Brothers in the Lord and and all who know me, those friends who laboured with me in the adventist church, those who i helped join the adventist church, those friends with whom we went to Bugema University, fellow former adventists in Africa and abroad, fellow anglicans, i feel duty bound to give you the testimony of my faith journey so that you may know how i became and adventist, what I was in the adventist church and how and why I left it and how I became an Anglican minister. I think I owe it to you all. You will therefore be receiving on FB an acccount of this every evening beginning from today. So here we go... BACKGROUND 1.THE ROMAN CATHOLIC GROWTH AND GROOMING. I was born in Tororo District in a remote village called Mukuju in the present day Mukuju county to Mr.Zedekiah Domitiano Owana Onyango Okello and Merisiana Akot. My father says that I was born on 10th August 1955. In absence of a birth certificate that is the date I have recognized as my birthday. My mother had 13 deliveries though only I and my 5 sisters survived all our siblings having died before they reached 5 years from the killer diseases: measles, malaria, whooping cough not excepting worms and malnutrition. My father later married a second wife with whom they had 7 more children bringing the total of his children to 13 to date. My father did not get a formal education but learnt how to read, write and do arithmetic from a Roman Catholic mission station where these were taught besides catechism. My mother who attended the same, mission station catechism instructions at the same time as my father, and from where they first noticed each other, leading to their courtship and marriage, apparently did not learn anything from this ‘education’ as she was illiterate to the time of her death on the 11th of April 1979, the very day Iddi Amin was overthrown. What is more I never heard her say any of the catholic prayers or her rosary either. But she was very devoted to her catholic religion throughout her life. She was also a very loving parent though very strict with us even more than our father was. With this education my father was appointed the catechist of the new Catholic church in his village in a family that was predominantly Anglican. The story of his ‘conversion’ to Roman Catholicism is very interesting. His elder brother the late Daudi Ekapolon was the layreader of the Anglican church in the village. He duly registered his younger brother, my father into his confirmation class awaiting the coming of the bishop for the confirmation ceremony. But It so happened that he failed to the confirmation fee for his brother to be confirmed when the bishop did come a thing that frustrated his younger brother a lot, especially as he had, undergone confirmation instructions for a whole year. This meant that he had to repeat the instructions for the following year, a thing my father refused to do. So one day his brother who was his instructor came to take him to resume fresh instruction for the next confirmation season, whereupon the young man, my father run away from him and the brother gave chase straight to the catholic parish where my father was rescued and given sanctuary by the white priest who was in charge of the Roman Catholic parish in the area. My uncle could not stand up to the white priest so he left leaving my father in the hands of the white missionary, who finding the young man very bright enrolled him immediately and went ahead to induct him into Catholicism from that day onwards. After this they set him to be the catechist of the new village church setting him at rivalry with his brother. This rivalry for Christians between these two brothers one leading the catholic church and the other the Anglican in the same village was very intensive almost turning into enmity between them with the family too being polarized along these religious lines. While their father, Alooni Imoo was converted to Anglicanism by Uncle Daudi, my father converted his converted his mother to Catholicism and was christened …. So in a family of five brothers, three remained Anglican while two converted into Catholicism with their families at a time when the two religions were at bitter enmity to the point of waging war on each other causing bloodshed and suffering in the country. So our father never allowed us his children to visit our uncle Daudi and uncle did the same with his children no doubt each fearing the other to influence and convert his children. So my father hated Protestantism and anything to do with it. He often told us not to touch the bible or read from it and emphasizing that if we happened to do so accidentally we should consider it a sin and go and confess to the priest. And so that was my father and his views on Protestantism. To ensure I never fell into temptation to leave Catholism, he sent me to catholic schools only throughout my primary and secondary education. I never thought I would ever disappoint him in this. I was such a devoted catholic that I would say my rosary in the morning when going to school and in the evening when coming back from school. People who saw me mumble my prayers while walking along telling my beads just shook their heads wondering if I was not destined to be a roman catholic priest. If anybody accosted me on the way either for a greeting or a chat, as I told my beads, I would just wave my rosary to his face as a sign that I was busy communicating with my God and had no time for mundane matters. So I grew up a very good catholic youth a total pride to my father. I became a licensed teacher when I completed my ‘O’ Levels because my father could not raise fees to further my education. The district posted me to a Catholic primary school called Kangulumira Roman Catholic Primary Schoo to teachl. That was the year 1983. Because the headmaster of the school was a muslim I was appointed to be the liaison teacher uniting the parish with the school and I was much liked by the Parish Pries the Reverend Father Francis Xavier Mukasa. I would always wake up very early to go and attend early morning mass every morning before going to school for duty. I had one problem though. I had slowly fallen into the habit of drinking and smoking, the vices that seemed to be tolorated by the catholic church. My father however who was himself neither a smoker nor a drinker was not happy about this and often tried to talk me out of these habits but I went deeper and deeper into them as the times went on. 2. MY CONVERSION INTO SDAISM AND MY FATHER’S WRATH: It was in such a time as this that the Adventists raided Kangulumira Trading Centre near the school where I taught in our in big numbers to conduct an evangelistic effort. They camped in one of the houses. The group comprised of youths who went about distributing handbills and later formed singing groups and those who welcomed visitors. They were very well behaved and smart in dressing. They were also very welcoming and charming. They had powerful public address systems that sent shock echo waves throughout our small village and the neighbourhood, bringing a lot of people to these meetings in a large tent where these meetings were held. I decided that I would not go to these meetings. What is more the Parish Priest had already warned us to beware of the false prophets that had invaded our village and make sure we did not go to these meetings nor even allow our children to do so. But one evening, out of sheer curiosity I decided that I would just walk past and see what kind of people these were and what they were at. That was after a whole week of their preaching meetings. But I had already liked their singing and music styles because theirs was not the wild dancing debacle that was the case with some other groups that had come to preach at this centre previously. These, however, an organized and respectable kind of music that was acceptable in my catholic rating. So as I walked past the tent, one charming lady accosted me calling me ‘teacher’. I think she knew me. So I stopped and waited for her to approach. ‘Please teacher, come and be my guest this evening. I have a chair here waiting for you. I know you love music and drama and you are going to see plenty of both.” “But who are you people and what are you doing here?”, I asked her .“We are Christians and we have come here to preach the word of God to this village so that people turn to God because loves them”, She said candidly without disclosing the name of her denomination. That seemed alrigh with me. “But why don’t you preach in your churches and come here instead?” I wanted to know. “Because Jesus said that we should go preaching the gospel in Jerusalem, Samaria and the ends of the world. It was not Jesus’ intention that we preach only to the people in our churches but to everybody and everywhere.” That made sense too! “And after you preach what happens to those who believe the gospel?” . I asked looking her straight in the eye because that is where my fear lay. “Oh, they can remain in their churches if that is what they want. But should they choose, we intend to construct a church in this village for them to worship in”. So it was optional after all! “Well I have no time really but because you have asked, I will just be with you for five or ten minutes then I will be on my way.” She thanked me and led me to a seat as with all dignity as if I was from the royal family! And that was it! The preacher was so convincing and so powerful that I never put my eyes off him for the whole hour that he stood there preaching. And the music was so good that I found myself coming every evening to these meetings until the final day when he made an alter call for people to surrender their lives to Jesus and accept baptism by immersion. Though I did not go upfront I nevertheless filled out the decision card requesting baptism. It was not just the music that made me take this decision, however. This preacher had touched a number of issues that concerned my life. The issue of smoking and drinking that had always gone unnoticed by my religious leaders was one of them. He said that this would eventually destroy my life and life being a gift from God must be held sacred by everybody, Next came the issue of repentance. Idid not know anything about this but only knew penance where I went to the priest and told him my sins since last penance where upon he gave me penitential prayers to say and that was it. He then spoke words of absolution. This was done usually on Saturday so that on Sunday I would go join the mass and take the Holy Eucharist with a free conscience having been forgiven of my sins by the priest the previous day. But this was not what this preacher said. He said that what God wanted was not this routine kind of business but a real heartfelt sorrow for sin because it destroyed the relationship between us and God. He said that repentance also included a decision to turn away from sin to a new life. I felt I had never looked at it that way. That is what actually caused my ‘conversion’. This sorrow for a sin and a turning away from it somehow touched my heart. So I decided to join these people’s religion as they seemed to me to be more serious about sin and things pertaining to good life and righteousness than my catholic religion. I joined the rest of the people on the day of baptism and was duly baptized by an elderly retired Minister now called Pastor Boaz Ssekitto. I knew on the day of my baptism that I would be in trouble. Trouble with the Parish Priest and with my father but most of all my father who hated Protestantism like leprosy. But there was no turning back now. On the appointed day we were baptized in the nearest stream and there was a banquet for us at the church with much rejoicing and shaking of hands. I did not get any problem with the priest however. He received the news of my conversion with unconcern and with a ‘humph!’ he continued with whatever he was doing unperturbed. It was different with my father however. I went and told him what happened and why I decided to leave Roman Catholic church and he was irate with me. “Valentino, if you had wanted to turn to protestantism then you would have joined your uncle Daudi’s church. Bit why did you decide to join the people who crucified Jesus? “Oh no, papa, Jesus was crucified by the Jews.” “And what are these people that you have joined if not Jews, Valentino? These are Jews! They don’t cook on Saturday. They don’t go to church on Sunday. They go on Saturday instead. Have you met any Christians who do that?” . I was not very sure anymore so I decided to go and ask the leader of the group about this. These people sat me down and I was mobbed and convinced me with smiles and shaking of heads that Sunday was not originally the day of worship but was changed by God’s enemies especially the Pope . They proved to me from the gospel of St.Luke chapters 23 and 24 that Saturday was the Sabbath. I was convinced. So when I came and wanted to share this with my father he would not listen and was very sad and disappointed by what I had done saying that if he did not love me so much that would have been the end of his calling me his son. But he however warned me never to mention anything of my religion to him. NEVER EVER
Posted on: Sat, 26 Oct 2013 14:37:29 +0000
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