Spotlight: 20 years of ministry … and a plane crash

FORT PORTAL, Uganda — A missionary family has endured malaria, persecution and even a plane crash during 20 years of service in this East African nation.

Jeff and Cheryl Cash and their children, Kinley, Alex, Isaac and Silas, have helped change lives in Fort Portal, a city of about 46,000 souls. The ministry has grown to more than three dozen village churches. 

On Aug. 23, 2014, that work was jeopardized when a small plane Jeff Cash was piloting crashed as he took church leaders to a conference in Arua, Uganda. The missionary pilot and all of the passengers survived.

“The crash landing was violent,” Cheryl Cash recalled in a blog post. “Jeff would carry the images long.  But he knew, and I knew. We would not be defeated.”

The Cashes launched a faith-based nonprofit, Where He Leads Inc., which includes Sewing Hope, a program that teaches Ugandans to sew and manage their money following biblical principles. They also oversee Camp Saaka, the venue for an annual Faith Quest Uganda event for young Christians. 

Through the nonprofit, the couple is launching a Christian Fire Brigade to serve their community.

The Glenwood Church of Christ in Tyler, Texas, supports the Cashes. In a recent tribute, church member Joanna Neel wrote that the missionaries “remind us that God is bigger than wars, continents, oceans, our fears or our failures.”

WEBSITE: www.whereheleads.com