Africa Renewal University

We have some big news...

We are applying to become a University!

Our vision of equipping Christian leaders to transform society has lead us down a path where we are compelled to train leaders for the church and leaders for the Christian ministries of East Africa. In order to do this we have been encouraged to increase our programs and elevate them to the Bachelors Degree level. 

Over the last 3 months we have shared this vision and have won grants from three Christian foundations and new support from various churches and individuals. It is exciting to see the support of this project!

As we head down this path we have developed four commitments which will define our vision of establishing a premier university  committed to equipping Christian leaders for the transformation of society.

1)   To develop unique programs with a Christian worldview embedded into the framework of each class

2)   To build a university campus that provides a model of our Christian Worldview in the way we care for creation

3)   To provide practical outlets for students to apply a Christian worldview through serving the community

4)   To become sustainable in providing Christian worldview training through recruiting excellent staff committed to producing quality graduates

This Monday September 3 at 2PM EAT we have been invited to present this vision before the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE). They have received our application and now they are asking us to give them convincing evidence of our commitment to this project. We would ask that you join us in prayer this weekend as we prepare for this presentation and specifically that God would grant us favor before the NCHE. The NCHE will then debate our application and presentation and give us a response by the end of the month as to our next steps in this process.

Please join us in prayer... Land Update!

This isn’t our last chance to resolve the land issue… but it is our last opportunity until the end of August.

The Ugandan courts shut down this Friday for the yearly court recess… do all countries do this?

Fortunately we got a court date for this Thursday in hopes of clearing the squatters off our land once and for all. This date is crucial because the squatters have started building again. They put a whole house up in one month and the police did nothing to stop them… this is so frustrating since we already won a court injunction to stop new construction. Look how much they have built in 30 days!

Most likely it means that the squatters are now paying the police bribes to leave them alone.

Our prayer is that the court will:

1)   Rule in our favor to clear the squatters

2)   Issue an arrest warrant for a man named Ddumba. He is the ringleader who is encouraging the squatters to build and he build the house that just went up.

3)   Give a court order to send court bailiffs to clear the squatters off the land

Please also pray for our staff. Not being at peace with our neighbors is taxing and presents a number of challenges for the staff in the community. More than anything we want the court to resolve this so we can have peace on our campus.

Join us in prayer this week as we pray for peace on our land!

Come as a learner...

In the last few years there have been a number of books that have examined the "help" that Americans provide overseas. "When Helping Hurts" and "Toxic Charity" stick out as my personal favorites.

The challenge is not that Americans go overseas intending to hurt people. Millions of well intentioned people travel overseas to help each year which is a great thing.

The challenge is that too often Americans go overseas as the "experts" and do not seek to understand what type of help the people need or do not take the time to understand that other cultures behave and communicate differently. Many cultures would be embarrassed or even ashamed to turn away our help despite the damage it might bring in fear of offending their visitors from the US.

 

 

This last week we received one of our greatest Short Term Teams of all-time and I do not say this lightly. This team  came simply to learn from our staff and the impact will be felt for years.

As a former Youth Pastor I think that it is great for High School students to travel overseas and expand their worldview. This trip will have a lasting impact on each of the students who came. I think the impact for them will be even greater because they took the time to listen to 4 different sessions taught by our staff on the issues facing Africa today including orphans and vulnerable children, development in the majority world and hands on learning on our school farm. Each of these students will have a greater understanding of how the rest of the world lives because they took the time to learn from the Africans they came to visit.

But the Americans weren't the only ones to benefit from the visit. It was an empowering exercise for our entire staff.  For most of them their experience has been that the Americans come over to teach them and they are to sit and learn from the wise Americans. Unfortunately this has brought about feelings of inferiority rather than building authentic relationships and mutual partnerships. 

By coming as learners the African staff were giving permission to share their own spiritual gifts and personal testimonies in a way that could build up the church in the US. Hearing the testimonies from the staff this truly is the deepest connection they have ever experienced with a short-term team in such a short period of time.

My suggestion to all groups planning short term mission trips overseas would be to incorporate a time of learning into your next trip. Meet with churches, schools and ministries that are having a great kingdom impact and seek to understand what they are doing to transform their communities. By learning from them you will gain a greater understanding of how to minister  in that culture and you might be surprised - they just might end up being a blessing to you and give you some great ideas to bring back to your church and community!

The Future of Misisonaries in Uganda

This year marks 50 years since Uganda got independence from the British. During this period church leadership has evolved and is entirely African. Amidst this what is the future of the western missionary in Uganda? Are western missionaries still of relevance in Africa, with Christianity growing so fast on the continent and more and more people becoming Christians, churches being planted and missionaries sent to the west? It is clear that the growing influence of the Church in the global South in matters of the global church is evident. Has the role of the western missionary changed?

All my life, I have grown up with missionaries around me and can see that a lot has changed over the years.  First of all, I grew up knowing that every muzungu (Whiteman) was a missionary, in Pajule Village in northern Uganda were I was born we had missionaries, they lived at the mission station that was within the church compound, rode bicycles around the village and their major role was to lead church services, conduct weddings and burials. When I came to the City, I met another missionary that helped disciple me. He was a church planter and went deep into villages planting churches.  Overtime there has been change, not all “Bazungu” are missionaries as I grew up thinking, and the natives are leading and planting churches with a new energy and zeal. Let me be clear on this, there are roles that the missionary can only perform alongside the natives and not individually. An orphanage, child sponsorship, congregation, institution or program in Africa cannot be entirely western mission led and directed.

Today, the relationship of the western missionary to the church in Africa should be like a relationship of one adult to another adult, a relationship of partners. Many missionaries today still relate with the church in Africa as a child and the missionaries as the parent, these are facing challenges. If you treat the church in Africa as a Child, it will treat you as a parent and will expect you to behave like a parent, spoon feed it! If you treat the church as a colleague and fellow adult, the missionary will be treated as a comrade and fellow elder. 

In our day, the church in Africa is in urgent need of missionaries that will relate to it as adults, the critical need of the “adult” in Africa is better leadership. This is mainly equipping leaders and secondly by advocating for this cause. With the Church in Africa growing so fast and stronger, it is important for the western missionary to strategically position himself to enhance this. It is important to develop transformational leadership in Africa.

The leadership crisis in Africa is in reality a leadership development crisis. At the heart of the leadership crisis in Africa is the failure of great leaders to replicate other leaders that will carry on the task. In solving this problem some missionaries have related to the church as a child being helped to develop leadership skills. Many of these have been looked at as Patrons. For this reason in Kampala many pastors just want a “muzungu”…, the belief is that if you get a muzungu you have broken through and “the lights are now green and you are set to go”. You will now succeed in ministry since you have a “muzungu”. The right tools in unskilled hands will not get the work well done. Help the leaders lead better by first giving skills.

The missionary today should be an ambassador and advocate for Africa; this is a role that short term missions could play effectively. The missionary has become the spokesperson for Africa. The missionaries’ message will determine the western world’s response to African issues.

Does Africa need missionaries? Yes, missionaries with an agenda to equip leaders and advocate for this cause.

Kilama Dennis, BSWSA (MUK), M.A Missions (NEGST), Dmin Student, (AIU).

Academic Registrar

Religion and Politics: Should they mix in Uganda?

Should religious leaders be involved in politics? What is the relationship between politics and religion? Over this Easter as we remembered the death and resurrection of Jesus, various Christian leaders made comments on Uganda’s politics.

The Archbishop of the Church of Uganda remarked that, “We have got different callings; the priests should preach the gospel and leave politics for politicians.” He went on to state that, “Sometimes we have seen people with white collars preaching politics; a doctor cannot be a mechanic.” The seems clear from these statements that Archbishop’s opinion is that that religious leader should not be involved in politics.

On the other side of town, the Assistant Bishop of Kampala, Bishop Niringiye Zac stated that, the President of Uganda should relinquish power so as to leave a clean legacy. In a similar tone, Archbishop Cyprian Kizito Lwanga in his sermon called upon the President to relinquish power, in his opinion, this is the biggest gift that the President could give to Ugandans.

With church leaders differing on their role in nation building, this has left many faithful confused as to their role in the nation’s state of affairs.  

Bishops, Priests, Pastors and Kiwani preachers in Uganda have become like a batch of comedians and laughing stock, not any different from amarula family. Everything they say is seen as a joke and no one takes them serious when they speak on issues outside religion. This is a dangerous state of affairs.

What should the church do for the poor and oppressed in society? How should the church respond to those that are unjustly treated in society, when people are dying on the streets and children are going without food?

There are those that will say we have only been called to “preach the gospel” that politics is not our duty but there are others who believe the gospel compels them to advocate and defend the oppressed.

This reminds me of the 1994 Rwanda genocide where religious leaders who were looked at as the hope for the oppressed turned out to be the oppressors. This is not any different from the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa that justified apartheid. Should we watch as our country goes to the dogs? I wonder where black and white racism in USA would be if Rev. Martin Luther King Junior, a Baptist preacher, was quite to the issues of his day. I wonder what would be the state of affairs in apartheid ridden South Africa if Desmond Tutu had kept quite. Proverbs 29 reminds us that “by justice a king gives a country stability” and it goes on to say that “the righteous care about justice.”

While it is true that a mechanic is not a doctor, a mechanic can deliver first aid to save a life. The church is an advocate for justice in society.  The target groups that Jesus came for according to Luke 4:18 were the poor, captives, blind and down trodden. These all were people living under oppression and suffering and could do nothing on their own to be set free.

The prophet Ezekiel warned that if shepherds do not warn the wicked man to renounce his ways, then he shall die for his sin, but they will be held responsible for his death (Ezekiel 33). For religious leaders, omission is just as grave a transgression as any other sin. Religious leaders should speak boldly for justice in society. I also believe that religious leaders should challenge political leaders and hold them accountable especially on moral issues.

Kilama Dennis is the Academic Registrar of Africa Renewal Christian College, Pastor at Lugogo Baptist Church and a Doctoral Student at Africa international University.

Learn more about ARCC

 There has been an unusual amount of traffic on our blog this week... for those interested in learning a bit more about how we are helping to address the many problems that Uganda is facing I would encourage you to watch these two short films...

The first is a two minute look at what we believe to be the great crisis in Africa... a link to the video can be found at .... http://vimeo.com/9842321

The second is a three minute video on how we are specifically working to address this problem... http://vimeo.com/25558452

Africa Renewal Christian College Please feel free to re-post the videos... or learn more on our website... www.arccuganda.org Thanks for visiting the site! And for caring about the people of Uganda!

Kony 2012: A survivor's perspective

Since the release of the Kony 2012 video, many painful thoughts have run through my mind. 

Thoughts of sin aroused in me.

Thoughts of my state of hopelessness.

Thoughts of how we the Acholi people have been misunderstood by others.

I say this because…

I am an Acholi. In 1988, my uncle as he was getting off a bus at our Village in Acholibur was shot at by Joseph Kony’s rebels. In 1992, as we gathered to celebrate Christmas as a family the rebels came on the Christmas night and attacked and killed people at the Village trading centre, this was the last Christmas that we  had in the Village as we were later displaced across the Nile to Masindi District. In 1996 at the helm of the war, my father was posted to work in Gulu and on one instance the car that they were travelling in was ambushed and burnt, he stayed in the bush for three days. My cousin was shot and I personally saw her intestines fall out as she was being brought to the hospital in Gulu, my other cousin was adducted by the rebels and he has never returned home to this day. 

This all happened in the first twenty years of my life. When I think about this it’s painful and hurts and I feel bad. I am sure that if my grandmother watches this video today, she will weep in memory of her husband that the rebels killed, if my uncle watched this video fear and hopelessness would reawaken of the rebels re-abducting him, he would reconsider his plans of returning to our village. Is this good?

The solution to our problem is not to capture Kony but to help us continue in this process of healing, the thought of capturing Kony arouses more anger, more pain and feelings of revenge that are unbiblical. In fact if you asked me ten years ago what I would do with Kony if I captured him, I would revenge all the evil he has brought on my family. Now I realize that revenge is for God, I personally have handed Kony over to God. The gospel of Jesus has helped me over come these feelings, the thought of arresting Kony arouses sin in me, reminds me of how hopeless I am and how people do not understand me.

Justice is not only going to happen when our oppressor is captured and taken to The Hague, there are many leaders in Uganda who have done far worse atrocities and qualify as well to go to the Hague even before Kony but no one seems to say anything about them. Justice is going to happen if we the oppressed are restored and given living hope. This hope is what the oppressor took; taking the life of the oppressor does not bring back any hope. I have realized that hope is not in the cows, land, food or other material things we owned, because when Kony took all these from us, we lost hope and life was meaningless.  Hope is in life eternal, hope is in Christ. This hope no man can take.

The focus in Northern Uganda should no longer be Joseph Kony the man that oppressed us for 23 years, but it should be on we that were oppressed. I believe that this Acholi problem needs a biblical and African solution of restoring the broken hearted. We urgently need to raise leaders that will give hope to the hopeless. Therefore the kony 2012 Video is not the solution, hope to the oppressed is the solution.  

KILAMA DENNIS, Academic Registrar Africa Renewal Christian College