-followers who can lead and be used by God to bring the fatherhood of God to the fatherless. Our Youth Camps will be for young people to come and experience Christ and community in a way they never have before…through the relationships, exciting and unique activities, and biblical teaching of Christian camp. Our Retreat Ministry will serve churches, children’s centers, schools, individuals, and families. Each retreat will be geared to pull participants away from their normal routines to learn, focus on Christ their creator, strengthen relationships, and hear from the Word of God about the hope He has for their lives and circumstances.
Besides our programming, we are also excited to bring much needed development to our surrounding communities. We believe that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is shared by Jesus-followers who combine faith and actions that reflect and reveal the glory of God. There is so much opportunity to be the hands and feet of Christ as the camp is located in a severely poverty stricken district of Uganda. In light of this, we are trying to show the love of Christ to our neighbors by building relationships and providing as many of the basic life needs as we can. Fundraising is underway to build a community clinic on the camp property that will offer treatment for physical needs, leading to countless opportunities for spiritual healing as well. There is no health care to speak of for about an hour and a half radius from the camp, so the clinic will serve the surrounding communities as well as camp staff and guests. We are also partnering with the community to do some road development projects (MUCH needed…the roads here make Pennsylvania roads look as smooth as glass!), and even more importantly, bring clean water to our local village. One day, we hope to even build a quality, affordable school for community children as daily life for many children here requires focusing on survival and they cannot afford the time or money to go to school. We are already employing many locals for various support staff jobs at the camp, offering a good steady wage in an area with very few job opportunities.
The camp is in it’s early stages of development and there is much to be done! Dave is serving as the Executive Director of the camp along with a small team of missionaries who will train Ugandan counterparts to eventually run this ministry without foreign staff. Currently, our staff consists of Syd and Andrea Sparks who were the first staff of the camp and pioneered this ministry. Syd’ main focus is primarily on overseeing all of the programming aspects of the ministry. Syd and Andrea both went through Camp Forest Springs L.T.D. (Leadership Training and Development) program as Andrea and I did and it is such a blessing to serve with another couple who see camp ministry from a very similar perspective. We are really excited that Nathan and Kendra Jackson have also joined the team and Nathan is our Site/Construction Manager. Nathan has lots of camp ministry experience in the area of construction and facility maintenance and this recent development of their joining our team is further evidence of God’s blessing the ministry of Musana Camps and moving things forward as there is much building to be done! We are so grateful for the one other full time staff we have serving with us, Medie Kanyike. Medie is the first and only full time Ugandan staff member serving the camp exclusively. He is managing our Enterprise Department and also serves as a much needed Community Liason. As the only full time Uganda staff member, he also does A LOT of translating and teaching of the American staff regarding culture and language. We also have about a dozen other Ugandan employees that are support staff working as cooks, security guards, garden workers, compound workers, etc. It is a blessing to have a growing staff and these people are our friends and family as well as our co-workers.
The camp property itself is located on the shores of Lake Victoria in southern Uganda. We own over 900 acres of land and there is so much potential for how this land can be used for camp programming as well as Enterprise ventures. From the white sand beach to the natural hilltop clearings and grassland to the jungle and equatorial forests, the property is an amazing display of the splendor of God’s creation.
We moved to the camp property in August of 2010 and began serving there after spending 7 months living at New Hope’s main site, the Kasana Children’s Center near Luwero, where we were students in the 5 month Institute of Childcare & Family that New Hope runs. Currently, our house is under construction and we are living in a 2 room building that was designed to be a cabin! We have 3 children and 1 on the way (April 2011) and it is such a privilege to be raising them in Uganda! They have adjusted so well to life and culture here though there are no other children their ages to play with. Andrea is homeschooling them, which has been a learning experience for us all! Our commitment to New Hope is open ended and we are following God’s lead as to how long he will have us serving here at Musana Camps.
We are trusting God to provide additional ministry partners that will see the vision of how God wants to use Musana Camps for his Kingdom and support us through prayer, financial giving, and even by coming over short-term! If you are interested in more info on our ministry at Musana or New Hope Uganda in general, don’t hesitate to contact us! We hope you enjoy looking through the rest of our site and see all that God is doing in our lives and in the ministry of New Hope Uganda. Be sure to check our blog regularly as well. To God be the glory!
