When we first moved to Uganda (October 1997), we had one purpose: planting churches in the villages of the Banyankore. The first step was to learn the language. While that is not a task that you work on for a while and then it’s finished (I doubt any of us would say even today that we’re finished learning Runyankore), we finally felt prepared to start teaching our “church planting curriculum” after 17 months of full-time study. In the months leading up to that time, we spent hours in the villages building relationships, learning the language and culture, teaching informally, and presenting many practice lessons.
In June of 1999 we began formal preaching in two villages, Kyabiba (chah bee bah) and Kishasha (chee shah shah), and followed shortly thereafter in four other villages: Kyarukunda (chah roo koon dah), Keishazi (kay shah zee), Kishenyi (chee shehn yee), and Kitongore (chee tone go reh).
Each of these areas eventually became a church; two in December 1999 and the other four in the early months of 2000. Shortly after that, the church in Kyarukunda went through difficulties that initially looked like a church split: a small, weaker group remained in Kyarukunda (and appeared to be near death as a church), and a larger, vibrant group in Kashenyi (kah shehn yee). As God often does, he took this bad event and changed it to good for his kingdom. Kashenyi became the official seventh church in September of 2000, and later the struggling group in Kyarukunda relocated to a nearby village called Birere (bee reh reh) and has experienced regular growth ever since.
A significant change occurred later in 2000 when we as a team, and specifically Shane, felt led to start a new work in Mbarara town. With Shane working almost completely in town, our missionary work force in the village was being reduced by 33 % in the same year that our number of churches had increased by nearly 300%. This led to great things in the town, but a slower rate of climb in the village work for the following two years as Nick and Jay worked to maintain what had been started and learned to adjust their paradigm for the rural ministry.
The year 2001 brought the birth of 3 new churches and the “reversion” of another. Kyabiba, one of our original six churches, never experienced any growth after the first 2-4 months of their existence. We stopped working with the group there in August, the same month that two new churches began in the villages of Kasana (kah sah nah) and Nyakinengo (nyah chee nehn go). Shortly after that, another church started in the village of Kabushwere (kah boo shweh reh).
We experienced a difficult year numbers-wise in 2002 but witnessed growth in other areas. We had 3 more whole-church reversions that year without adding any new ones. By whole-church reversions, we mean that the group stopped meeting as a church, though certainly in each of the three places there were members who continued seeking to live their lives for Christ (as evidenced by 2 restorations mentioned below in 2003). The three churches we lost that year were Keishazi, Kasana, and Kabushwere. The lack of growth in terms of new churches stemmed largely from the fact that we focussed primarily on leadership development and training rather than working in any new areas.
On a positive note, 2002 brought Lori Earles to the team in February to work exclusively with the rural Ankole women. In addition to that, we initiated 2 new programs in an attempt to more effectively reach the leaders of the young rural churches: Abajubi (Fishermen) and Ankole Bible School (ABS).
Amazing growth was experienced in 2003, both in numbers and maturity. Both types of growth began, we believe, in April when Nick and Shane had a prayer and fasting retreat with the Abajubi. The men at that retreat were challenged to take the practice of praying and fasting back to their churches, and the churches responded with overwhelming dedication to seeking God. At least five of the churches started mid-week prayer and fasting meetings as a result of that retreat, and four new churches were started shortly after. Major revivals of repentance and restorations were sparked in several of the older churches, and two churches that were counted as reversions in 2002 began the process of “restoration” back to our ministry. The four new churches were Kitookye (chee toe cheh), Rwamusharira (rwah moo shah ree rah), Rugarura (roo gah roo rah), and Kagando (kah gahn doe). The two restored churches are Kasana and Kabushwere. In all, there were over 200 baptisms in 2003.
In 2004, five churches were planted - Kitabo, Kaziga, Kanganga, Kishunju, and Rukukuuru. One of these (Kaziga) was a church plant in an entirely new area which led to the beginning of the 6th cluster. Also in 2004, the Ankole Bible School (ABS) was started up again after 18 months of being "on hold." It has been a great boost in strengthening and equipping these leaders to teach in their churches.
Scott and Emily Glisson and their four children joined the team in 2004, and have had a great impact on the village ministry. Scott has been visiting the churches and encouraging and teaching them in the area of financial stewardship (this has coupled with our team's micro loan program which was started in 2003).
In 2005, two more churches were planted in the rural areas (Rwengando and Rwamuganga), one of those beginning a new cluster (the 7th). Also, Scott began leading our Jesus Film ministry, showing the two-hour film taken from the Gospel of Luke in each of our churches.
These past few years have seen some big changes in the rural ministry. Due to an ever-increasing workload and a desire to reach more villages, we have restructured our responsibilities. Nick now focuses all of his efforts on new church planting and early-church nurturing, while Jay works exclusiely with leaders of the older churches, especially with ABS.
All of our churches are now organized into clusters, which allows them to better work together to plant new churches and strengten one another. And the rural women's ministry has really taken off recently. Lori Earles began hosting regular "Ladies Ankole Bible School" meetings in early 2005, and in September of that year held the first annual All-Ankole Ladies Meeting in Mbarara town.
This work began with the Lord’s vision, and His hand has been evident in it from the beginning. We know that He will continue to do great things in the future of the Ankole Mission’s rural ministry: transforming lives, planting new churches, and maturing the older churches!
