Meet Bosco & Joan, a family God called to Abaana's Hope

Baiga Bosco and his wife Joan have both experienced what it’s like to be a stranger in a new community and a stranger to our Heavenly Father. Today, that is no longer true. They have been embraced by the Abaana’s Hope community and their Savior Jesus Christ who has welcomed them into His family.

Bosco and Joan are both Lugbara by tribe from the northwestern area of Uganda called Arua, which is close to the border of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and about 165 miles from Abaana’s Hope.

Before coming to this small community in the village of Kinene and before the couple knew each other, Bosco traveled to Kampala for senior school where he met an American man named Darrell Hobbs in 2010. Bosco was looking for a job to support himself and cover the cost of his school fees, and Darrell, who was a construction engineer and designer for a Christian organization in Uganda, was looking to hire a security guard for his family.

Bosco took the position, and as he grew to know the Hobbs, they became family as they shared life together. 

In 2011, the Hobbs were called to join Four Corners Ministries as the second long-term missionary family. Once the ministry found and purchased land for what is now Abaana’s Hope, the Hobbs needed to move to Gulu, and Bosco decided to come with them. 

“Gulu was a place of war, so I got scared when we reached Gulu,” Bosco said.

For most of his life, he heard stories about the war in the Gulu district. Thankfully, he was never close to the conflict. For twenty years (1986-2006), Joseph Kony and his rebel army, the LRA, wreaked havoc in this northern part of Uganda populated by the Acholi tribe. Because of this war, roughly 2 million people were displaced, and tens of thousands of children were abducted. 

By the time Bosco arrived in Gulu, the rebels had been gone from the area for about six years, but the devastation of what they left behind could still be seen and felt from the leftover bullets found on the Abaana’s Hope property to the people with no education, job opportunities, medical care, or hope. 

“Now, there’s a big difference,” Bosco said fourteen years later.

Not only has the Lord provided for physical needs like education through Living Stones Christian School, job opportunities through Abaana’s Hope, medical care through a medical clinic, but most importantly, He has opened doors for the hope of the gospel to be shared and spread through the community.

This also led Bosco to make his own personal decision to follow Christ and become born again through faith.

After repeating the cycle of going to church every Sunday, hearing the gospel, and going home, the message finally sunk in, and he realized his need for Jesus. He talked to the pastor after the service one day in 2012 and confessed his desire to give his life to Christ.

In 2015, Bosco moved from Gulu to the Abaana’s Hope property with new FCM long-term missionary families the Barberys and the Wests. Two homes in the missionary compound were completed as well as a home for Bosco.

He serves as a security guard for the missionaries and eventually became the Transportation Manager for the ministry. He also learned the Acholi language, making a total of five languages he can speak (Lugbara, Luganda, Swahili, English, and Acholi).

During one of Bosco’s visits to see his family in Arua, he met a Lugbara woman named Joan, who was the daughter of his aunt’s friend. Joan grew up in a family of believers with a mother who taught her the Word of God, and she professed her faith in Jesus as a young child. 

 A few months later, Bosco and Joan became husband and wife, and Joan moved to Abaana’s Hope with him in 2015, not knowing the Acholi language.  

“The first time I came here, I did not like it because I didn’t know the language, and I had no friends,” Joan said. At the time, she could speak Lugbara with her husband or English with the missionaries. “By now, I’ve learned some of the language, so I have Acholi friends. I like to stay here. This is now my home.”

Joan has developed friendships with the women in the community as well as a support system of believers through Living Stones Community Church.

She and Bosco have two girls Anna, who is a student at Living Stones Christian School, and Joy, who is too young for school, but spends her time loving and being loved on my missionary residents and visitors in the missionary compound. 

They also have a son in Heaven. Their baby boy passed away a week after he was born in 2020. While the family struggled with this loss, they sought comfort from family, friends, and the ultimate comforter – Jesus.

Today, Joan uses the creative gift God has given her to sew clothing, bags, and Living Stones Christian School uniforms for the 260 students. Before she got married, she took a two-year training course on sewing. Her mother then bought her first sewing machine, and her passion to create grew. She spends many hours in her sewing workshop outside the missionary compound taking measurements from those in the community or visitors who would like to have a garment made and using her sewing machine to transform the beautiful fabric into something new.

Though Bosco and Joan once knew what it meant to be strangers, both in a new community and in their relationship with God, Christ has brought them near and given them a place and purpose among His people. Their story reflects the truth of Ephesians 2:18–20: through Christ, those who were once far away have been welcomed into God’s household and built together as His people.