FLEMING ISLAND — Five members of Fleming Island United Methodist Church (FIUMC) will soon put their families, jobs and interests on hold to help build a home for orphans in Africa.

For two weeks in June, Mike Hubbard, Terry Johnson, Russ and Kathy Kamradt, and Steve Lambert will work on the initial construction of HUMBLE Place, an orphanage in Mukono, Uganda, not far from Lake Victoria. HUMBLE is an acronym for Helping Uganda Mwama (Children) By Loving Example.

Decades of political upheaval in Uganda have left its citizens impoverished and with limited medical care. The average worker earns $600 annually. Diseases like the Ebola virus and HIV have cut life expectancy to 41, leaving many children parentless, creating the demand for orphanages.

What motivates people to set aside their normal routines, spend several thousand dollars and risk disease in a faraway land?

For Terry Johnson, the group’s coordinator, volunteering for the mission is a response to a Virginia-based United Methodist church spokesman seeking teams for HUMBLE Place. "He was looking for one person to spearhead it from our church, and I committed to it," said Johnson, who makes his living as a finish carpenter.

Johnson said his wife, Melissa, is "very supportive — her main regret is she can’t go with me." His children, Alicia and Travis, were hesitant to see him go at first, but got behind the idea after he explained that he wanted to "help build a home for children who don’t have a home."

Russ Kamradt, "was just kind of moved," when he heard the request for volunteers at church. So was his wife, Kathy. On their way home from the service, "We both looked at each other and said, ‘Let’s go,’ " Russ said. It will be the first mission work the couple has undertaken.

The project is one of many United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries programs. FIUMC is partnering with 10 United Methodist churches across the country on the mission.

The group constitutes the first foreign mission program from the seven-year-old FIUMC. "The Methodist vision since John Wesley’s time has been, ‘the world is my parish.’ We have been a church that reaches across countries and oceans," said Charles Hubbard, a pastor at FIUMC.

For two-week intervals between June and September teams of 15 to 20 people will work on the project. Designed as five, 40- by 20-foot modules connected to a central commons that will serve as a chapel, the orphanage footprint resembles a cross. Another section will house a pastor, nurse and medical clinic. About 150 orphans, from infants to teens, will live in the finished building.

Johnson said the project’s modular design is intended to be duplicated so more orphanages may be built in other parts of Africa. He said the Mukono project should cost about $180,000, and most of the building materials will be purchased in Uganda. At least one van of tools and materials will be shipped to Mukono from the United States.

Out-of-pocket expenses for travel, meals and inoculations are estimated at $3,000 per person, with inoculations accounting for about $700 of the total.

Construction is the primary goal in June, but Johnson welcomes anyone with child care, medical or teaching experience, regardless of church affiliation. Interested individuals should call the church office at 904-284-3366. Volunteers should begin getting inoculations by May 15.