God is Working in Kotido through TLT!

By Anthony:

Through Timothy Leadership Training in Kotido, Uganda (Kotido is a town in the region of Karamoja), God is moving mightily through a small group of participants. It is such a great joy to me to be able to hear their testimonies. I was not at the last training personally, but it is one of the trainings that I help to oversee and organize. We started with a much bigger group, but due to the vast distances in Karamoja, it was hard for many of the participants to keep coming to each new manual. Here is the group that has continued and is near graduation:

As you read the testimonies below, I think it's helpful to point out that while Uganda is a largely Christian country, the region of Karamoja is still somewhat an unreached area. Karamoja has been marginalized by the rest of the country in many ways and struggles a lot with material poverty as well as dependency. There is a big lack of infrastructure which makes it hard to travel, and it has proved difficult for many missionaries (foreign and Ugandan) to make inroads in Karamoja due to cultural differences. In addition, Karamoja has been a volatile region for many years, with a long history of violent cattle raiding within Karamoja and against neighboring tribes. I've heard reports from our TLT participants that they've had to guide church and community members away from wanting to join the raiding parties that have formed up again during the lock-downs this year. Poverty can make people desperate. While the news doesn't talk about it much, I heard through local sources over the past 6 months about burned villages, fights between Karamajong warriors and the Ugandan army, and many deaths. Thankfully in the Kotido area of Karamoja, things have been peaceful this year.

Lucy says: “In my own family, before doing the manual From Harm to Harmony, I used to have conflicts with my husband. We could quarrel and my husband would fight me. After the training I forgave my husband and reconciled with him. Now we live in harmony with each other and love each other."

For the Teaching the Christian faith manual, Lucy says: "I had planned to train 3 Sunday school teachers on teaching the Christian faith. COVID 19 affected my training plans. We decided to take the training to the home-cell group. I was able to train 2 Sunday School teachers. As these teachers implemented the training, while teaching children in the community – 40 children got saved. Many of these were Muslim children. As the children witnessed to their Muslim parents, one Muslim woman came to know the Lord as her savior." 

Rev. Amadi wrote: "I had planned to train 2 Sunday school teachers by the apprenticeship method on how to mentor junior girls to witness for Christ. After training 3 Sunday school teachers (apprentices) they were able to train other 15 girls and boys. A missions team of 15 girls has been formed. As a result of their involvement in missions 100 souls have been won to Christ."

Here is a video testimony from Lucy that she was happy to share with us:

During the training week, there were other unexpected things happening. Emmanuel Okwalinga, the facilitator, who is Bishop of North Teso Pastorate, decided to take two recently trained evangelists with him to Kotido. They took part in some of the TLT lessons, but they also went out and met with other Christians in the area. They trained 18 young boys and girls in the Discipleship and Soul Winning training program that they had gone through themselves back in Amuria. 

As a result of this training, the young people were able to reach out to their neighboring communities and 306 new believers confessed Jesus as their Lord and Savior during the same week as the TLT training! During the outreaches, Emmanuel also reports that God performed signs of healing and deliverance for 3 of the new believers.

Emmanuel and the TLT participants who are church leaders of the area stayed up late each night planning together how to best disciple the new converts and organize new churches. Emmanuel has now sent two missionaries from his pastorate to stay in Kotido for six months to help with follow up, discipling, baptizing, and planting two new churches for these new believers. One of these missionaries that was sent was my TLT student back in 2014-2015. 

Please pray for these new disciples and for the TLT participants! Praise the Lord for what he is doing.