Ugandan Made Associate Pastor

As a called Servant of God, Christian Leaders Institute training has been generally a great resource development for my ministry calling; my knowledge has increased in all aspects of life, my sermon presentation has improved.  More doors for serving God have been opened for me as I preach the word of God. In some places, after my preaching immediately people would come to me and request me to go and preach in their churches. I have receiving invitations to go and preach in conferences and over the radio, etc. This has all been by the grace of God working in me.

The training gave me knowledge and better understand of the Old Testament laws and other parts of the Bible that were difficult for me. Courses like Economics, Astronomy, world History, Sociology and Philosophy have given me general knowledge in life. Some the of courses were very controversial but, that is how the world is, and as Christian leaders, we have to get this general knowledge in order to guide the church on the right way of life.

One more thing is that my spiritual life has been strengthened especially in the area of my prayer life. Our Family devotion has been strengthened with Bible readings every day, and we issue Bible to all our kids at family devotions every day, even to the one who cannot read so that they learn from us as we read. I have seen God working in my family. One of my children who is 3 years old loves gospel music so much and when he is playing music he doesn’t want to stop, but when it is time for family prayer, he stops the music and prays with us.

Family restoration. This is another ministry which God is doing through us and this has made us a blessing to many families through counseling.  A case in point is that there was a Pastor whose family was breaking off, his wife complained that her husband was too “holy”. All the time he is for prayer and fasting and does not have time for his family, not even doing his duty as a man. She started packing her things to quit the marriage. This became a real concern for us.  This man of God church was living ten kilometer away from where his family was staying, and most of the time he would sleep even there. On that day when his wife was packing to quit the marriage he was doing ministry in church.  As a brother in the Lord I called him to come back, but he told me that he didn’t have the transport. So I told him that I would go and pick you, which I did after he had accepted. When we came back with him we sat him down and counseled them with my wife and they reconciled and were restored. They are now living a happy life and God has blessed them with another child and they have planted a new church and their ministry is moving on well.

Again God gave me the grace to talk to a professor who didn’t take advice from most people just because of his status; that he is intelligent, yet his family was tearing apart. His wife was about to quit that marriage because he does not provide for his family. He spent his money on drinking. One day his wife called me to go and help them but the man refuse to sit and listen to us because he was busy.  I thank God because at last he gave us audience and things changed for the better in their marriage.

One other impact of CLI training in my ministry calling is that I wrote a paper entitled “Starting a Family” which has helped me in doing pre- marital counseling. The content is good and it will continue to be great resource for my ministry.

A bigger ministry opportunity that lies ahead of me and my wife is planting a church.  We are still praying for it so that God may guide us on how to go about this. We want to share this with our pastor but we are still waiting upon God for his guidance. At the moment we are the only family which travels the longest distance to reach church, but we are still very thankful to God for his provisions that he has given us land and home.  We are now relieved of the burden of renting. We have started children ministries at our home which is being run by my wife. We have seen God doing his work. Parents who not believers are sending their kids and the number has grown up to 15 children ranging from age group 4 to 12 years. We are planning to begin reaching their parents one by one with the gospel through  their children and continue to see where the lord will lead  us.

My favorite classes were Old Testament survey and Management by Books. In Old Testaments survey, I learned that most of the Scriptures were a shadow pointing to Jesus.  Many prophecies were speaking about Jesus. In management by book, I found best conflict management that work very well in homes setting and other organizations that have the same goals to achieve.

In any journey to success, challenges are there. So for me, courses that were challenging include the following: Economics, World History and Church History.

One other challenge was internet connection which is not available in other places, poor in other places and expensive. So most of the time for download of course materials and video l had to do by nights with cheaper night Internet bundle.

The Divinity degree I am perusing is my highest achievement in my academics level at the moment, So far I had diploma in Architecture, but this is another higher level by God grace. I give thank to the founder of CLI and the entire team of CLI for this great work of God. He has given you the vision to train Christian Leaders.

Our country Uganda is coming up with law that all pastors should have certificate from Bible schools. So this training is of great help for my ministry calling.  So I will not be limited because I don’t have certificate. We are praying because this may affect many churches since many pastors are not Bible scholars, and many churches may be closed because their Pastors are not trained from Bible schools.

In addition to that, other ministry work that I do is that I am an Associate Pastor. In our church my senior Pastor has given me the responsibility to lead the marrieds’ fellowship. We have done the planning for this year.  In this we have included fellowship schedule, prayer for the family and retreat for the marrieds at the end of the year.

Prepared By: Nyeko Richard