Under the Cwa tree (Photo: © Yemi Adedeji/CMS) The northern Ugandan town of Pader was virtually destroyed in the civil war. Yemi Adedeji describes how a unique network of mission partnerships is helping to restore it.
In 2004, the issue of child soldiers was placed firmly on CMS’ agenda.
Its then Head of Media, Jenny Taylor, had visited northern Uganda, confirmed the abduction of local children by members of the Lord’s Resistance Army, a rebel group, and articulated the appeal of Bishop Benjamin Ojwang of Kitgum Diocese that CMS advocate on behalf of his people, who were living in fear of such raids.
Some time later, Yemi Adedeji, CMS’ current New Relations Adviser, took two young Ugandans, Harriet Okenya and Patrick Lumumba, whom CMS sponsored to attend and speak at the Greenbelt Arts Festival, to his local church, Jesus House.
They shared their testimony, which moved the church and its leadership deeply. Indeed, the latter felt that they couldn’t hear such a story without doing something about it.
The first stage of that response was a visit three years ago by some of Jesus House’s leadership to northern Uganda.
They were met by the then CMS Director for Africa, Zac Nirinigiye, who took them through the region.
Yemi remembers, “While we were in Pader, the Bishop of Kitgum said to us, ‘If there is any area that needs support, it will be here.’
“That was borne out by our visit to Pader because when we were there, apart from some mud huts, there was only one brick building left standing and that was being used by an NGO to supply food to local people.
“I remember vividly during that visit that Bishop Benjamin, Pastor Agu of Jesus House, Zac and I stood under that Cwa tree, the branches of which were used by the Lord’s Resistance Army to beat the children whom it had abducted into forced compliance to fight and kill, and we prayed for God to bring peace and a change in circumstances to the town and its inhabitants.”
When they returned to the UK, Jesus House, through CMS, committed about £38,000 to build what was originally intended to be “a night shelter” for potential abductees within that same brick building.
People in Pader dancing to the music of a local hip hop artist(Photo: © Yemi Adedeji/CMS)However, during its construction, because the raids progressively diminished, the Government of Uganda declared that no more night shelters were needed, so the building was adapted to become a multi-purpose resource centre.
On the centre’s joyous opening day, 9 September 2008, Bishop Benjamin indicated that over 5,000 people have benefitted from the services that the centre has provided so far – from children through to former child soldiers, who have since returned to Pader and have received trauma counselling and rehabilitation, to widows, whose husbands were killed during the hostilities – and it is used as a place of Christian gathering and for church services most evenings and on Sundays as well.
Yemi notes, “Revisiting the Cwa tree was a very memorable moment for all of us. The bishop took us back there and we stood under it again. Looking around us, where, three years ago, there were just mud huts and a broken people, and not even a goat in the town, now we could see young boys playing football and people riding their bikes.
“Across the way, two banks had opened and a local government building is now going up. There was a restaurant behind us and a guest house and hotel on the north side. We witnessed the peace and calm in which people were happy to be now living, and it nearly brought tears to our eyes.
Pastor Agu (left) and Bishop Benjamin look at a memorial wall plaque on the centre's opening day.(Photo: © Yemi Adedeji/CMS)“It was amazing to see what God can do – to bring peace where there had been war – and we were able to thank God under that Cwa tree for what he had done for the people of Pader.”
For the local community, the contribution of Jesus House was a pioneering breakthrough because, as the bishop commented, for the very first time, the town was hosting Africans who had come to help Africans.
Jesus House is a predominantly Nigerian church in Brent Cross in Britain.
Pastor Agu, the pastor of a branch there of the World-wide Redeemed Christian Church of God, who also oversees about 350 Redeemed churches in the United Kingdom, seized the opportunity to pursue a new partnership and relationship with other Africans, northern Ugandans, on another continent.
Yemi believes that “It’s evidence of an amazing mission network.” Jesus House, seeing the level of integrity, the commitment and the steadfastness of CMS in brokering this initiative, has been encouraged to commit itself on a bigger scale. In fact, it has adopted Pader as its “town of mission”.
As a result, it has agreed three more projects with the bishop: one will be a sports centre to host basketball, netball and volleyball to cater for the plethora of youth who are everywhere on the streets of Pader at the moment.
The second will be a mini studio with musical and recording equipment because it is believed that if you can win the hearts of the youth, you can win the heart of the town, and what never fails to excite young people are music and sports facilities.
The third project in the pipeline is to build a three-bedroom house for the Anglican Vicar of Pader.
Yemi exclaims, “A typical Pentecostal church in Britain is building a vicarage for an Anglican church in northern Uganda. What a way the Lord Almighty works!”