Despite the challenges of Covid-19 lockdowns, Empower is continuing to provide hope to churches in Uganda.
Joyce Ouko, President of Empower/Uganda, reports that the pandemic has hit Uganda hard, causing both churches and Christians to struggle. Some churches, unable to gather in person, went bankrupt. Many pastors and parishioners alike lost hope.
“After a long period of COVID-19 bred hopelessness in people, Empower International Ministry brings hope to the pastors in Uganda through the Empower training. We count this a very big blessing,” Joyce wrote in a recent report.
In November, Joyce and her husband Julius, along with Mike Kinyera and his wife Jackline, led a three-day training for Pentecostal pastors and their spouses in Luwero district, Kasana village, north of Kampala. The training included a testimony from Pr. Vicky and her husband who shared how EIM teaching delivered and restored their marriage after they had been separated for more than 20 years! They are now
back together, happily married, serving God together.
A number of pastors reported learnings and insights from the training that changed their thinking tremendously, Joyce reports.
For example:
- Pr. Fred Maganyi recognized that a man is not a BOSS to only be served by his wife, but we are to serve one another as entrusted stewards by God. He learned that a woman was already in the first man (original), not a secondhand creature as he’d always been taught.
- Pr. Fred Kisirikiza, who is in his 70s, was surprised to learn that Adam was actually present when the serpent was tempting his wife Eve.
- Gloria was surprised to learn that man and woman were not cursed, but the ground. She also testified that some time back, a church elder began staying with her in an informal “customary” marriage, claiming he was not married. When she realized he had a wife but had abandoned her, she was convicted to stop their staying together as husband and wife. However, she didn’t know she had biblical grounds for that conviction until she attended the training and learned what both Jesus and Paul taught about marriage.
Despite the challenges, Joyce says, the message of biblical equality is bringing hope to churches and families in Uganda.