ccm Cross 0123
October 2016
Church of God
Kigali, Rwanda, Africa
ccm Cross #0123
GPS/DMS 1.9706° S, 30.1044° E
Additional photos after the Testimony:
4185 cdd Touching the Sick
Cyber Daily Devotion
Volume 17 Number 217
Today’s Author: Pastor Bill
Scripture: Acts 20:9-10
“In a window sat a certain young man named Eutychus, who was sinking into a deep sleep. He was overcome by sleep; and as Paul continued speaking, he fell down from the third story and was taken up dead. But Paul went down, fell on him, and embracing him said, “Do not trouble yourselves, for his life is in him.” NKJV
Greetings in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. My name is Rev. Musoni Wilberforce. I’m a Rwandese with Ugandan heritage. Let me begin my testimony with a short explanation of my country Rwanda.
Rwanda is one of the developing countries in Sub-Sahara Africa; it has 4 provinces and Kigali City which is the nation’s Capital; Rwanda is composed of three ethnic groups; Hutu 83 percent, Tutsi 14 percent, and Twa 2 percent.
In our recent past there was a Hutu rebellion from a long stretch of Colonial-Supported Tutsi rule. Much of the animosity and hatred between Hutu and Tutsi has to do with the Colonial ideology that began as early as 1800. There was a German occupation period and a period of Belgium rule. All of this contributed to the events of April 1994 when Rwanda and the world witnessed more than one million Tutsi and a moderate number of Hutu killed in a three-month span. When it was over an estimated 70 percent of the Tutsi population and 20 percent of the Hutu population was decimated.
Radicals known as Hutu power groups, along with government troops, organized militias called the interahamwe (people joined together). These groups attempted a genocide of the Tutsi. The churches of Rwanda were always a place of protection for people. During the genocide, they became a refuge that turned into killing fields. When the attempt to exterminate the Tutsi’s failed the interahamwe escaped to the Congo.
This attempted genocide left hundreds of thousands of children orphaned and countless widows. Rwanda was economically devastated as Hutu and Tutsi alike were left severely traumatized.
I was raised in Rwanda near the Kabare district of western Uganda, as the youngest in a family of nine. I was 7 years old when a Rwandese friend to my Dad came into the bush where we lived in a hut. This man asked if my dad would send one of his children with him to a town near Kampala in Uganda where a local church would provide for the child’s education.
I was sent and spent 2 years in Uganda. I returned home to find my mom and dad divorced. I lived with my mom and completed primary school in 1984. Then I was enrolled in Secondary school. It was here in 1987 when I came to know the Lord by confessing my sins to JESUS CHRIST and was baptized. I started serving Jesus in the Miracle Center Church. First in the choir and then became the youth leader.
In 1989 I attended Bible training in Kenya. The Lord provided miraculously all the finances I needed. It was bitter in Kenya knowing what was happening in Rwanda. But the Lord had a plan for me.
Our Bible education covered church history, Old and New Testament book by book. We diligently studied the four Gospels, Bible doctrine, personal spiritual life, Missions, Discipleship and Administration. I graduated and was ready to serve the Lord wherever He wanted me to go.
In 1990 I joined the Church of God as an ordained Pastor planting a church in Jinja, Uganda. The church grew to 200 members. The Lord was so faithful. Miracles and wonders increased and God called us to continue planting churches. We held crusades and conferences from village to village. Eventually planting 14 more churches.
One day, when in the Jinja, Uganda area, we were singing praises to the Lord during a crusade. We were speaking about Jesus encountering Nicodemus and how one should be born again. That night there were so many people healed and set free from demons that everyone in the neighboring areas heard about us.
Then the trouble started. There was a total of 10 witches that sent evil to attack us. But we stayed strong in the Lord and turned back every attempt to disrupt, cause harm and destroy our time with the Lord.
Later that night the leader of the witches came to us and told us that our power through Jesus Christ had defeated her power of satan. She wanted to receive what Nicodemus received and wanted to be born again. She returned later with the other nine witches which all gave their hearts to Jesus. It was a spectacular evening of the power of God overcoming evil.
Later that same week I was on my knees praying and thanking God for all he was doing through miracles, signs and wonders. As I was giving Him praise honor and glory I heard a voice. The voice called my name. I answered “I’m hear Lord.” And then the voice said, “This is what I do when I call someone.” Just then power like a bolt of electricity passed through me from my head to my feet. Then the voice spoke again, it said, “and then.” Just then I felt coldness as water rushing through every vein in my body, again from my head to my feet. But the voice was not done yet. It followed with, “and then.” This time I felt fire in every bone in my body. Then the voice spoke one last time and said, “When you touch a sick person they will be made well.”
Then the voice was gone. Since then I have seen it to be true as I touch the sick in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and they are made well.
Before and during the genocide I tried to return from Uganda to Rwanda but I was not allowed in. Then after the genocide the Lord opened the door for exiled Rwandese to return. I was so happy to return to the land of a thousand hills. I had heard that my girl fiend and her family was killed during the genocide. But found out that God had kept her and her mother alive. I was so very happy to meet Jackline again. It was 1995 and I paid my dowry and we got married.
In 1995 I planted a church in the Remera area just outside the Capital City, Kigali, Rwanda. We named it Calvary Revival Ministries. In 2003 I was elected as the Legal Representative for the Church of God in Rwanda. Today we are 37 churches strong. Most of these churches are in the deep-down villages (remote areas). The Lord has been so good to us.
Pastor Bill thank you for sending Bishop Cosmas from Kenya to plant this Cross for us. It is a shining example of the Lord Jesus Christ and beckons all to come to Him. It will be a Lighthouse for all in need.
Prayer: Father thank you that miracles, signs and wonders are as real today as they were 2,000 years ago. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen!
Moving Cross into place
“FIRE IN THE HOLE”
Pastor Musoni Wilberforce and his wife Jackline
Bishop Cosmas from Kenya and Pastor Musoni Wilberforce
Plaque in
Kinyarwanda language
“Declaring God’s Glory”
over Rwanda