COULD PASTOR MUGERWA'S TRAGIC DEATH BE GOD'S ANGER?

PASTOR JOHN MICHAEL MUGERWA'S PERSONAL TESTIMONY.
Hello my friends, my name is John Michael Mugerwa. I’m happy to introduce myself to you. I was born March 3, 1961 in the jungles, and raised up in those remote places. I grew up in a Catholic family. Both of my parents were Catholic and were also raised up as Catholic. I feared God, though I didn’t know much about salvation. When I was 16 years old, I moved to the city of Kampala, which was the only city we had in Uganda to further pursue my studies. Because by then I had finished my Primary section and I needed to join the Secondary level. I came to Kampala in 1977, but I didn’t go further as far as school was concerned. I ended up dropping out having lost my father who died in 1979. It wasn’t easy for my mother to pay for my school dues. Though she struggled and tried very much, she couldn’t push me ahead for long. She only pushed me for one year, and then in 1980 I dropped out due to the lack of school fees.
When I dropped out of school in 1981, I started working. I got a job washing cars and I started doing that as a source of my income. I washed cars many years, for almost 10 years from 1981 to 1991. However, in 1982 it was a Monday early in the morning, and I was on my way walking to work. One man who was a stranger to me asked me whether it was okay to join me, to walk together to town. I agreed, he joined me and we walked in company, and after we had walked for just a few meters, he asked me, “John, did you go to church yesterday?” Because it was Monday and yesterday was Sunday, so he wanted to know if I had gone to church. I told him “Yes”, and my yes was true because I had gone to church that Sunday. Then he asked me another question, “What did the priest talk about, what did he teach?” I had gone to the church, and attended only the mass, I wasn’t ready for that question, and I didn’t know much about the sermon. But this stranger wanted to know the sermon and I wasn’t able to answer that question. I tried to dodge it by trying to argue with him and say, “You don’t belong to my faith, and I don’t belong to yours, why should you like to know much about my faith?” But the fact is I was only trying to dodge him, I couldn’t answer his question. During that time we started arguing and when he saw that I was arguing even more, I don’t know how it came about, but he reached into his bag and pulled out a new bible and gave it to me. In my life I had never owned a bible so that gift simply shocked me, humbled me and I couldn’t argue with him any more.
When he realized that I had been humbled, he took the advantage of preaching to me and he went ahead and to tell me that I needed to clear my life, put my life right with Jesus. Remember, we are on our way walking but he was busy preaching to me. During that time he went ahead to ask me, “John, were you baptized?” I said, “Yes.” And he asked me, “When was that?” I told him that I was baptized as an infant, but he told me, “But John, you need to know that you must believe first so that you might be baptized.” He told me to open my bible, (because by then it was my bible) to the book of Mark, chapter 16, verse 15. But I didn’t know where the book of Mark was, so he helped me and we opened to the book of Mark, and we read “Go into the whole world and preach the gospel. Whoever believes shall be baptized.” He told me I must believe first so that you might be baptized.
During that sharing a light shone upon my mind and I knew I needed to believe in Jesus Christ to be my personal saviour. I told him, “I need to believe.” He was excited and he took me to the side of the road, it was a busy road. By then I was still a young man and this man led me to confess my sins and to repeat after him a confession prayer. I tried to argue with him, “Brother just give me the directions to your church, and I will come on Sunday”. But he couldn’t let me go, he wanted me to confess the sinners prayer. It was a bit of an embarrassment to me, I knew he wouldn’t let me go, and I didn’t want to disappoint him, thinking that he might even withdraw his bible from me. So I just agreed, he took me to the side of the street and I repeated after him and he told me to speak louder after him, though it was a bit of embarrassment to me, but you know I had to do it.
Then after that, he told me to close my eyes though people were looking at us. Most of them knew me, and they were surprised and wondered what I was doing. It was early in the day and they were wondering what had happened to me. He couldn’t let me go and he prayed over me, this was a Pentecostal man. He just shouted in his prayer and it was a long prayer, but what could I do. Then after that it was time for him to let me go and that is when I realized he wasn’t even going to town, he was just pretending, just using it as a trap to trap people like me. But good enough, he gave me money to catch a bus so that I didn’t have to walk to town. And the balance was enough for me to get lunch and supper for that day. What a blessing I received on the same day, salvation and money.
After that day, I went back home, by then I had entered into a traditional marriage with my wife Evah that happened in the same year. So I went back home and told my wife, she couldn’t believe me what happened, but it was the truth. And she told me “Okay, when you go to church on Sunday, then I will accompany you.” Sunday came and I dressed up and my wife did the same and she accompanied me and we ended up going to the church where that street preacher had directed us. We met him at the door, he introduced us to the pastor and the whole church was excited and received us with joy. When my wife saw what happened, how gladly they received us, she also surrendered her life to Christ on that day. So since then that was our turning point.
We stayed in that church, the pastor loved us, together with the street preacher, they loved us and he started to disciple me. Sometimes I would join him on the streets and we would preach together and then after, I became an interpreter for my pastor. He would preach and I would interpret in Swahili, sometimes he would preach in Swahili and I would interpret in Luganda, the local language mostly spoken here in Kampala. Being an interpreter of a man of God, I became acquainted with the Holy Ghost and the Holy Ghost would deliver the message some times through me. Then, in 1984 two years after my salvation, there was an apostle in the city, his name is Alex Mitala. Together with my pastor of the local church I was attending, they planted a church in one of the slum areas of Kampala, named Katwe. This was a place full of gangs, prostitutes, thugs, bandits and people of that calibre. So, I was to take the job of pastor to that newly established church. I accepted by the grace of the Lord though I was still young in the Lord and I didn’t know much about ministry. But I accepted by the grace of the Lord and on January 31, 1984 we took over the responsibility and the work of that church.
The church began with only two women, but we had to begin somewhere. It was only the might of the Lord which enabled me to stay. Just imagine, I was from a large church and now here I am beginning with only two women, that even shocked my wife and she went back to our former church. She did not like to come to my new church of only two women. But anyway, I stayed there and served those two ladies, the grace of the Lord was there and I ended up serving them and leading them what to do. One was the secretary, the other was the treasurer and I became the chairman, so the three of us were the elders. From time to time I wanted to quit, I thought that maybe this was not the right place, but spiritual fathers in the city told me to be faithful with few and the Lord would bless me with many.
One time I was attending a minister’s conference and I heard one preacher talking about how faithful Jesus was with one woman at the well, and after that faithfulness, the Lord poured out the whole city to him. That message changed my thinking and I went back and decided to be faithful with the two women, but as I am speaking now I have good news. The church started growing and growing. Right now the church has grown, we have given birth to many sister churches. I have many spiritual sons and have shown them how to plant churches around the nation. The church I started with is still growing and now if you visit us on Sunday morning you will see about 800 people and in the evening service you would see about 2,000 people. So God has just been taking us from glory to glory time after time. That is how the church has been growing, and the Lord has blessed us in that area.
To take you back, remember I had married my wife in 1982 the traditional way. We decided to renew our marriage vows in 1985, and that was a great blessing. As I am speaking right now, the Lord has blessed us so much, as I have told you. Our church has existed for 20 years and we have given birth to over 20 sister churches, and our church has grown to 2,000 people and the Lord continues to bless us. We constructed a church building which accommodated us for seven years, but we outgrew the building and the Lord gave us an additional piece of property. There we have set up a temporary shelter and by the year 2005 we will commence the work of constructing a new church building.



The wreckage (Inset) is Pastor Mike Mugerwa

By Our Reporter.

Pastor Mike Mugerwa of Saints Gate Pentecostal Church in Makidye died on spot in a motor accident along the Jinja-Iganga highway on Thursday.

The accident occurred at 7pm in Kakira when two trucks and a super custom all traveling from Iganga knocked each other. Another Ugandan and three whites also died on the spot.

Paul Mwerangye, the only survivor in the super custom is admitted at the Islamic clinic in Jinja. He said the accident occurred when the truck driver who was driving ahead, slowed down abruptly to negotiate a hump.
The speeding trailer from the back hit the super custom squeezing it between the two trucks. Mwerangye, a brother to Captain Peter Musherure of the Uganda Peoples Defence Forces, said the super custom had six passengers.
The group was traveling from Iganga where they had gone for a gospel outreach program. He sustained deep cuts on the head. Police and Red Cross arrived at the scene at around 7:30 pm. Jonathan Musinguzi, Jinja district police commander says the bodies were taken to Jinja hospital morgue