We remember sitting in class at BMS’s
International Mission Centre in Birmingham learning about the fascinating, inspiring, and at times heart-breaking stories of the early BMS pioneer missionaries:
William Carey labouring for years in
India;
Grenfell sailing up the Congo on the riverboat ‘
The Peace’;
William Knibb standing up against the slave trade in
Jamaica.
The names Amona Bisika and Andrea Lubono did not feature in this history lesson but the work of these pioneer missionaries, who planted the first Baptist Church in Uganda, has been no less significant in extending the Kingdom of God.
A calling to Uganda
We had the privilege of meeting Mama Kanyere
(left) Amona’s wife, in her home on the Congolese/Ugandan border where we had travelled to be introduced to the church leaders in the area.
Mama Kanyere sat bent almost double with age, but with a cheeky vigour that belied her years, beneath a large black and white picture of her handsome husband who had died three years previously. She could not remember when she was born but she could remember with great joy the day of her baptism in 1943. She also remembered their calling as missionaries from Congo to Uganda.
It was Lesslie Newbigin who said, ‘where the Spirit leads the church follows’ and so it was that Amona and his family were prompted by the Spirit to cross the border and plant the first Ugandan Baptist church. It was 1961, a time of political turbulence in the Congo, and Amona and his family were suffering persecution in their own community. God used these uncertain times in their lives to enable them to leave their home and cross into Nyabagando where they set up home.
The Work Begins
Seeing the bustling border town that exists today and the large church building
(left) which replaced the mud and grass structure of the first church, it is hard to imagine the scrubland populated by wild animals that they first encountered.
But with limited resources they were able to start a church and schools amongst the Lukonzo people who straddle both sides of the border.
A couple of years after their arrival Amona was called to Kampala to start work on the translation of the Bible into Lukonzo. At this point they sent for another missionary from
Congo, Andrea Lubono
(right), to continue the work of evangelism and church planting.
Today Andrea lives at the Baptist Union’s Western Seminary still sharing the gospel and still involved in pastoring a church well into his seventies. He invited us into his home and had his own story to share of travelling across the western region into the most isolated pockets preaching the good news.
Most valued of all were the comments of this, the oldest missionary to Uganda, to the newest foreign arrivals:
The Growth of the Church
The work of many others who have followed has produced much fruit and today there are 20 Baptist churches and 19 preaching points (gatherings of less than 15 believers) scattered across the Western region of Uganda including our new home church, Calvary Baptist, in Kasese town (below). There are countless other churches across the country all part of the Baptist Union of Uganda, BMS World Mission’s partner.
Next time you read about the lives of the early pioneers, don’t forget the unsung African heroes, like Amona and Andrea who laboured for years for the extension of God’s Kingdom and remember especially the many unsupported Ugandan individuals who continue to serve God today.