Purpose - A Buyamba Student Story

by Rogers Talemwa

I am Talemwa Rogers from Uganda, East Africa, and I am 22 years old, 23 on August 15, 2018.  I am graduating with a bachelor's degree in Community Health, a field under Public Health at Africa Renewal University, a Christian university where I served as the students’ president. I am the middle child, between two brothers, raised by a single mother who has HIV/AIDS and just got remarried a few years back. God saved my brothers and me from the “Mother to Child Transmission of HIV” at a time when preventive measures were not yet known. We lost our father due to witchcraft and poisoning by his rivals he contested against in leadership for the leading economic market, then called “Shauri yako,” that his "friends" wanted to steal from him. As a victim of AIDS, this terrified his situation as we watched him die in pain after a period of suffering.

Life was like walking through hell after our dad passed on where we could hardly afford meals or money for education because he was the breadwinner, and everything we had to sustain our lives was taken by our relatives who had forsaken us. We moved and stayed with our grandmother who was very poor and selling local breweries, but she was the only one with open arms to receive us with our mom. We stayed in this poor lifestyle and attended some UPE (free government-funded) school where we could hardly afford even the smallest penny we were required to raise, and kids would make fun of us.

Our mom found a way to an orphanage called Buyamba Orphanage Ministry, and we got somehow better schools, and later we joined God Cares Primary school where the late Pastor Bethel Dongo received us after hearing the story of our family thus brought us in and sought for us sponsorship to support us in school. I would like to extend my appreciation to all the people out there that helped me. Mark and Leslie, those that are giving hope to the African child, the orphaned, homeless and hopeless like some of us were. God bless them. I've grown up through an orphanage school throughout my school life, and I attended elementary and high school there at God Cares schools since 2006, when I was 11, and it completely changed my life.

That very year I received a calling from God to be a preacher, teacher and generation changer. I didn't know exactly how this would happen, but throughout my elementary and high school, God was raising me as a spiritual leader and student pastor and an overall students’ leader in elementary, then in high school, and now at the university. I've always been encouraging, teaching, and preaching to fellow youths from within our church, schools, and camps. As the Lord gave me the opportunity, I’ve had the opportunity to go on evangelical missions with several groups in villages and some countries in East Africa, where I was exposed to a great need of reaching salvation, giving love and support to people and communities that are in lack of all these.

I can say that to be the man I am today from the lonely family and hopeless boy I was, that I have been able to serve and inspire many young people here is because of other people who kept on encouraging me, praying with me, and supporting me.

I can say that to be the man I am today from the lonely family and hopeless boy I was, that I have been able to serve and inspire many young people here is because of other people who kept on encouraging me, praying with me, and supporting me. I greatly understand the impact and value of reaching Christ, love, sacrifice, belief in others and faith in God.

Last year, I felt I needed more of God's direction for a definite purpose.  So I asked God this year to give me guidance for my calling, and he has on and on been leading me into "Transformational Leadership." He told me the reason he directed me to do the course I did was not just for myself, but instead, it was for me to gain skills so I can serve him by reaching out to communities and present Christ to them by offering them services such as through healthcare, other life-sustaining services and more. Just as the nature of Jesus ministry was all about sharing the truth to people but through serving them, feeding the hungry, healing the sick, reaching out to those who were in need and so much more than many believed in his message because it came with practical selfless love. 

God has called me to villages, to the less privileged, places that are suffering effects of war, death, orphans and political unrest, places faced with hunger, diseases, sorcery, refugees misleading miserable traditions and beliefs, places where children created by God for a glorious purpose have no education, lack of resources, infrastructure, and alike. God is calling me to transform such communities and to raise transformational leaders through knowing Christ and gaining education and skills in schools. Raising children and young people to be transformed in the knowledge, love, and power of Christ, and be skilled in different areas so that they stay in these very communities and themselves become the very people to transform their communities, for their generation and the generation ahead of them.
I believe that the problems, suffering, depression, and despair faced in Africa and the world over is not meant for the evil, but they are a call for Christians to stand up and raise the banner of love, display their faith, and get out there to save the world that is breaking apart. We are called to serve the Lord through the power of Christ and the Holy Spirit in us. The world is tearing apart by lying lips of politicians, misleading religions and beliefs, false prophets and cultures that gratify the sinfulness of the flesh, selfishness and personal glory but the world needs us. They might not call on us for help, but remember we never called for Jesus too. He has commanded us to reach out. Because the harvest is plenty and we see this by these unfortunates. It is only by making a difference in our generation that we can save an upright next generation.

This is how God is leading me. Reaching out from the community to community, first of all preaching the gospel of Jesus and his cross, planting churches, strengthening faith, serving needs as the Spirit will lead us to the needs in specific communities. This will involve a lot of offering education and building skills in young people so they can be innovative and improve their standards of living. So opening up academic and training institutions as well as opening up industries for employment is a whole part of the plan since the focus relies so much on raising a young generation of transformational leaders.

Truthfully speaking, this looks bigger than I can bear, but one thing I do know is that what we are called to do in the kingdom of God isn’t about what we can bear because we are only called as stewards to manage the Masters business; it’s not our business. He gives us the passion, power, and strength to faithfully handle what belongs to him and only that gives me confidence that all things are possible. Jer.32:27 “I am the Lord of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?”.  I know where the Lord is calling me, what the Lord has chosen me for, and why. God desires to manifest his kingdom among men of every type and place, as it's said in the Lord’s prayer, “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” His Kingdom is righteousness peace and Joy in the Holy Spirit, and that is what his will is on earth, for his kingdom to be manifest.  It is time we embraced a new culture that was introduced by Jesus that men will see this kingdom of God as we are all still in this world. I graduate in August 2018, and my whole life experiences have been preparation stages, and I come out with the readiness in me to do the father’s will, faith in Him that he will do what he has promised to do and with love to open arms wide to share the little oil. We were made for love, and called to live by faith. The race is not for the fasted, nor the battle for the strongest, but for those who keep their trust in the Lord and wait patiently for him.
In my vision I see desperate communities and the people in them growing and turning into joy and fruitfulness. I see churches filling up and the kingdom of God expanding, I see healthy communities, I see the love of God filling places, bringing healing to hearts, hope for the future for the children, sustainable activities, economic growth, urbanization and availability of resources. I see married couples faithful to each other, men taking up their responsibilities in families and parents committing themselves to loving their children and wives submissive to their men. ` I see the kingdom of God, with the Holy Spirit filling up former desolate places, the children, young people and the elderly confessing and calling on the name of the Lord, knees bowing down before him in prayer and hands lifted up in worship.
         
The Message. Habakkuk. 2:2-3, And then God answered: “Write this. Write what you see. Write it out in big block letters so that it can be read on the run. This vision-message is a witness pointing to what’s coming _ it can hardly wait! And it doesn’t lie. If it seems slow in coming, wait. It’s on its way. It will come right on time.”