Messages from Bagamba during December 2011
Here are three recent messages from Bagamba
Greetings from Bunia. This is to thank the church for the support we continue to get in spite of hard economic
situation in the Europe. We know that you do not offer to us out of plenty but because of the deep love you
have for us and your commitment to serve the Lord through various ministries, including the orphans.
We thank God for the apparent peace we have in our town but don’t know what will happen next. The results
of the elections are largely contested by the opposition and the most courageous one has decided to start civil
disobedience. Please pray that politicians may sort out their differences peacefully.
Thanks again so much for all your help. God bless you all.
In my last message I forgot to mention the receipt of our membership cards. It was a big joy for everyone to
receive their cards.
A friend from the UK and his wife visited us yesterday evening. They have a friend in Wivenhoe and visit
Wivenhoe quite often. We had a long long talk about Wivenhoe, Akiiki maintained that she can find Betty’s house
but couldn’t remember the names of streets in Wivenhoe except Ernest Road. As for Maziga and Amooti, they
were struggling to describe how they would find where Betty, Joe and Phil live. That’s all from me for now.
God bless you all.
How was your Christmas? We spent most of our day in the church. Akiiki, Maziga and Amooti had memory verses
to say in Swahili and French services and a song for the English service.
As for me, I was the preacher for the English service. It is so dry here, windy and dusty and for that reason
Banage and the baby have a cold. I am the only one who has not yet caught the cold.
That’s all from us. God bless.
Message from Bagamba - September 2011
Dear friends and co-laborers in the Lord’s field,
Last week I wrote to you a couple of times urging you to support us in prayers as we were faced with multiple challenges logistically and the resistance of some people who are not peace seeking.
Just to remind you of the background, between the year 1999 and 2006, interethnic conflicts, mainly between Hema and Lendu left over 60,000 (underestimate by the UN) people dead and the infrastructure utterly destroyed. Bogoro, one of the largest Evangelical Church bases in the area was worse hit, it lost more than 60% of its population. The closest Lendu village to Bogoro is Vilo (just 7 km away). In such a situation, any peace effort demands God’s help.
When the UN mission set a base in Bogoro in 2006, a few survivors and internally displaced people from elsewhere have been returning to Bogoro, now there are about 2000 people living there. In addition to helping orphans from the two communities to attend primary education, for two years now we have been educating young people with regard to a biblical perspective on interethnic relations. Our main message is that for a Christian person peace is an obligation and not an optional thing. We are educating them on how cultural differences are enriching to both communities. In our last peace education sessions, we asked children from both sides if they were ready to testify in public about their intention to renounce violence and live peaceful life with neighboring ethnic groups.
Traditionally, whenever members of two ethnic groups decided to make peace, they conducted a ritual called “omukago” in the Hema language. The ritual consisted either of elders of a third ethnic group slaughtering a sheep and elders from enemy ethnic groups would drink the blood of the slaughtered animal from the same calabash.
To make-up for serious offences such as in Bogoro where thousands of people died, top elders (one from each side) from opposing communities were chosen and incision was made on the arm of each of them and they sucked each other’s blood on the behalf of the community. This established a brotherhood from between the two communities and a curse was supposed to befall whoever contravened the alliance. Among the Lendu, clans which had gone through the ritual called each other “Lo, Lokpa (for a man and Loi for women). People in the “Lo” brotherhood can tease and insult each other and no one is to get angry. The system seems to have been designed to test each group’s ability to remain peaceful.
This time we tried to give Christian content to the traditional “omukago” ritual. We asked elders to show their commitment to the alliance by lifting up the cross and children from the two communities stood under it, then a prayer was said by one of many clergymen who were surrounding the children. After that they shared a meal together.
We are very grateful to the Lord for the success of the ritual, we were expecting 500 people but we got nearly 800, most of which we did not invite. At the moment, we have received visits and call from many people who would like us to start peace education in their villages too. Unfortunately we do not have means of helping. Our prayers is that the Lord would bless whatever little effort we are making so that the Gospel can bring peace where weapons have failed. Thanks to you all for your prayers and various contributions.
The Lord will certainly repay you for your generosity. God bless.
In Him,
Bagamba
