African Evangelistic Enterprise Uganda (AEE-U) has been doing urban evangelism for more than 45 years.
This year’s Makindye mission which took place from 22 – 29 November 2020 was greatly affected by the global pandemic. In Uganda, severe lockdowns paralyzed every sector of the country, including limiting gatherings such as church congregations.
Where AE Uganda would normally receive funding and support from various churches, now churches themselves needed support to reopen after a long period of lockdown. This in turn forced a scale down on the mission field and reevaluation of the mission strategy. AE Uganda had various ideas but after meeting with police and the security agencies enforcing the COVID-19 restrictions, only door-to-door evangelism was approved.
The Makindye mission kicked off with prayer sessions held on Friday 20/11/20 at Gospel Messenger Church led by Bishop Mitchel Mukasa. It attracted over 90 Church leaders and evangelists who sang praises and prayed over Makindye Division.
As usual, trainings were carried out as a way of preparing for the proclamation and subsequently discipleship of new converts. From the 22nd to 28th November, many foot soldiers were moving in different places, homes, workplaces markets and many other places with the aim of sharing the Good news of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The mission ground was divided into four (4) Zones. The zonal evangelists were fully trained and prepared for the proclamation week. Each zone had on average 35 evangelists each day who were strong enough and courageous to go out there and share their faith and good news of Our Jesus Christ despite the continued growing numbers of COVID 19 patients in our country. This brought the total number to between 100 and 140 evangelists who took up this mantle with courage.
By the end of the mission, 7,041 people had been reached by the good news, out of which 1,378 made commitments to accepted Christ as their lord and savior and re-commitments to salvation.
On the 2nd of December a post mission meeting was held with coordinators from each zone to discuss effective follow up and how the churches and evangelists can continue to encourage those that made commitments. The meeting was ended with a plan in place for all new believers to receive regular phone calls, messages and encouragement from nearby churches and evangelists.
Testimony from the mission field – Nagudi Doreen
Nagudi’s had to drop out of school at a young age and started helping others with house chores in Kampala for an income. She often suffered from epileptic fits at work, this used to upset her employer tremendously and resulted in them casting her out of their house.
No one wanted to employ Nagudi because of her epileptic seizures and she had no other option but to start begging on the street. During one of her epileptic fits, a Pastor from a nearby church picked her up and took her back to church where he could pray for her.
Nagudi stayed at the church for over 3 months. With the Makindye mission preparation in full swing, many evangelists were stationed at the church getting ready for door to door evangelism. Nagudi desired to go out and spread the gospel but others were not so sure if she should do it because of her epileptic fits. On the second day of Mission, she approached Brian who was a coordinator for the region and requested to be part of the team.
Brian allowed her to take part and when she returned from the field she had a dream with a voice telling her to keep it up her healing would follow. She stepped out in faith, knowing that God had a plan and a calling for her life and with God she could overcome any obstacle in her way.