Bob and Rosalind Arnold
Bob and Rosalind are CMS
mission partners working with
the Bungokho Rural Development
Centre in Uganda. The centre is a Church
Army Africa project within the Diocese of Mbale
in the east of the country.
The couple met in Kenya in the late sixties. Rosalind was teaching in a preparatory school near Nairobi, where Bob was a CMS volunteer instructor at an industrial training centre. He had trained in the aeronautic industry, and his family background was in the building trade.
After returning to the UK, Rosalind taught at a hospital school and Bob joined the Christian residential staff at Lindley Lodge, Nuneaton, which ran courses in character training for young people in industry.
Bob and Rosalind and baby Hugh went to the CMS college to train for their first overseas assignment together in 1975. This was in Mundri in the heart of southern Sudan, working as members of ACROSS UK (the Association of Christian Resource Organisations Serving Sudan). Their other children Douglas and Lara were born in Sudan. When the family returned home on leave, Rosalind needed lengthy medical treatment and they spent two years at Crowther Hall, with Bob as Bursar.
Masham in North Yorkshire was the family’s next home. Bob had a variety of jobs including twelve years as office manager for a local insurance broker. Rosalind spent thirteen years teaching reception children in a school in Richmond.
Bob and Rosalind have played their part in church and community life in Masham, including involvement in the very active twinning between the parish and a Roman Catholic church on the Loire.
Over the years they often wondered if, when the family had flown the nest, there would be a role for, in their own words, “a set of re-treads”. The opportunity came in 1999 when old New Zealand CMS friends invited them to work at the Bungokho Development Centre for a time. This was a very fulfilling experience.
They returned to their jobs in the UK and, after much thought, began to explore with CMS the possibility of spending their last few working years overseas.
Tags: "mission partner" bungokho "rural development" uganda "army africa" east "diocese of mbale"
Last updated: 28/01/2008 18:40
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