Mto Moyoni, home away from home

River Nile is not only well known for its wealth of water and fish but also the beauty it adds to recreation centres near it. At one of these recreation places, Mto Moyoni, it is much more than just food and entertainment, Suzan Aturo found out

 

Mto Moyoni is located just one kilometre from the Source of the Nile, at Njeru, Jinja district. Graced by its beautiful cottages, neat green lawns, trees and a water view, the ambiance of the centre helps one relax and forget about their problems.

 

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Unlike many retreat centres where guests enjoy only the space and meals, at Mto Moyoni, guests are treated to special programmes that are not easily found elsewhere. The programmes are designed for the wellbeing of the inner person.

 

People with traumatic experiences, broken hearts and stress go there to receive healing.

According to Ingrid Wilts, the founder, the first guests to attend their programme were 17 peace and reconciliation workers from World Vision Rwanda, who were weary and burnt out in their effort to help victims of the genocide.

 

They visited the centre when they were at the verge of quitting their jobs, but after the retreat, they were all refreshed and stayed on their jobs.

 

Wilts also says some Lord’s Resistance Army victims have visited the centre and have been helped to overcome trauma. Mto Moyoni also caters for the needs of individuals seeking something different.

 

“My first visit to Mto Moyoni was with Phoebe Orombi (Archbishop’s wife) who invited me to join her. I was stressed during that time, but when I reached the gate of the centre, I felt such peace that words cannot explain,” says Jane Etuket, now a board member of the centre.

 

 

Berna Abalo is another person who has benefitted from the programmes offered. At the time of the interview, she was attending a one-month youth programme. She says: “I was a mess before I came to Mto Moyoni in 2007. I had family problems, was jobless, bitter and angry at God, because I felt let me down. However, after the week-long Transformation of the Heart programme, I left refreshed, uplifted and my life has improved.”

 

Mto Moyoni is a Kiswahili word meaning River in the Heart. Activities here include refreshment, prayer and counselling, church and organisational retreats, communion with God retreats, Father Heart Encounters, Transformation of the Heart weeks, trauma de-briefing, stress management and spiritual support.

 

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Tailor-made seminars and retreats can also be organised at a location of a customer’s choice. There is a conference room and cottages for individual and group retreats.

 

Much emphasis is laid on a personal relationship with God as a Father. This is because so many people have not really enjoyed the love of their earthly fathers and do not know how to receive God’s love either.

 

Paul Ekinu from Kamuda sub-county, was helped in this area. He had an absent father who never provided for them and never even attended the burial of their mother.

 

He narrates how he missed the protection of his father when his home was attacked by rebels and he ran to the bush and spent the night there, not even sure of what could have happened to his mother and siblings. Ekinu often asked his mother if their father really cared about them.

 

“Because of what I went through, I was bitter towards my father. However, after being ministered to at Mto Moyoni, I forgave him. In addition, God used a Kenyan participant to lead me to my father, who lives in Kenya and we were reconciled.” 

 

Mto Moyoni was started in 2004 by Ingrid Wilts and Winette Hubregtse, both from the Netherlands.

Wilts first came to Uganda in 1981 and worked with an orphanage in Jinja. She went back to the Netherlands after her contract ended. She returned in 1989, staying in Mbale where, with a Ugandan colleague, she started a vocational school.

 

She fell out with her Ugandan colleague and went back to the Netherlands, but Uganda remained in her heart and she knew it was where she belonged. She later decided to come back even though she was not sure of what she was coming to do.

 

Walking around Mbale town, she was touched by the number of  children who were on the streets and started buying bananas for them. After deep thought and consultations, she wrote a proposal to start a Non Governmental Organisation (NGO) that caters for street children. This dream came to pass after a long struggle and with the input of so many others.

 

That NGO, Contract Research Organisation (CRO), today has four Drop-in Centres in Uganda and has worked with over 4,500 street children, sponsoring their education, resettling them and rehabilitating them.

 

While she was still working with CRO in Mbale, Wilts bought land where Mto Moyoni is located.

“From the moment I bought this land, I knew it did not belong to me, but to God.”

 

She settled on that piece of land after her contract with CRO ended and embarked on building African style huts (bandas) on the property.

 

“Since I believed God was going to do something on my land, I decided to build so that people could stay there,” she says.

Wilts went through a lot during her stay in Uganda. In her efforts to help the poor, she was accused of being a cult leader and a witchdoctor. She was arrested, robbed at gun point and even shot at. 

 

Wilts also witnessed the death of close colleagues and friends and this left her heart wounded. And even though she had given her all — comfort, savings, career and relationship  to serve God’s people, deep inside, she knew her efforts were nothing because she felt she did not have love for people and did not trust anyone anymore.

 

She says she cried to God to change her heart and the breakthrough came when she attended a leader’s training in Toronto. She came back to Uganda a new person, longing to help others find what she had got.

 

During that time, she met Winette Hubregtse, a missionary in Jinja, who had had her own share of troubles. Wilts recommended the same training she had attended which was to be held in  Nairobi. 

 

She says: “During the month when I had seen Hubregtse receive healing from the pain in her heart and experience the truth of God as her perfect Father, I began to see that this was what Uganda needed, because there were so many broken families, so many orphans due to war and HIV/AIDS and abusive fathers.

 

My eyes were opened to the deepest need and wound this country had — the need of a father. I asked Hubregtse to pray and think about starting a retreat centre with me to share God’s love with Ugandans and to bring healing to the hearts of the wounded  orphans.”

 

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Hubregtse, who had her heart broken by a fiancé’ and had lived with an abusive father, was hesitant because she had just started receiving healing and was not sure if she was ready to help other  people.

 

However, after the proposal was laid before her, Wilts left for the Netherlands and Hubregtse stayed keeping an eye on the property. It was then that she received a call from one of the members of the team from World Vision Rwanda, requesting that Wilts talks to them, but since Wilts was away, Hubregtse was asked to step in.

 

“I said I would pray about it, but did not. The same person called back to ask if I had prayed and I said no, but she said: ‘You had better pray because the team is on its way to your place,’” Hubregtse says.

 

She got a confirmation to talk to her guests telling them her testimony. The team left refreshed and encouraged and that is how she committed herself to work with Wilts at Mto Moyoni.

 

Together, they have maintained the retreat centre and have since acquired more property, where the youth school and prayer altar are established.

 

Wilts has also written a book titled “River in the Heart” which tells her personal journey from external change to internal transformation and while others cover up their dirt, Wilts tells all her failures and successes in black and white, without fear and favour.

 

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