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A 'great-granddaughter' is born in Uganda
RUKUNGIRI, Uganda – A new circle of four Mennonite churches in southwestern Uganda purchased its first property in December 2006 and began the process of registration with the Ugandan government as the first Mennonite Church of Uganda – a spiritual great-granddaughter for Lancaster Mennonite Conference and its mission agency Eastern Mennonite Missions (EMM).
At the invitation of the “parents,” Kenya Mennonite Church, EMM President Richard Showalter attended the “birth” and explains the family tree: “EMM sent its first missionaries to Tanganyika (now Tanzania) in 1934. Then in the 1960s the Tanzanians began to plant churches in western Kenya along Lake Victoria. Less than two years ago the Kenya Mennonite Church began sending missionaries into Uganda, and now we have a ‘great-granddaughter’ circle of churches.”
Showalter and Kevin Yoder, a worker in Kenya with EMM and Mennonite Mission Network, attended the first baptismal and communion service of the new conference of churches and witnessed the purchase of its first property. The constitution for the new national church has been written, and Ugandans are serving as its leaders. They hope to receive national registration within a few months.
“If these initial steps by KMC in international cross-cultural mission succeed, this will be one of the most rapid formations of an autonomous new national circle of congregations EMM has ever witnessed in any spiritual offspring,” Showalter said.
While in Uganda with Kenyan Mennonite leaders for this occasion, Showalter was intrigued to uncover strands of the history which has led to this church planting movement from Kenya into Uganda. His research led to Bishop Moses Otieno, moderator of Kenya Mennonite Church.
In April 1995 Moses was ordained bishop of the new Seaya district of the Kenyan Mennonite Church, in northwest Kenya, near the border of Uganda. The next year he enrolled in the nearby Kima International School of Theology to acquire the tools he needed for his new ministry, but he gained much more than an education.
Moses’ assigned roommate was Ignatius Byamugisha of Uganda, and as the two men became acquainted, God knit their hearts together in soul friendship. They rejoiced in a common faith and vision. Moses was a Mennonite bishop, Ignatius a Church of God district superintendent. Moses had a profound pastoral heart, Ignatius the soul of an evangelist. They were both committed to the spread of the gospel.
Their classmates soon dubbed them twins. They looked alike and were virtually inseparable. “I couldn’t believe it,” said Ignatius. “This man was a bishop, but he washed my underwear!”
As for Moses, when he became deathly ill and was placed in a nearby hospital, Ignatius refused to leave his side. “He slept on the floor by my bed,” said Moses.
Moses invited Ignatius to minister in the Mennonite congregations of western Kenya, and soon he was known and loved wherever he went. Ignatius had come to faith as a young man in Rukungiri, Uganda, where he brewed the local banana beer for others in order to have plenty for himself.
“You are not a child of God unless you receive Jesus as your personal Savior,” a friend told him. Ignatius had been taught that it was a sin to handle or open the Bible, and that if he read it he would die.
But after he was saved, his life was transformed. The people of his local community did not understand this new religion, and some of them complained to the Ugandan military.
He was thrown into prison and beaten severely, but when the military learned that he had no guns and was a harmless man, he was released. He continued witnessing, now with new confidence.
A local man offered to give him a house if he would live in it for three months. The owner believed the house to be infested with a “demon cobra” that terrorized the neighborhood.
The local believers began to meet and pray there, but they never saw the cobra. After only two months the owner was convinced there was a greater power at work among them than the snake, and he gave them the house. The church continued to grow.
This was the Ignatius that Moses was learning to know. As for Moses, he had grown up far from Christ. He was addicted to alcohol, a drunkard. After teaching school for seven years, he was fired from his job and fell even deeper into despair, since he no longer had the wherewithal to support his family.
He hit bottom when his second child, a daughter, died in 1981. His wife had begun attending a small, struggling Mennonite congregation nearby shortly before the child’s death, and the congregation, much to Moses’ surprise, rallied around them to pay for the funeral expenses that he could not afford. He was deeply touched.
The following Sunday he went to church for the first time to thank the congregation for their help. In the months following he was slowly drawn further in. Because he was educated, they even invited him to begin teaching before he was saved. When the invitation was given by a visiting evangelist to receive Jesus, Moses responded, and he began a whole new life, leading eventually to the call of the church to become a bishop.
After three years of study together and special friendship, Moses and Ignatius began to grieve their coming graduation, for it meant that they would rarely if ever see each other again. Ignatius would return to his home in Uganda, two long days’ travel from Moses’ home, and Moses would remain in the Seaya District in Kenya.
“Why don’t you plant a Mennonite Church in Uganda?” Ignatius asked. “I’ll help you get it started. Then we’ll be able to see each other from time to time.”
Moses began to dream. Others in KMC leadership shared his dream, and Moses led several exploratory trips to Uganda.
Then in June 2004, KMC sent John Otieno, their first international missionary, to southwestern Uganda. Six months later Moses became moderator of the KMC and carried outreach in Uganda – and around the world – close to his heart.
Meanwhile as he surveyed western Uganda, John looked for widely scattered communities where no vital congregations existed. “We don’t want to compete with other evangelical churches,” he explained, “And I want each new congregation to be able spread easily around its location.”
As the first four young fellowships took shape, John never served as pastor, but worked behind the scenes in coordination and support of local leaders.
“So, how have we ‘great-grandparents’ had anything to do with this new work of God?” Showalter asked Yoder, who drove the Kenyan leaders from Kenya up into Uganda for the celebrations.
Yoder explained, “The tithe from a large estate which EMM sent to partner churches for mission in 2004 helped provide the impetus for launching the Ugandan mission from Kenya. And now of course we have the joy of partnering and praying with them as they go.”
Since returning from Uganda in December, Showalter has been proudly showing off pictures of the new “grandkids” – and looking for a formal opportunity to celebrate the new birth with Lancaster Mennonite Conference and EMM.
-Jewel Showalter
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