Jessica Kelich (pictured center) is surrounded by children during her mission trip to Uganda. (Photos provided)

Jessica is crowned Bristol Homecoming Queen in July 2004.

Jessica Kelich, who was crowned Bristol Homecoming Queen in 2004, has recently returned from a two-week mission trip to Uganda. The former queen had won the “Cutest Baby” award at the 1989 Bristol Homecoming.

Jessica lives in Bristol with her mother and step-father, Don and Laura Sigsbee. Her father, John Kelich, also lives in the area. In the fall term Jessica will begin her senior year at Anderson University in Anderson, Indiana, where she is majoring in nursing.

The May mission trip was sponsored by Tri-S, a program which organizes short-term overseas service opportunities for college students. There were 16 students and one professor on the Uganda trip.
Each student had to raise money to cover travel expenses. Jessica received financial assistance from members of Northside Baptist Church in Elkhart, to which she belongs, and from other supportive friends.

In Uganda the group stayed with missionaries who have served in Africa for 25 years. They are affiliated with Tsunami AIDS Prevention Program (TAPP), a vital agency in a country in which 50% of the population are infected with the HIV virus.

The students spent much of their time performing needed manual labor, such as building roof trusses, repairing windows, and painting the buildings used in ministering to the medical and spiritual needs of the people.

Jessica reports that the two main religions of Uganda are Christianity and Islam. Whenever the students engaged the local residents in conversation, they were assisted by translators fluent in both Swahili and the local Ugandan language.

“It was a life-changing experience,” Jessica says, “which changed my view of just about everything.” Like many who travel abroad, she has developed a much greater appreciation for all the things Americans are prone to take for granted.