InnNews – Winter 2005

Ministry Trip in Uganda 15th January – 1st February 2006

Report by Peter Marchand

Director, Inn Christian Ministries

Apach is a small run down town in northern Uganda where the local people resent outside development, even to the point of employing witchcraft to oppose it. The Western mind will struggle to accept that 95% of investors from outside (not necessarily overseas) have died prematurely as a direct result of witchcraft. Churches have been in competition and rivalry with one another. This mission was their first joint venture. Two denominations, the Anglicans and the Pentecostal Assemblies of God refused to participate, and even forbade their members to attend. Many of their members disobeyed!

We were very conscious of this background on arrival. The atmosphere was tense. Fifty civic leaders had been invited to a Reception. Only one came. He had recently become a believer. It demonstrated the wide gulf between the church and society all around them. Most of the church leaders attended, but they were awkward with one another and clearly there was little, if any, relationship between them.

The morning seminars, however, were very well attended by the church members, the venue, a Baptist church building, being packed every morning. There were at least 400 delegates, and all were well fed and catered for.

The vast majority of the town, over 80%, attended the crusades each evening , and at least 100 people responded to the appeals for salvation every night. God confirmed the preaching with many signs and wonders, most notably a woman was completely healed of a severe brain tumour. On one night, as the sick were being prayed for, the power of God fell and between thirty and forty people began to manifest demon possession. All were completely delivered and set free. I know I am writing for a predominantly sceptical and generally cynical Western mindset which has little, if any, experience of this dimension of spiritual activity, but believe me, I am not exaggerating, there were miracles—ask the people! Such things are real, and are not the expression of “simple first century people who lacked the knowledge of science and medicine that we have today.”

The team were at their very best, and the only disappointment throughout the mission was the poor quality of sound production. Our system is no longer adequate to reach the crowds, so we hired equipment plus technicians, but they are not adequately trained and were unable to handle the task.

We moved straight on to Kaberamaido, a town at the heart of a newly designated District. I first preached here in 1998. There has been considerable investment and new building, but the town is still only small and lacks running water and electricity. There are only 140,000 people living in the whole District. The churches here have built positively on last year’s “God loves Kaberamaido” mission, and the mutual co-operation and warmth of reception was wonderful. This year every Government department sent at least one representative to the Reception, and the Resident District Commissioner, who represents the President in the District, personally attended. Well over a thousand delegates came to the morning seminars each day, 700 being accommodated at the local Secondary School, which the Headmaster, also a believer, had kindly made available. The rest came in from places up to thirty miles away.

The crusades did not enjoy quite the same degree of the supernatural as in Apach. It seems to me that the greatest impact is made when we first enter an area. From then on it is much more steady growth. As in Apach, well over 80% of the town was in attendance at the crusades each evening. The open-air film shows were as always very well received. Both venues enjoyed peace and calm throughout, the police keeping a low-key watchful eye on everything. Malaria struck three of us, but the programme went on.