It is hard to believe but it is true. Uganda, a country hailed for Christian revival, still has people who have never heard of salvation through Christ. Aged forty, Areny grew up in a traditional family, in Teso region in Eastern Uganda, whose knowledge about God was nothing more than just his name. Messages about heaven or hell did not mean a thing. The second born out of six children, Areny and her siblings grew up as orphans. Areny’s mother died when she was 10yrs old, and she was left in the hands of her pagan father Mr. Tukei who died shortly afterwards. She lived in ignorance and opposition to the word of God. “I did not believe in God at all…I had no use of him since my hands could give me whatever I wanted. Whenever I became ill, the traditional healers could help me out.”
Areny shifting from teso twenty-one years ago, with the aim of establishing an agricultural business in Kituuba Village – Mukono District. This was after loosing her two children, which she interpreted as the actions of her ancestors punishing her for the mistakes of her dead parents. She reasoned that Central Uganda was far away from her ancestral land and a suitable place to hide from the misery inflicted on her by the spirits of her ancestors.
On the contrary, she became lonely, and the memories of her children and parents depressed her oftenly. “The gap between East and Central Uganda was bridged by tormenting dreams and disappointing flashbacks.” She was desperate for peace.
“I have visited traditional shrines uncountable times,” she confessed. All this was in search for a child since she had lost the only two. The more she did this, the harder it became for her to live, as she gave her harvest, and domestic animals for sacrifice to appease the spirits so that they could give her another child. Consequently, the hope she had was striped away when she got into menopause. By November 2008, she had realized life was worsening and that she needed an urgent solution to her problems. She needed something that would bring to an end the battles in her soul. However, her hopelessness was God’s pathway to her heart.
On November 1 2008, Mukono visitation team visited Areny at her home in the evening when she had retired from the farm. “It was not just a visit; God reached out his hand from heaven to get her from the devil’s chains” said Mrs. Nanyonjo, the area District Facilitators. The visitation team shared the Word of God with her and introduced her to the gift of salvation offered in and through Jesus Christ. God worked through this time to create in her faith in the only true God, Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. “But I am not baptized, yet you say that those who believe should be baptized and received as children of God?.
It was just a perfect hour of grace when she prayed with the visitation team and was referred to Kateete Lutheran church for nurturing and fellowship. Presently she is undergoing confirmation lessons and hopes to be Baptized and confirmed soon at Zion Lutheran church Kateete. Her life is a testimony to work of Christ in our lives.
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