By Bethania Wonagseged —
After listening to Christian radio at age 16, Moses Kiyemba converted and preached to his entire school, saving 500 kids.
It was a Muslim school.
For his zeal, they beat him, they suspended, the kicked him out of his house in Kampala, Uganda.
“I had a rough start in my walk with the Lord,” Moses says. “I could not abandon Jesus.”
Today, he is a pastor in Magamaga, his second church aiming to launch his third.
Born into a household with a Catholic father and a Muslim mother, Moses Kiyemba listened to a Gospel explanation on Impact Radio and got saved. “I was filled with the Holy Spirit,” he says. “I was on fire for God.”
He began preaching to his fellow students, despite the school being officially Muslim. He held deliverance sessions to free people from demons from witchcraft and African ancestral worship. He was holding services with 500 students.
The school allowed corporal punishment, so they beat him for converting Muslims.
When that did not deter him, the suspended him for the rest of the semester. He was sent home and had only to show up for final exams, which he passed anyhow. His father and mother were so upset at him jeopardizing his study and becoming fanatical (as they saw it), they gave him the ultimatum: Stop or leave.
He left that night. Moses was received by the church. They let him sleep and shower and brought him food.
God gave him a vision. In a dream, a figure appeared to him and held a map of Uganda out before him, pointing to Magamaga. “I want you to go to that place and start a church, a school and an orphanage,” the celestial being said. He had never previously heard of Magamaga.
It sounds like a good place for Trumpers, but it has no meaning in Luganda, Lusogo or other Bantu languages according to AI. It is an agricultural town where farmers subsist on what they grow.
There are both Catholics and Muslims there, but the dominant religion (adhered to by both Catholics and Muslims) is African beliefs and ancestor worship. “People access the spirits and get power to harm others or make others sick,” he explains.
While its disturbing (dabbling with demons), it also provided an opportunity for his church to grow. When a brother-in-law practiced witchcraft against his sister-in-law (to get her out of the house), she didn’t know what to do.
Somebody recommended she go to church. Pastor Moses prayed that the brother-in-law would be kicked out of the village. So it happened. The elders and family held a council and, opposed to his witchcraft, ordered him to leave Magamaga, Moses says.
“That was the hand of God,” Moses says. “It is by power that people believe God.”
Before pastoring, Moses completed his schooling and became a teacher. In that profession, he met his wife, with whom he has three children.
His working towards planting his third church, representing Magamaga, Wakiso and Jinja. He is part of a new movement led by U.S.-based Indian Mohan Gopal called Universal Apostolic Ministries.
Related content: Elsewhere in Uganda Christians are persecuted by Muslims, extremists doused him with acid, Africa to be Christianity’s new center and base. Sources: Pilgrim Dispatch interviewed Moses Kiyemba.
