Union of Baptist Churches

We are privileged to introduce you to a man who has been greatly impacted by the ministry of UBC. His story, which he shares below, is one of redemption, hope, and full reliance upon Jesus Christ.

I am called by the name of Hagumishuti Eilya. I was born in Rutshuru territory in Nyanzale village in the Democratic Republic of Congo on June 23, 1975. I am the third born of my family. My father was married to four other women, and my mother was the second wife. She was very jealous of the other wives and children. She used to train us to grow into conflicts with the other children of my father and consider them as enemies. At age 11, my two older sisters and I were trained by our grandmother in witchcraft. She wanted us to poison our brother and become the leaders of our family.

In an effort to try to control my father, my mother introduced him to drugs. She supplied him with drugs to keep him in our home so that she would have access to all of his income. She did not want the other wives to have anything.

At age 14, I was in secondary school with my brother, Nelson, the son of the first wife of my father. I used to run races with him at school. By the end the school year, he began to win all of our races. My mother was totally jealous of that. Nelson and I would tend the family goats in the afternoon. One day, my mother and grandmother gave me a banana that had been poisoned and told me to give it to Nelson. I gave him that banana, and I ate one without poison. After tending the goats, we each went back to our homes.

About an hour later, someone came running to our home to say that Nelson was about to die because of complications in his belly. My father, mother, and grandmother ran to check on him and instructed all of us children to stay at home. After a few minutes, I decided that I needed to join them. Nelson was my friend, and I knew that I should not have given him the banana. I had to try to remedy this problem. When I arrived, I was met with many people weeping. I told my father and the neighbors present what I had done. They gave Nelson traditional medicines that caused him to vomit the poison. Fortunately, he survived.

My mother and grandmother were immediately captured and beaten by the villagers. They both died two days later. I, too, was beaten, but my stepmother intervened. She was a Christian and knew how I had been impacted by my mother’s teachings. She wanted me to live with her and attend Sunday School and church. I went, but was insulted by all the other children because of what happened. No one would be my friend. I learned about Jesus and was mentored by Pastor Ushindi. At 16, I was baptized. There were still very few people that would accept me. I began to fall away from my faith.

At 19, I decided to join a rebellion group in our village. During the war against the government army, I was captured and put in prison. I was there for one year and four months before I escaped, fleeing to the town of Goma. I met a woman and got married, but I continued living in a very sinful way.

In September 2017, I met Pastor Kazaviyo while I was working. He started telling me about the news of Jesus Christ. I told him that I know all that. He asked me if I had received Christ in my life. I said yes and that I have been baptized since I was 16 years old. He asked me why I hadn’t continued to serve God in church. That really made me stop and think. When he saw that, he continued to question me. I told him all about my life story and the devastating things that I had experienced. He comforted me and gave me a new hope in Jesus Christ. He invited me to his church, where I began to learn more about Jesus and grow in my faith.

I am now an evangelist and share the hope of Jesus with others. The Lord has blessed me with a wife and five children. The Lord has cared for me, even when I had done so many terrible things. I am grateful for the ministry of UBC that helped me find God and His purpose for my life.

Pokot Outreach Ministry – South Sudan

Greetings in the name of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We are all doing fine in the Lord. We thank God for the continued partnership in prayer and material support. We praise God for richly supplying for our needs in every way as we serve him here in South Sudan. It has been an exciting year, and we have seen God do great things. We have and still are continuing to connect to many villages and many people hoping to build bridges from our hearts to theirs over which Christ may walk into their lives. We are anticipating yet another exciting year and we are hoping to make a greater impact in the scope of our ministry. We are hoping to do more village to village campaigns, conduct our first pastor’s and evangelist’s conference, and help our mission leaders have a more clear and succinct plan on building their teams and developing those they lead. Our immediate needs therefore focus on things that help us achieve our next phase of goals.

We are hoping to have the first pastor’s and evangelist’s conference in late January or early February. We have been bringing our key leaders to be part of the Pastor’s Conference in Kenya. But for the coming year, we are bringing none because we felt that it is time for our ministry to discuss things that are more specific and unique to our situation. We also want to cast the net wider to include mission leaders’ disciples into the program. The conference is expected to bring about 20 to 30 pastors, leaders, and evangelists from two major tribes that we are reaching – the Diding’a and Toposa. It shall be a vision casting conference where we hope to have our missional leaders, along with their teams, draw a grand plan of the next 10 years for their mission hubs with mid-term, short-term, and immediate plans clearly spelled out. We shall also be introducing The Timothy Initiative training where leaders are expected to train about six or more “Timothys” in one year.

To make this conference possible, our ministry shall provide transportation, accommodations, and facilitate the materials for the conference and training. We hope to have one or two guest facilitators/speakers. Our budget for this is $1,500.

We are planning to have more village evangelistic campaigns. The team from the main hub shall be backing up the efforts of our missional leaders in reaching their specific areas. In most of these remote places, there are no houses to accommodate a team of six to ten people at a time. We therefore hope to purchase tents and some sleeping bags to support our remote outreaches. We need at least 10 for a start, with a total cost of $1,000.

To accommodate our missional leaders during trainings and conferences, we would like to add additional rooms to the veranda of the house at our main mission hub. We are expecting to have regular training sessions that shall bring our missional leaders to our main hub at the same time. We therefore wish to have reliable rooms for our missional leaders to provide accommodation to them during our meetings/training. This will cost approximately $6,000 to $6,500.

We also have additional needs that we are earnestly praying God to meet. One of the pressing ones is the need for clean water in Nanyia village. This is home to our legendary woman of faith, Martha Lokwale. On numerous occasions, Martha walked 21 kilometers to speak with me about the people in her village and the need for the Gospel. Two years ago, we met and prayed about starting a church in her village. Recently, 25 people were baptized there! She constantly reminds me of the suffering of her people. We humbly ask that you pray with us that this need will be met. Drilling a borehole is about $14,000.


Omega Ministry

We are thankful for the dedication and courage of our Pakistani partner, Omega Ministry, who continues to share the Gospel amidst threats of violence. Recently they held a seminar for pastors and church members to specifically encourage them. Over 250 people attended this special session.

Please pray for them as they hold three crusades in different cities in late November and early December. These meetings are intended to both encourage believers and reach those who have not accepted Christ.

Ongoing needs for the Pakistani pastors include monthly support and motorcycles. Having transportation is of vital importance for pastors to be able to effectively reach more people. They typically minister in multiple areas and moving from place to place can be challenging. Currently, it costs $2,200 to provide a motorcycle to a Pakistani pastor. Beyond transportation, monthly support is also important so that pastors can focus on teaching and preaching. Most serve in very poor areas and are unable to gather adequate support from local congregations. Depending on the situation $50 to $100 per month can make a great difference in the life of a pastor and their family.