ORLANDO  |  Joseph Mukiibi recalls the first visit of Blessed Trinity Parish missionaries to his small town of Nalweyo in Uganda 21 years ago. He was just a boy.

To him, the missionaries from Ocala were tall and joyful. They carried Polaroid cameras, and he remembered stretching to grab the photo emerging from the oddly shaped box.

“We danced and jumped. We raised dust throughout the whole town,” he recalled.

He could not anticipate then the changes that were to come or how, through God’s grace, they would play a key part in his life.

In the years that passed, more missionaries visited, and churches and schools were built. Mukiibi grew up in those schools and churches. He wanted to become an engineer, then decided to become a doctor.

But his father, a professor at a local university, became ill with cancer. His illness left no money for Mukiibi to continue studying. He shared his concerns with his friend Sister of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Reparatrix Sister Juliet Ateenyi, who is also a Nalweyan. It was a photo of the church in her village that had moved the heart of Blessed Trinity pastor Father Patrick Sheedy to go to Uganda and establish a mission there.

In 2019, she came to Nalweyo with a friend of Father Sheedy’s, Dr. Richard Weeder, a Quaker and renowned doctor seeking to take part in a medical mission. He met Mukiibi who was 19 at the time. Sister Ateenyi described Mukiibi as a smart, intelligent young man who wants to be a doctor. In response, Weeder said he would help. The religious was surprised by his immediate response.

Mukiibi and Weeder spoke in the church. By then it was a large brick building built with the help of the missionaries.

“I remember the pews we sat in,” Mukiibi said. He was nervous as he shared his plight. Weeder calmed him and asked about his father. They talked for a long time, then they stepped outside and met Theresa Gross, a registered nurse and Weeder’s friend. The two gave their commitment to pay for Mukiibi’s medical school tuition. Mukiibi described the two as “incredible souls who breathed hope into me when I had almost none left.”

He began that same year at King Caesar University in Kampala, Uganda’s capitol. Feeling overwhelmed, as he had started mid-year, he remembered meeting his anatomy teacher who encouraged him to persevere. His professor was recovering from cardiac bypass surgery.

“He was a bit weak and fragile, but he got better quite quickly. I got fascinated with the heart and really wanted to do cardiothoracic surgery from then,” Mukiibi said.

As time passed Weeder became ill, but urged Mukiibi not to worry. With the help of Dr. Lydia Wallace, Mukiibi continued his studies. She gave him hope, but funds were thin. Then Sister Ateenyi learned a former deacon from Blessed Trinity, Deacon Jim Schwartz, had left a fund to help students with education after his passing.

Deacon Jim, as the children called him, enjoyed visiting the mission in Uganda and Mukiibi knew him well.

“Deacon Jim loved children. He loved people,” Mukiibi said. “He is someone that would give hours of himself to talk to you.” Mukiibi acknowledged he was “a loner” when he met the deacon, but the cleric taught him there was so much more to life. “He was quite lively, joining in and dancing, so I think in some way he taught me to live life in a very different format than what I used to,” Mukiibi said.

When Mukiibi learned of the legacy left by his beloved friend, Deacon Jim’s smiling face immediately came to mind. He thought, “Something is happening in my life and God is working in a particular way. I am so happy.” Mukiibi graduated from medical school in May 2025 and is now serving his internship in eastern Uganda. Next year he will begin his residency in cardiothoracic medicine and hopes to return to Nalweyo to serve his people.

When asked what moved Weeder to help a young man realize his dream of becoming a doctor he said, “I believe the same thing that drove me to become a surgeon myself — the desire to help other people and to help them get well. And I think that medicine is one of the few things in life where there is pure motivation. At its best, it is not linked to making a lot of money, but rather, the primary aim is to help people.”

Father Sheedy said this is the purpose of the mission, to help people and especially “about relationship.” To date, nearly 1,000 sponsors from Ocala to Ireland have assisted more than 150 students through school and college. Several are doctors and others are just beginning their medical journeys. Their generosity is changing communities in Uganda.

“It’s big,” said Father Sheedy. “We’re putting up dozens of buildings, but buildings are useless unless you care for whatever goes within them.” He spoke of the students’ and parents’ commitment to education, noting, “They’re all keyed in. They know education is the way out of poverty for them, so they’re really serious about it and take full advantage.” He spoke of the love between the people and sponsors sharing how they would correspond frequently. “It’s a very strong sister-parish relationship. (Missionaries) see it as a major Christian step. And their faith (that of the Ugandan people) is amazing. Their faith is so strong. It’s just a win-win-win for everybody,” he said.

Mukiibi said his experiences remind him of the verse from Jeremiah: “He knew you before you were made in your womb.” “I think it’s like that. Through all this, I learned to persevere. I felt like He has created a way for me.”

In a letter Mukiibi wrote to his benefactors upon graduation, he shared his gratitude saying, “There is no way my story would be the same without you as a major part of it. You have changed my life.”

By Glenda Meekins of the Florida Catholic staff, November 14, 2025