“I thank the Lord because she is in my trail of preaching the gospel and also multiplying the talent,” he said.
The President made the remarks on Saturday 18th May, 2024 during the “Light Up Ankole For Jesus Mission” Crusade organised by the First Daughter, Pastor Patience Rwabwogo at Boma Grounds, Mbarara City.
Pastor Patience is the lead Pastor and founder of Covenant Nations Church.
President Museveni explained that the reason he disagreed with the Scripture Union during his student days in 1965 was because they never encouraged people to work and members believed that even if someone did not work, God would feed them.
“I didn’t agree with that. As a religious leader you are teaching people, but you are poor, now what are you teaching the people? Now that body, which is hungry and sick, what kind of temple of God is that? These are problems which you have brought upon yourself,” he said.
“I want to thank the Lord for bringing a Priest in my home. And this Priest is walking in my trail. This Priest the Lord has brought into our family with Maama has never served in the government. I want to thank God for her and her husband. They take my grandchildren to the farm and teach them how to work,” he added.
The President also called upon religious leaders to work towards togetherness and unity among believers.
The First Lady and Minister of Education and Sports, Maama Janet Museveni testified that God was using Pastor Patience and her church to do His work.
“I thank God for humbling us in a special way by appointing one of our children to serve Him as a Minister of the Gospel, not because we are a righteous family but because He is a gracious God and He listens to those who call on His Name,” Maama Janet said.
She however decried the sharp decline in the morals of the society even among Christians.
“In Ankole, the children and grandchildren of the revivalists sometimes appear to be Christians in name only. They go to church on the holidays and acknowledge God’s name but have no relationship or fear of the Lord. The fire of the revival has all but gone out and we see many problems in our society as a result of that. The crises of homosexuality that are driven by the love of money, corruption that is almost endemic, teenage pregnancies, gambling and many more are seen all across our country,” she noted.
“Certainly, Ankole is no exception. In fact, in many ways there are additional spiritual issues in Ankole that were not known before, like worshipping of diviners and some false prophets. Therefore, God has a good reason in His mercy and love to bring up this mission at this time.”
The First Lady further said that she believes that if Christians are right with God and each other, there is no limit to what God can accomplish through them.
“So, I join you and agree with you in praying and believing that God will visit Ankole again, and Uganda in general and pour out His precious Holy Spirit, the former and the latter rain together as Joel prophesied.”
On her part, Pastor Patience said in the five days of the Crusade, the Lord transformed Boma Grounds from a sports ground into the camp of the Lord.
“And what the Lord Jesus has done in this place is to bring down Goliath, cut off his head and He has done open heart surgery to us and now we have new hearts that are full of joy,” she asserted.
“In these five days we have been doing repentance, confessions, and we believe that what God wanted to birth, He has birthed it here. And God has forgiven us,” she added.
The former General Overseer of the National Fellowship of Born Again Pentecostal Churches of Uganda, Bishop Joshua Lwere thanked God for Pastor Patience, saying that her pastoral duty is a genuine call of God in her life.
“Your Excellency and Maama, although for you, you have been in the political field but your parents on both sides served God through the revival and God in every generation is a faithful God. Since you went into the political field, He decided to raise for you a Priest within your family and so we recognize the hand of God upon her as religious leaders,” he noted.
“Her call is prophetic. We see the humility of God; we see the impact it has and her Church is not just a local Church but a territorial church that impacts communities and societies beyond the location.”
