Ding Dong, the Witch has Fled!

Moving mountains is God’s bread-and-butter, so you can be sure that shifting a witch doctor or two is child’s play to Him!

Many of you will have heard about our legal battles over the Misaali prayer mountain. It’s been a frustrating time, despite victory in court cases so far (some are still ongoing). And our challenges haven’t ended in the court room – we have received great opposition from the Witch Doctors based in Misaali, who had a number of shrines near our prayer huts.
 

Shrines

But God is faithful to what he says, and he has been giving prophecies through people. And now we’re seeing a shift! Our caretaker Waisswa couldn’t contain his delight when he told us that the Misaali shrines have now been abandoned, as the witch doctor residing there complained that the “God of Born Agains” (a.k.a Abalokole = us!) has made their gods powerless! Boooooo ya!

No more witch doctors here!

There is a big vision for Misaali, and we hope to see more prayer huts built, as well as a school, church offices, and even a fine football pitch there, but this needs resources. If this is something you would like to get involved with, get in touch!

Praising and Praying in droves this NYE at the Prayer Mountain!

A problem shared is a problem solved... Or... “how many Nyendo-ians does it take to build a platform?”. You pick your catch phrase!

Either way, this scene was just a taster of the New Year celebrations to come, as different churches from Nyendo and Ssenyange came together for the occasion. There was much to do, including driving poles into the ground, and building a platform, but it was a lot easier “with a little help from our friends”!

And the event itself? Amazing! Hundreds turned up on the Misaali Prayer Mountain to ring in the New Year in a massive overnight extravaganza – unity at its best! It was a time of promise, but also a time of challenge.
 

One of the comments a speaker threw out to the crowd was: “God is going to do great things for you in this New Year…. but will God be able to trust you with what he gives you?”. Translation: It’s easy to serve the Lord fervently when you want something, but when you’ve got it, are you going to stick around?
 

Another speaker reminded us that all things are possible with God, and he encouraged the youths not to despise humble beginnings because God has a plan and is in control.

We entered the New Year, proclaiming to be victorious and conquerors in Jesus’ name. Extra bonus joy: despite it being an overnight prayer event, many people that attended weren’t actually Christian, but made a decision for Christ that night! Pretty awesome 

Rejoicing on Prayer Mountain!

Frank Reports:

You won’t believe what happened on the 16th April 2015 at Misaali Hill! After the exciting news of winning the court case the previous day, we just had to thank God for what He has done for us. So we decided to go to the hill today, and just fill the mountain with worship, praise and words of encouragement!

That was wonderful, but on the other side of the hill, we had Gerald, Fred, Ernest and others barbecuing pork for us! After we had finished praise and worship, our lips became shaky as everyone managed to get a stick with lots of pieces of pork on. There was enough pork for everyone and we thanked God for He is faithful and saw us through this really difficult time.

If you would like to know more about our plans for the Prayer Mountain, please get in touch! We would love to take you up there. The view is just awesome. We believe that as we pray from there, we will see the fires of revival rekindled across Uganda, East Africa and the world.

Our plans for the hill are being finalised by our Architect, after which we will need to submit them for approval. The main plan is to build a Prayer Centre, but there are also plans to build a school, clinic and church, in line with our vision at River of Life Church for both spiritual revival and community transformation,

We currently need to raise £2,500 to approve the plans, and a further £2,000 to make a start on the foundations of the ‘Meeting Place’ - if you would like to contribute to this amazing vision, please head over to https://mydonate.bt.com/charities/ugandariveroflifeministries

Frank is our Roving River of Life Reporter, a member of our Leadership Academy, and is studying for a Diploma in Journalism.

The BBQing team, with the Praise Team in the background!

Joseph carrying the pork sticks to the worshippers

Susan & David, and John & Maggie enjoy their pork in freedom!

The first court case for Prayer Mountain is won!

We were praising God on the steps of Masaka’s Court House this morning as the long, stressful criminal case against Pastor David and Elder John finally came to an end.

The verdict should never have been in doubt. After all, they were charged with criminal trespass on our own land - a charge brought by trespassers themselves! However, once the case against them was sanctioned there was nothing for it but to go through the trial. Finally, joyously, the Magistrate acquitted them of all charges today!

Back in July last year they were arrested, and held in Police cells overnight. We managed to get them bailed the following day, but for 9 months and 19 court appearances, David and John were ‘bound’ by the court. The Magistrate took 45 minutes to deliver his ruling, and they were the longest 45 minutes of our lives! But as he systematically went through all the 'evidence' and the different elements of each charge, it became evident that the Prosecution had failed to prove its case. No surprise there - because there never was a case to answer!

When we heard the final words ‘Not Guilty’, we just couldn’t stop smiling. Our opponents had packed the court expecting David and John to be lead off to prison, and were left looking rather confused. News quickly spread, and Church members not at court made the whole of Nyendo vibrate with song.

We give thanks to God for getting us though these cases. There are still three criminal cases pending in court against the trespassers, and two civil suits, so the fight is not over yet. But it’s a huge relief to have won this particular battle. For now, we just pray that the State doesn't appeal the verdict.

The Battle for Prayer Mountain is Won!

The determined gang of land-grabbers who have forcefully tried to steal our Prayer Mountain land have been defeated - at least on paper.

Ever since buying our land for the Prayer Mountain vision (download a copy here) we have been trying to deal with claim and counter-claim from people claiming 'occupancy'. We tried to deal with claims amicably, but no-one could produce evidence of their so-called tenancy. What's more, there was no physical evidence of occupancy - like a house on the land - to back up the claim. And then last November, the 2 or 3 people we were dealing with over about a 1/3 of the land suddenly became 20+ as a gang descended on the remaining 2/3 claiming they had bought 'tenancies'.

Overnight, tree-seedlings were planted everywhere. It became unsafe for us to even go on the land - we were chased off. At one point our pick-up was badly damaged as rocks were hurled at it. We had been flung into a mighty battle for the Prayer Mountain vision.

Now, land is a big issue in Uganda. Barely a week goes by without stories in the papers of court rulings, evictions, and violence relating to land wrangles. Although the law is quite clear, the police are not particularly keen to get involved in civil issues and can be easily 'convinced' to treat even the most laughable claim as legitimate. This has enabled a small army of people to fraudulently claim tenancy on our land, present obviously home-made documents and generally get away with murder (not literally, thankfully, although they’ve threatened it).

We had to act, or we would lose the land. Cue petitions to the President, Police CID HQ, and everyone in between. For the last 3 months we've been in meetings with State House, Police, Lawyers... until now. Now we have the written report from last months final meeting on the hill held by the Director of Lands for State House (the President's representative).

The meeting had gone well enough. The Director had already reviewed all documents relating to the land - although 'documents' is too strong a word for the scraps of hand-written 'agreements' and fake receipts that were presented to her. She told the assembled claimants that they were trespassers, that they had no rightful claim to the land, and that they risked legal action if they continued to make claims. That caused quite a stir. After much shouting, gesticulating and arguing, the crowds slowly dispersed.

Ignorance of the law has very real consequences. Most of the claimants knew very well that what they were doing was fraud. But there were some who had bought fake 'tenancies' from fraudsters who are now on the run. You can not 'buy' an informal tenancy here (or anywhere I imagine) without the registered landowners permission of course - that's just common sense. But in the vacuum created when there is no effective rule of law, the loudest voice rules. And for a while, the land-grabbers shouted the loudest, despite us making daily public announcements to warn people. Some parted with hard-earned cash. In a country racked with poverty, it's outrageous that people can treat each other that way.

There's still some hard-work to do. The report entitles us to the Police protection we should always have been given in the face of aggravated trespass. Most of the trespassers have now given up - the threat of arrest and legal action being enough for them to realise that there's no quick buck to be made here. We expect the last few to give up this week, but probably with a bit of a fight. But then, finally, we can get the surveyor in, re-open the boundaries, fence the land and start developing the Prayer Centre, Church, School and Clinic - the vision that Pastor Duncan had 25 years ago.

If you want to be a part of it, get in touch!

Update on Prayer Mountain

The battle for Prayer Mountain continues, two years to the day that we secured the funds to purchase the majority of the land. You may remember that we are in dispute with some encroachers. There are many twists in the tale, but the latest is that we have now registered criminal trespass cases with the courts.

Unfortunately the courts are overwhelmed because Masaka does not have a Judge. The threat of legal action seems to be working though. The encroachers appear to be striking a more conciliatory tone, and we're hopefully that this long, and painful saga may be over soon.

There is some excellent news too - we’ve recently been bowled over by an awesome donation that will help us secure the next 2 acres and begin to renovate the exisiting huts and commence 24/7 prayer!

Rekindling the fires of revival on Prayer Mountain

They say that ambition is the path to success, and perseverence the vehicle you arrive in... Well, that is certainly the Prayer Mountain story over the last 12 months! Here’s a quick reminder of the vision: we’re going to build a Prayer Centre on a hill outside Masaka, with an International School, Church and Medical facilities. We had wrongly assumed that raising the necessary funds would be the hardest part..!

Having secured funds for the land in July 2011, the paperwork was drawn up by September, and the transaction completed by March 2012. That’s pretty good for something that big in a place this disorganised! But that's when the fun really started. Two individuals contested our right to the land. We were prepared to negotiate and compensate for any legitimate claim, but it soon became apparent that these guys were far from legit! After months of negotiations descended into one particularly fierce altercation involving death-threats and machetes, we turned to the Police.

Slowly but surely, and with a lot of prayer, the truth has prevailed and the police have helped turn the screw to the extent that the two land-grabbers have all of a sudden changed their tune and have, in the last month, become all sweetness and light. It's looking promising that we can get started on the building plans very soon!

Fanning the Flames of Revival!

For over 22 years, Duncan has held faithfully to a vision of a Prayer Mountain that will rekindle the flames of the East African revival. 22 years is a long time to wait for a vision to see fruit. It seemed like it would never happen...

Duncan writes: “In 1989, while still in London, I believe the Lord showed me a vision of Misaali Hill, on the outskirts of Masaka Municipality, Uganda.

In the vision I saw small tongues of fire covering a small part of the hill. Then I saw those tongues spreading all over the hill, and from the middle some tongues of fire started rising. When they reached the clouds, they started breaking off like shooting stars. These tongues of fire then fell to the ground - on Masaka Town itself, the wider Masaka District, the Ssese Islands, Kampala, Uganda, East Africa, and the rest of the world.


Suddenly the Holy Spirit whispered to me “Duncan, go back to Masaka and join with others and re-kindle the fire of East African revival which was quenched through fear and religion in my church.”


I believed the strategy for the vision was to build a Prayer Hut for every nation, and to build facilities that will ensure the spiritual and material development of Masaka and Uganda. So half of the site was to be a Prayer Centre, and the other half given over to developing sports fields, an International School, and a church.”

So, the vision was awesome! But there were many that doubted - if we’re honest there were times when most of us doubted! For over 20 years the land remained available, despite it being one of the prime development sites of Masaka. But by 2010 the owners of the land were getting very old and frail. It was a complicated story - they were the trustees of the estate, and if anything happened to either of them, it was likely that the land would be parceled up and inherited by about 70 different people, making it impossible to purchase. We spent 2010 praying, surveying the site and negotiating a payment plan - completely in faith, as we didn’t have anything like enough money. Amazingly, we managed to secure a generous payment plan, at a great price...

So, by February this year the Board were presented with the choice. Either we agreed to go for it, or we could probably say goodbye to the vision. We looked at the bank account - there was no help there. But we knew we had to be faithful, and if this was of God, HE would provide.

The first massive boost to our faith was when the money for the deposit came in by the deadline - end of April. We could hardly believe it! But by the end of June, the size of the challenge was beginning to daunt us. We have many other ministries that need funding, as you know, and some of us were beginning to think, “what have we done?!”

Praying at the site at the end of June, Sarah, a visitor, shared Ezekiel 36 with us, in particular verse 36:
Then the nations that are left all around you shall know that I am the Lord; I have rebuilt the ruined places and replanted that which was desolate. I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it.

“I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it”. Fantastic, but how and when? Some of the ROL Elders have been prayer-walking around the site since 1994. Is 2011 going to be the year ROL buys the site?

The answer is yes, because 48 hours later, on 1st July this year, the Lord provided all the finances needed to buy the land. We. are. gobsmacked. Praise the Lord!

For more information, download the Prayer Mountain Vision Leaflet here

Prayer Mountain - Rekindling the fires of Revival!

Prayer, fasting and intercession are central parts of our life at River of Life Church. We have had a vision to establish Masaka Prayer Mountain for over 20 years, and very excitingly, we believe we are now finally moving forward!

The vision is for the fires of Revival to be rekindled in East Africa and beyond. We know this can only be achieved through a lot of prayer. Uganda and East Africa is in a desperate mess - full of witchcraft, physical poverty and enormous injustice. And yet Uganda is a country where the vast majority claim to be Christian. It is clear that there is a lot of nominalism, and we need to pray, disciple, and teach people to lead righteous lives that glorify God.

If you'd like to know more about this Vision, and to receive a leaflet explaining it all, please email us