RELIGION, CHRISTIANITY AND ME

Growing up, my paternal Grandmother frequented our home. We lived about 8 miles apart. Often once a month on a Sunday morning she would be at the gate by 7 a.m. Never mind that at 80 years of age, she braved that journey often without promise of a motor vehicle to give her a lift; she was ready to walk the entire 8 miles at least once a month.  Granny did this for each of her surviving 3 sons with the same energy and frequency. To date I am amazed at how an 80 year old woman would be ready to walk such a distance without complaint. We all called Granny “Jajja Domiso" an acronym of the beginning solfar notes (Do - Mi - So) from the hymn "I heard the voice of Jesus say" written by Horatius Bonar (1808-1889).

Jajja Domiso taught us that hymn and we learned it in Luganda by heart (we learned the solfar notes by heart as well !). So Jajja's practice when she arrived at home was to take a shower, get out her neat Gomesi, take her breakfast, and head off to Mulago hospital to preach to the patients at this referral hospital that needed to hear the words of hope; we stayed in Mulago, near Kalerwe only less  than a kilometer away from this hospital. She was back at home by 2 p.m. of the same day to take her shower, eat her meal and then lead us in singing of hymns, reading of scriptures from the Holy Bible in Luganda (since my first recollection I can recite psalms 23 by heart in Luganda), and then discuss our learnings. After this session, she led in prayer and then immediately set off back to her abode. This time however she took a taxi back to the last 2 miles which she usually walked back all the way. I hated these prayer sessions because they took away my fun (or so I thought) of my play time; she often asked if anyone wanted to accept Jesus as LORD and savior, but none of the naughty "us" cared much for her God. So I anxiously waited for when we could walk her back to her taxi and then rush back home to play. Jajja loved us all and we all loved her too anyway.

My elder brother Ed joined Kings College Buddo straight from boarding school outside the country. I never got to see much of him up to until this point in time. I recall him coming back home after the first term in secondary school was done, preaching about the same God of Jajja Domiso, but this time with a deep conviction carried upon the sound of his words. We loved to hate them. Kind of we wanted his to stop, but at the same time they were captivating. For the first time, in life I felt the urgency to accept Jesus as LORD and savior; else my life was in so much trouble, like Ed had told us. so, for the fear of the Hell Fire, I got born again once every 4 months when he returned home for school holidays. Each time he left to go back after the holidays I relapsed to my old self but this time the words were ringing in my heart for much longer. This time however, I now had the conviction that I needed to urgently change something in my life and give my life to Jesus; I was only 9 years of age when these episodes begun. I wanted to have the "fun" of adolescence and growing up that was fast catching up with me; however it now seemed that both Ed and Jajja had surrounded me. It is almost as if Ed and conspired against us with Jajja and made this "born Again" thing a reality; I thought we had all agreed, albeit silently, that this was a scum not worth our time? But now was Ed, gathering us together every evening, opening scriptures and showing us where these things were written. This time the sermons and scripture readings were in English, the language of instruction at school. I think it now sounded more serious !

At school, in my P7 class, I had a classmate called Peace Ainebyonna. She was a quiet girl that sat somewhere near the front of the class. I went to Buganda road primary school. I now often visited St. Francis Chapel every Sunday (Ed had introduced us there, so we shifted our Sunday activities there). So now, even when he left to go back to school I kept going there alone (I stayed at home alone with mum each school term as all my siblings were whisked off to boarding school). I somehow felt like I had outgrown the Sunday school, so I had started praying in the grown-ups chapel. this particular Sunday on 20th January 1986, this guy that preached spoke with so much conviction and the words pierced me through. I could not hold back when he made the alter call. I remember I walked to the front when he made the invitation for the alter call. I later on realized that only 2 juveniles showed up to the front: myself and Peace Ainebyonna (I wonder where she is today). Up to date I still do not recall the preacher’s names. In fact I think he must have gone back home discouraged that "only" 2 small insignificant kids had showed up after such a sermon to turn many to the LORD! I wish I could recall the preachers name and follow him up to just let him know he sowed an everlasting seed that day! That day was my turning point as I finally made a real commitment to Jesus Christ, one that I have kept to date, through many dangers, toils and snares (in the words of John Newton, 1725-1807).

My walk in Salvation was soon thrown into the maze of learning to “fail forward” in Jesus and getting up to walk again. I joined Namilyango College a year later, a Roman Catholic founded school; it was here that I now finally grew up in faith! Much of this story I will tell at another time. However at the center of it all was a scripture Union fellowship that I found in this college, where we learned to pray, fast and walk as Christians. Here I met my lifelong friend and brother a one Julius Wegoye that now threw another dimension into my path. If there was someone that was "posted" to ensure that I grew in the LORD, this was it. Julius was a no nonsense disciplinarian (never mind we were age mates) that ensured we worked out our salvation with fear and trembling, literally. I am glad for him. Now I know better, as I have grown. Then I needed that tough brotherly love to go down this path. I remember as a House Captain Julius had a separate room that we christened "Miracle Chambers" and we emblazoned the words boldly onto the door to this room. A lot of stories to be told on this at a later time. Much of what I am today was formed in the "Miracle Chambers”. Today, I am part of the pastoral team of a congregation for over 15 years now. A lot of people have gone through ministry the LORD has allowed me to dispense over the time. Some have gone on to minister to tens of thousands in this city, others to operate in giftings' I once thought of as long disappeared. It is amazing what the LORD can do with one life yielded, even when it’s only the life of a child.

As a child at 13 years of age, I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal savior; this is the best decision in life I have made. the deeper I get into the Bible and learn more about God, and get that ever increasing revelation of Him and His ways, I have become a firm believer in the Hebraic roots of Christianity and I think the church struggles with a lot of things including ignorance of the ways of God for want of recognizing this. Over time I have moved away from "religious practices" sometimes only to come back to them after realizing the true roots of them in the word of God. I have come to realize that one has got to walk the walk for themselves to understand God deeper. It’s good to sit in the church pews every Sunday, but it’s even better to get involved both at a personal and a corporate level. Only then do we get that ever increasing revelation of God. Today I can say that I do not live my life for anyone else, but God.

So, imagine what the seed of Jajja Domiso has achieved! She went on to be with the LORD aged 86 in 1986. On a normal day, as was her schedule, she woke up, put her tea pot on the fire and went to her garden to do her daily chores. She returned to her kitchen, as her routine was to make her tea, and that is where she was found collapsed in a coma, and about a week later she rested in her LORD arms finally.

It is hard for one to have such examples and later end up living life in an irresponsible way. Somehow, even when she could not speak the language of our generation, she did her part. Like Paul said in 1 Cor.3 verses 6 "I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.” Jajja Domiso planted, Ed watered, and God continues to give the increase!