As we reported last week, July was a busy month for Empower Uganda. We ran a Master Class and New Man, New Woman, New Life class concurrently in neighboring towns in Eastern Uganda.
Joyce Ouko, President Empower Uganda, sends this report:
We bless the name of the Almighty God for God’s enabling power to the entire Empower family for the prayers, financial and emotional support. Each of your contributions makes it possible to reach the Church and family in Uganda with the redeeming message through Empower international Ministry.
This time round we had two Empower trainings running concurrently but in different venues, New Man New Woman in Malaba and the Master class in Tororo both in Eastern Uganda.
Pastor Frank Micheal Twehey, our African Program Director, has already shared a good summary, since we kept switching some days giving us a balanced view of both trainings. But here is a bit more detail about the training in Malaba.
This report captures the NMNW, Malaba workshop.
It has been clearly noticed that whoever attends Empower workshop, does not wish any responsible person to miss it.
Bishop Joseph Wanjala with his dear wife Judith hosted the NMNW in Malaba after they had attended NMNW training in March 2022 in Tororo. Bishop Joseph is not only a pastor but also a retired tutor for high school teachers. He testifies that after evaluating the Empower book of NMNWNL, he highly recommends the training.
This seminar, attended by 43 men and women, mostly church leaders, was facilitated by Julius Ouko, Senior Trainer, Empower/Uganda, and Apostle Okumu Charles, Support Trainer.
Testimonies:
Space for expressing and deliverance from sexual bondage
Malaba is a town council situated on the border of Uganda and Kenya with a lot of business and collection of nationalities, each with different cultural practices.
As a result of the training, there was an experience of freedom to express of some of the internal bondages, especially sexually related. This culture does not permit open discussion of sex, but we can tell that internally, people are very hurt. Through the opportunity for open expression, deliverance was realized and shared.
In the days and weeks following the seminar, I received numerous phone calls and messages of appreciation. Once the participants return home and get opportunities to apply the message, they see the benefit even more. They share with their other church leaders how the Empower workshop is life transforming.
One of the pains shared mainly by women was the power play that is typical around sexual relations within marriage. They described men jumping on their wives for sex by force, even claiming this was their right, which is a misinterpretation of the passages in Scripture that describe the husband as the head of the wife. To combat this, women shared that they will try to deny their husbands sex as means to be heard by their husbands, which not surprisingly results in domestic conflicts, and sometimes results in broken marriages.
When a traditional woman strongly believes in cultural practices, it makes it even harder to change. But attending the seminar broke the chains of cultural practice for many families.
For example, Agatha, a woman in her 60s in Malaba, explained to us that for all the time she has been married, she would not allow her husband to bathe with her because their culture teaches that even her own husband should not see her naked. The culture assumes he will always abuse her nakedness in public. In the Empower training she came to know that both she and her husband are created in God’s image, not cursed but both blessed. After the training, she told us that she straight away went and confessed to her husband and accepted him to bathe with her. As a result of this liberation, she experienced fresh love as they rekindled their sexual intimacy. As the Scripture says, they were naked and not ashamed, and this new perspective transformed their relationship.
As is often the case with our trainings, the participants in Malaba were astonished to learn that in Genesis 3, man and woman are not cursed, but rather simply told of the consequences of their sins. It was the ground and the serpent which were cursed by God. For many, this was a huge discovery that brought them joy and freedom.
Another participant, Michael, said his mind set about women was changed. Previously, he had thought of women as sexual objects. He no longer thinks that.
Rita, another participant, told us she realized that we are to submit to one another because we are all created in God’s image. She learned that submission is to make one another better.
