<Garry Ion is a CMS mission partner, based in Kampala, working as a Consultant in Construction Planning and Management with the church in Uganda and Southern Sudan

Garry is helping to empower dioceses to successfully plan and manage building projects. From his base in Kampala he is able to communicate the needs of isolated churches and his continued mission is to support these churches so that they are equipped to meet the needs of these impoverished and often displaced communities.

Garry first went to Uganda in 1995 with Tearfund where he used his practical building skills – he trained as a carpenter in his hometown of Penrith, in the Lake District before studying Construction Management at Bolton Institute, Manchester – to build Kiwoko Hospital. Garry was given the task of managing construction programmes for the hospital and then set up vocational training and established a local building team to undertake the work.

Garry now serves on the board of trustees at Kiwoko Hospital which operates as a major institution with over 200 beds, while providing laboratory and nursing training for 150 students.

Garry became a CMS mission partner in 1998 and continued to work at Kiwoko, while at the same time starting to make links with the Diocese of Kitgum in Northern Uganda. Located on the border with Sudan, this region has been terrorized by a rebel group called The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). Over the past 20 years rebels have abducted more than 14,000 children from the region and forced them to bear arms against their own people. They used the children as human shields and the girls were forced into becoming “wives” for the rebel commanders.

In 2003 Garry moved to the Diocese of Kajo-Keji, Southern Sudan. For two years he helped re-establish the Diocesan Centre destroyed during the civil war. In 2005, Garry moved back over the border to Kitgum, Uganda for six months where he helped draw up building plans for the church.

He returns in early 2010 for a further three year term. Garry has a passionate desire to serve the Lord and witness by his life as well as by his words in this part of Africa.