DELIVERANCE CHURCH UGANDA

To greater Heights with Apiculture!

By Steven Ano Ayera

The last forty years have been years of growth and expansion for Deliverance Church Uganda. Not only has she established herself in a vast majority of districts in Uganda she has also gone beyond the eastern border of Mbokolo in the Democratic Republic of Congo. We visited Mbokolo and caught up with 56 year old Pastor Steven Ano Ayila who has taken Deliverance Church work to great heights there. Below is his story.

I joined the army in 1971 during Amin’s regime and left shortly after his overthrow to run a shop for a living. When Amin was overthrown, we fled to Congo sending me hiding at the border in Koboko and finally entering Mbokolo in Congo. Life was extremely hard. This forced me to find refuge in Kisangani looking for greener pastures. However, this was jumping from frying pan to fire! Kisangani was literally a nightmare, very difficult life indeed! I knew it was time to retreat again to a town called Ald-Mubassa, an active mining town and home to the pigmies of Congo.  I immediately took to mining. It was while working in the mines there that I met God in the most extraordinary way.

There was an evangelist called Muzuri from the PCU in Congo who visited the mines and shared the word of God with us.  I was very touched and his words kept ringing in my ears for a long time. Then one day, shortly after that, I got a vision. I was standing in the gold mine, when suddenly a flash of bright light appeared. I didn’t hear any voice but saw Jesus silently standing before me. The next morning, I decided to leave mining and began to serve the lord.

I later joined Muzuri’s church in Congo where I served for six to seven years until they sent me to Kampala to study a Diploma in theology. After the course I went to Arua where I met Pastor Henry Chandia of Deliverance Church Uganda.  I joined the church in Arua and Pastor Henry Chandia welcomed me well and was attracted to the call of God upon my life. After hearing my story, he told me of how they had many Deliverance Church branches in Congo and whether I was interested in joining and helping out. He introduced me to Pastor Peter Goville of Ogoba Deliverance in Mbokolo where I am

When I arrived in Congo in 2002, I discovered that these churches in Congo were in rural areas.  I therefore wanted to develop them. The best way to do this was to start up a new church in the town of Mbokolo. I had a piece of land in Mbokolo town before going to Bible school that I thought I should share with God. I gave half of it to the work of God and stayed with the other half. That is where the church is standing now and is also the administration centre of all Deliverance Church branches in Congo.