Testimony

When we were in Kampala, we had a chance to worship at Pastor Alex's Luzira Community Church.  We had the privilege of teaching the children's Sunday school classes in the morning and I was blessed to meet Patrick.  Patrick is the coordinator of the children's Sunday school program and served as our translator while we spoke to the children.

I have been blessed to get to know Patrick as a spiritual son in Christ.  Recently, Patrick has shared his testimony with me, and while brief, it is a striking example of how God can reach out to people in bad conditions and give them hope and salvation.  God is using him to minister to children in Uganda in many amazing ways.  The brief testimony that you will read is just the beginning of the story and was something that I thought worth sharing with all of you.  Please pray for Patrick's ministry, the children he is discipling and the influence he is having for God's kingdom.  It's still not an easy life for him there, but God continues to refine him with the challenges and struggles in his life and mold him into the man He wants Patrick to become.

This is my Testimony - Kyaligonza Patrick

In my family, I am the only one who has been saved through faith in Jesus Christ.  God has been my everything.   I am sorry,  tears are coming when I remember this all.

There are 6 of us in my family.  My mother died but the rest of us are alive, though we don't live together.  My father is in the village and I am sorry to tell you this about my father, but he is a man who did not mean anything in our lives.  I began to drink alcohol heavily since my childhood because everybody in my family did. 

When my mother passed away I lost hope in life for everything because she was so important in our lives.  After her burial, this was when we departed from each other as a family.  We were divided among our relatives in different places.  As for me, I was brought to live in one of the orphan homes in Gaba that was run by Pastor Peter.  That home closed in 2005, when I was 16 years old and I was taken to Bethany Village because I had nowhere else to go.

This is how God came into my life:  I met God when I was 12 years old.  I was preparing food for my young ones – my uncle’s children.  During that time I started worshiping, but not really knowing what it was about.  One of our neighbors had just given her life to Christ and she told me "Patrick you're going to get saved!"  But for me, I was not yet ready.  I asked her to take me to her church and she took me to Gaba Community Church.  Pastor Peter was preaching, but I was behind too many people and did not hear hardly anything he said.  But God put only one message in my ear:  "those who want to give their lives to Jesus".  I was the first to go to the front of the church and then others came.  When I met God, I forgave my father.

I did not go back home, but went to visit Pastor Peter and I told him my story.  I told him that I wanted to go to school.  He told me to come back the next day and on that day, they took my photo.  In the following week I got a sponsor – praise God!  When I gave my life to God, He did everything in just one week.  And since then he has been my everything.

I am now serving God by teaching children at Luzira Church.  Also, I am working with a group of children at Bethany Village to form a dance group that performs traditional Ugandan worship dance with only drums for music.  I am writing this with tears in my eyes because when I look back where God found me and see what He has done in my life, it is the example I want to be for these children:  for them to have hope & trust in God, and give their lives to Him.  If He looked after me, He can do so in their lives too.  I do want them to learn that God is every answer to every question.  He is everything.  When I told God that I wanted to learn how to pray, He taught me to pray.  Not only that, but He leads me into ways to serve Him.  I continue to seek ways for God to use my life to serve others. Thank you God for saving my life – all praise and glory to God.