My Faith
Michael Jordan once said, “Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.” Indeed, faith is the substance of things hoped for; one’s vision can only be achieved by stepping out in faith. Seeing what others don’t see, but actually seeing what is non-existent is the best description of faith.
In this article, I would like to briefly share how faith has impacted my life and my ministry endeavors since 2010. I have learned over years to trust in God for anything, because His love and mercy endures forever and is new every morning. I have seen God’s hand of provision in many circumstances. He has a multitude of people out there, ready to be used to bless those in need. I have seen this, I have experienced this, and I have seen my living God in action.
My journey to Eswatini in 2010, formerly known as the Kingdom of Swaziland, for a college diploma in ministry was by faith. I began the application process for admission at African Christian College before I had secured a passport. I arrived at the college on January 15, 2010 after spending a tough 13 days on road. Why was it tough? I had traveled from Uganda through Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, and finally Swaziland, my destination. I was robbed of my money during the process of exchange rates; I slept hungry—only surviving on water and one donut for three days.
We arrived in Maputo, the capital city of Mozambique at 12:00 midnight. The bus dropped us on the street in the city. I was stranded in a foreign country and couldn’t communicate because of the language barrier. I was rescued by a stranger; a lady who was also a foreigner from Switzerland. We became friends, because both of us were communicating in English while on the 13-hour bus trip.
This lady paid for my hotel room and food. It was my first time to sleep in a 3-star hotel. She paid for my bus ticket to the border of Mozambique and Swaziland; she helped me communicate to the college, and the college made arrangements for me to be picked up from the border. This lady was God-sent—an angel to me—because, from that day, I have never communicated with her because the phone contact she gave me has never gone through. I didn’t anticipate all of these struggles coming while planning my trip.
The Bishop of Geneva, Saint Francis de Sales, said, “Bloom where you are planted.” In God’s hands, every situation prepares us for the next season of life. After graduating from college and returning home in 2012, I was employed by Kibo Group Uganda as a social worker. I also took a second job as a part-time Bible teacher at Harding Christian Academy, a secondary school established by the Church of Christ to provide Christian education in Uganda. The goal of this school is to provide quality education in accordance with the curriculum of the government of Uganda and also to teach students the Word of God, guiding them towards becoming Christians and leaders in God’s Kingdom.
Working as a classroom teacher leaves one with limited powers to influence any decision-making process in a school. During my time as a teacher at Harding Christian Academy, I struggled with the way the school administration was operating. Having been exposed a little bit, and seeing things happening in a way that I considered ineffective would break my heart a lot. But I understood my role and boundaries well. I focused on doing my best in areas of duty and responsibility.
My creativity and pro-activeness caused my leaders to recognize leadership potential in me. In 2017, I was appointed to serve with Harding Christian Academy Uganda as a board member. The next year, the board promoted me to Vice Board Chairperson. In 2020, I became the Board Chairperson.
“Bloom where you are planted” is one of the quotes that guides my life. Hebrew 11:6 says, “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He exists and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.”
Most people begin with faith, but when things begin to work well for them, they shift their faith and trust from God to the materials and power they have accumulated. Our God is the rewarder of those who seek Him, and whatever He gives us doesn’t belong to us. We are just His conduits He uses to reach His people around us and beyond us. By faith, I stepped into this position of the Board Chairperson with full confidence in God’s guidance. There was a lot to deal with administratively, but with the support from the rest of the board members, we have been able to transform the school culture from inefficiency to efficient and transparent leadership. This has resulted into improvement in academic performance and student enrollment.
In the final examinations of the year 2022, Harding Christian Academy performed better than all the years the school has existed. Our best student in Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) was the overall best student in the entire Sub-county where the school is located. As a result of many new developments and clear focused leadership, we have attracted many students from distant regions of Uganda in the boarding section and this has caused a problem of limited infrastructure to accommodate them. We are confident that next year, we will admit many more, but we are already at full capacity. This is not to praise myself, rather to show the power and impact of faith.
It was faith that gave me the courage that I needed in January 2017 to do mission work among the hostile people of Karamoja Region. Mark Twain said “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear—not absence of fear.” The Karamojangs are nomadic pastoralists whose culture is focused on cattle and how to have and own more cows. They are regarded as one of the poorest and most uncivilized communities in the world. They are always practicing cattle-raiding activities (stealing cows from
neighbors; this process involves killing anyone who resists, because they are armed and the government has failed to disarm them completely).
They are a hostile community. But by faith, when God opened the door for evangelism in this region, I gathered confidence and made a 10-hour drive journey from Jinja to Karamoja for New Life Behavior seminar that led 17 people to Christ through baptism. Those first converts helped me plant the first Church of Christ in the Karamoja region. I made another trip after a month and baptized 27 more after teaching.
Most people in this community were worshiping a big tree called Loblachonga. They sacrificed chickens, goats, and other animals as a way of appeasing their spirits under the shade of that huge tree in order to receive child birth, rain, or supernatural power for being successful in animal raids. We taught them about the true God, and as a result we established Karamoja Bible & Vocational School, which now has another study center in another district of Karamoja.
We train preachers, their wives, and others with basic Bible knowledge and spiritual leadership, and we equip them with skills of building houses, carpentry, and tailoring. These vocational skills are aimed at helping them earn a living from other reasonable ways other than earning a living through stealing and brewing alcohol.
Through the Bible school, we have been able to plant 17 churches in different villages. To address the issue of illiteracy—which is at 95% in the region—we started a primary school for their children. Our objective is to teach these children God’s word and provide quality Christian education in accordance with the Ugandan curriculum. We believe that this approach to education will transform this region. All these activities have happened in the last six years. However, we are in desperate need for partners to make these programs meet the required standards.
In Mark 9:23, “Jesus said to him, ‘If you can...All things are possible for one who believes.” Indeed all things are possible. We bought a piece of land bordering the huge tree that this community worshiped as their god. We built our church building right in front of that huge tree. This amazed the people in the community, and some told us that we would not survive death because we were provoking their gods. But we are still alive! The church has proven to them that there is only one true God. Jesus is being worshiped where Satan was being worshiped. We use that tree shade for our different activities such as Bible study meetings, children classroom, carpentry, student’s workshops, etc.
The most recent power of faith is evident in the Gospel Chariot Missions truck and discipleship training campus here in Jinja. This is a big ministry that cannot happen without having faith in God almighty. From 2017 to date, this ministry has enabled us to plant over 20 churches in Uganda and have baptized thousands of new converts. Partnerships with different church organizations has helped the expansion of God’s Kingdom. We have just started the work—it’s still morning hours for us.
In conclusion, faith is the substance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen. All I have written in this article is just a summary of what faith has done. We are hoping for much more, because we have just made our presence in only three out of nine districts that make up the Karamoja Region. Harding Christian Academy envisions 1,000 students and more. The harvest is plentiful, but the harvesters are few.
Duncan Ojiambo is a One Kingdom partner based in Jinja, Uganda.