A flavor of true African culture filled Smithville First Baptist Church when the Sozo Children’s Choir took the stage April 7. The Ugandan choir made a tour stop in DeKalb County, telling about their mission and showcasing part of the lifestyle.

“The whole beginning part is to kind of expose people to African sounds, and colors and dance and style,” Ministry Outreach Leader Miguel Zayas explained. “Some of the songs were written by Ugandans. Some of the songs had Ugandan, which is their language, in it.  So we have songs that are worship songs that everybody knows. So we want to have a good mix of both.”

The children’s joyous voices and vibrant enthusiasm led the people in a worship experience that had them on fire for the music and the ministry.

“Every even year we bring a group of kids from the village that we serve and our people that came in off of the rescue program to come to the United States to tour and tell their stories,” Zayas said. “We get a chance for them to have a mission’s trip to come to the US. Most have never been outside of their village, definitely not outside of Uganda. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and really what we want to do in that is show the kids what God can do when we submit our lives to Him.”

“I love the roads,” Alex said when asked about what he likes about America. Miguel explained that the roads in Africa can be rough and quite bumpy to travel on.

Alex is a big fan of the plain chicken wings and Ssanyu likes to munch on eggs and especially cheese since that’s not available in her country. They both have spent more than a year preparing for this tour of the U.S.

“People are very welcoming, very loving,” Ssanyu said. “What I liked about today is that I got an opportunity to stand in front of people and worship the Lord.”

“Don't ask me to sing or dance like the kids,” jokes Miguel, who is also the choir director. “We have a group of professionals in Uganda, a true choir director who teaches all the lines, breaks out all the harmonies. We have a choreographer who works on all the dances. So, the kids are in our care practically for a calendar year from January on to the end of the year, and then they're performing the entire time when they're in the US. The next picking of a choir will happen somewhere in July or August. They'll move into a home with us in January of 2025 to prepare for 2026.”

Zayas explained that Sozo Children exists to empower vulnerable children to become thriving leaders for Jesus Christ.

“God gifts us with some of the most vulnerable children in Uganda in the villages and townships around where we're working,” Zayas said. “The government or the police or the village gets involved, they call us, and they say we need to have a child rescued from either rape, abuse or neglect. There's a variety of things that happen unfortunately in some places in some children's lives. So, we immediately jump into action, figure out a plan and a way in which we're going to rescue that child.”

The Sozo Children’s choir continues its tour in parts of Alabama and North Carolina the rest of this month before traveling to New York in May. To find out more about the organization, to make a donation or sponsor one of the children, go to www.Sozochildren.org.