DAWN Fridayfax 1997 #44

DAWN News from Uganda, India, and Ethiopia

Uganda: from fearless evangelist to President's friend

By Robert Mugagga
In only 14 years, a church planted in a suburb of Kampala has become a church of national importance in Uganda. George Otis Jr. tells the story of the "miracle centre" in his new book "The twilight labyrinth": it all started with the fearless evangelist Robert Kayanja, who dared to go into the so-called "Beirut of Kampala" following the death of Idi Amin and the resulting civil war-like confusion. Christian churches had previously gained little ground there, because the area was ruled by the mighty Mosuke, an infamous magician. He threatened Robert and said "You have no place here, this area belongs to me. If you do not leave, I will send my armies and you will die."
The local inhabitants warned Robert to take the threat very seriously. Mosuke's threats were not empty: the small house church was attacked by a huge swarm of bees, flies, and soldiers loyal to General Milton Obote, Idi Amin's successor. The soldiers also stole all of Robert's belongings. The worst came as one of his co-workers, Charles Lsubuga, was suddenly partially lamed. He was taken to the Mulago hospital and 6 months later declared a hopeless case by the doctors, who could find no medical reason for his disability. "He will never walk again," they said. Then came Mosuke's ultimatum, and the spiritual battle became intense.
"Everyone told us to leave the area," says Robert, "but we set up a 'Wailing Wall', where we prayed 6 hours every evening. In a dream, I saw someone in heaven giving me a sword. At one o'clock on a Sunday afternoon, the few shop owners in the Kabusu shopping centre heard a loud noise and ran outside, where they found Mosuke dead in the junction of Kabusu and Masaka street. His face and body were split down the middle, as though he had been struck by a sword. Two weeks after his death, in the middle of December 1983, Robert's co-worker Charles was released from the clinic in full health. From that moment on," Robert recalls, "the people came streaming into the church. Three months after Mosuke's death, our church had grown to around 1,000 members."
According to George Otis, the Miracle Centre Church now has an attendance of over 7,000 and 236 daughter churches. At least 6 people have risen from the dead following prayer by members of the church. In a report published in the African news service "The Monitor" on 4th November 1997, journalist Robert Mugagga states that pastor Robert Kayanja is a good friend of President Museveni and many leading members of the Government, including a number of ministers who attend the church.
Source: George Otis and The Monitor, fax (1)-915-676-7211, e-mail info@africanews.com

India: evangelism research

A sample taken by Madras' Daniel C. Samuel examining which evangelistic methods Indian leaders currently believe to be effective for promoting the growth of local churches shows the following: The three most effective methods (taken from a list of 15 plus possible suggestions) are friendship evangelisation (80% of votes), prayer triplets (60%) and planting new churches (over 50%). The three least effective methods according to the study are large evangelistic crusades (just over 30%), distributing tracts (25%) and adult education (20%). The study, in which around 100 church leaders and missions directory were interviewed, defined evangelisation as "Coordinated action by God and man through which non-believers are saved through Jesus Christ and become responsible members of a local church."
Source: Daniel C. Samuel, c/o DAWN International Network, 15, Thomas Nagar, Chennai 600 015, India.

Ethiopia: oil on their fire

Strategic partnership is the partial or total cooperation of two or more groups with a common aim. An example from Ethiopia shows that an increasing number of Christian organisations are making use of the synergistic effects of such partnerships. In a programme involving the Evangelical Fellowship of Ethiopia (ECFE), an evangelical umbrella organisation, the mission agency AIMS and the local church Calvary Temple of Denver, Colorado, the ECFE first selected 286 evangelistic church-planters, who were then trained for 2 years by AIMS; the training was financed by the Calvary Temple. Around 260 church planters have been sent out, mostly working amongst completely unreached people groups, and have all planted at least one church in a village where there was previously none.
Source: AFNET, Johan Combrinck, 2265 El Camino Real, Suite 4, Santa Clara, CA 95050, fax (1)-408-2497774, e-mail 100076.2414@compuserve.com

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