Ted Moody, founder and director of Pennies for Posho, said there are 2.7 million orphans in Uganda. Twenty-two of those orphans are in the choir Ugandan Thunder and  visited Vicksburg Thursday night at Goodrum Baptist Church to sing, dance and pray for the audience during their show Under the Mango Tree.

Moody’s faith-based organization founded in Georgia supports 6,000 children in 19 orphanages in Africa by making sure they are fed three meals a day, every day. Posho is a thick, grit like food the children are served at the orphanage and is where the organization gets its name.

One way the organization raises money is by sending a choir of Ugandan children to tour America in order to share their story. This year’s choir has 15 girls and seven boys ages 8 to 16.

“This is our tenth year to do this,” road manager Reed McRaney said. “We bring the choir over and go from church to church from state to state. Anywhere from six to 10 months.”

The choir is currently on a nine-month tour of the South that will wrap up Feb. 2. The group performs six to seven shows a week.

“(It’s) tiring, but very rewarding,” McRaney said.

The hour-long show featured singing, dancing and drumming to contemporary and traditional Christian music. A little bit of the children’s daily life in the orphanages was shown to the audience through video, and there were also video messages from Moody explaining the organization.

Towards the end of the show there is a special moment where the children go out into the crowd, pray for an audience member and give them a handmade cross necklace from Uganda.

“Those five minutes are my absolute favorite part just to hear the prayers of these kids,” McRaney said, pointing out these children have nothing and yet they are praying for Americans who have everything. “It’s very humbling to see that.”

Then during the finale, the children go back into the audience and pick someone to dance with them.

Church member Rhonda Howard said she saw the choir with her husband in Greenville a few years ago, and they asked the choir to come to Vicksburg. The group came to town last year, and she said she plans to have them back next year.

“It’s a joy to have them back,” Howard said.

The group has an intern this summer, Maria Kayondo, who toured with Ugandan Thunder on its first tour 10 years ago. She is now a nursing student at Truett-McConnell University, and said she misses her time touring the country as a child.

“It was amazing because I had never been to the States before,” Kayondo said. “I would do it again if I could. I enjoyed every bit of it.”

Her responsibilities this summer include Bible study, fixing breakfast, chores, working the merchandise table and other mom and mentor-like duties. She enjoys watching the children perform each night and said they all have a unique story to tell.

“It’s amazing to see how God has changed their lives and how God is working in their lives,” Kayondo said.

Current choir member Faith Kaziba, 13, said she has enjoyed the tour and especially liked visiting Illinois. She dreams of becoming a judge one day to help children who have been mistreated.

There are three ways to donate to the organization. First, people can sponsor a child for $9 a month to make sure they are fed. Second, a love offering is taken at the show, which goes toward building hospitals, dormitories, schools and maintenance. Third, the choir sells merchandise to cover all travel expenses.

For more information, visit penniesforposho.org.