MORGANTOWN — Over 10 years, eight men have been spreading the Ugandan culture through Christ.
The Harmonics, an acapella group, formed in 2007 and decided that serving the Lord, as well as sponsoring Ugandan orphans through their group, would be the focus of their performances.
They made a recent stop in Morgantown.
Daniel Kaliba is one of the founders of The Harmonics.
“We were still in high school in Uganda,” Kaliba said. “We just got this together when we lived there and continued to sing for Christ — that’s how we came up.”
They decided to take their love for music and Christ a step further by making a difference for those who live in poverty. They also want to be positive role models. The ministry is based in Atlanta, and their group has traveled and performed in several churches, in at least eight states so far.
“It’s been an experience for me personally — I’ve really had to grow as an individual, I’ve been able to go through time spiritually … it’s not just about singing anywhere, it’s about praising God and worshipping him,” Kaliba said. “It’s such an experience that through the years you get to experience the love of God, the transformation and all of the miracles that he keeps doing in our lives.”
The group is a “non-profit ministry dedicated to empowering children and families to reach their God-given potential by identifying their skills and connecting them with training/resources to help them achieve their goals.”
Moses Kawdesa, sound man of the group, said being able to travel to a different culture has also given them the opportunity to share their own.
“It’s interesting to see the different cultures and be able to learn from them and for us to be able to share our culture with people we go around to meet,” Kawdesa said. “It has been interesting for us to see how different cultures operate and how the kind of transition to music … it is interesting to see how people receive our music.”
Kawdesa said the sponsorship program they have available for the orphans is $25 and it supports a specific orphan, taking care of health, feeding and school needs.
“This sponsorship program is to help the orphans,” Moses said. “We have about 700 children in total that we intend to take care of. Right now we have 150 of them that’s being sponsored.”
Benjamin Kasule, sing-er in the group, said coming to America has been a gratifying experience.
“It’s a blessing to know that we are chosen by God so that we can be this ministry, it’s a pleasure to serve Him,” Kasule said. “Coming from Africa and then you come to America, we’ve seen so much, we’ve learned so much. We like the experience as we’ve picked up along the way the behavior of people, how welcoming the people are here in America.”
The group will be taking a six-month trip back to Uganda in October.
If interested in sponsoring an orphan, or for more information on their ministry, go to www.actsofloveuganda.org.
