Wanini Samuel Balyesiima is a 15 year old Senior 2 student of Kabalega Senior School. At such a young age, Samuel single handedly glued together the different pieces that made the mission to kijunjubwa a possibility. With the parish treasurer for a mother and the father in charge of all constructions, Samuel is a church born and raised. That however, does not explain anything about his hard-working and enthusiastic character as only 10 percent of the youth who contribute 75 percent of the area’s population are church going.
Samuel who comes from Kyakaki Village, is the first-born from a family of 6 children. With 5 siblings looking up to him, namely; Bingi Edson, Balemesa Judith, Basemera Dinah, Birungi Catherine, Bitekerezo Abby, Sam is doing a good job at setting an example. He is the very first person that received us with a huge smile as we came into this remote village church house in Bujunjubwa. He mobilised all the attendees and ensured a smooth running of the whole program in the absence of both parish youth worker and the Parish Reverend, both of whom were attending a parish leadership meeting.
The dark-skinned, bright smiled, gentle face was in the background of everything. I asked him if he is interested in politics, just to see his views on power and leadership. He told me,
“Though I am very famous at school, and teachers asked me to, I cannot even be a prefect. My heart is only in serving God. Am on the scripture union team, which is the only power I need. I want to be a Pastor, nothing else”.
Those words shot through my Spine like a Zulu Spear. At 15, I didn’t know what I wanted to eat for dinner and here is a boy, literally carrying a whole Parish’s Youth ministry on his shoulders with more focus than a cross-country runner. Nick-named pastor already, Samuel took the group of youths through some talks and prayer sessions. He is definitely taking his calling seriously but most importantly he is blessed with a church that actually gives him a chance to serve as it definitely lacking in harvesters.
On the Sunday afternoon, after service had ended, I found Sam holding a sheep that had been auctioned off in church. With no immediate need for slaughter, he had offered to take it home (10km away) and take care of it on the church’s behalf. I engaged Samuel in a slightly deeper theological talk just to s his depth of understanding of the word. I later realised that he does not even own a full Bible. He has a New Testament Gideon’s’ one. He can only borrow his mother’s whenever he needs to use a full one. For someone so passionate about serving God and growing in faith, He actually had very little understanding of the word, the most important ingredient to growth. His Lack of access had definitely hindered his Spiritual growth in that direction.
Samuel is just one example of this very disease that is preventing the growth of the church of Christ in a lot of rural areas. While some places literally do not have access to Bibles, others lack a local, understandable translation. Those with a local translation, the price of a Bible would be enough to feed the family for a month. Reading and interpretation of the word is thus solely left to the local clergy on a Sunday morning. A lot of these interpretations are usually biased by personal interpretation and personalities. The growth of the local church which is a focal in our ministry is thus as good as stagnant, fulfilling the saying, “…the church in Africa is a mile wide and an inch deep”.
Isaac has been trying to raise money through his home church in the US to specifically buy Bibles to give out to key persons in the different places we go that honestly do not have one. He will later in July work with Wycliffe international, a Bible translating organisation. One person can only do so much. My wish and prayer is the possibility of at least every youth that goes through our trainings receiving a Bible at the end of it. We can teach so well, but without a personal commitment to personal study of the Bible, our seeds will soon be eaten by the wild Birds.
Because we had run out of giveaway Bibles, I gave Samuel my personal Bible because I felt he needed it more than I. The tears that rolled from his bright big eyes, down his dark cheeks as he said, “ thank you, thank you so much…”, told me how long he’s waited for this moment. “Finally, finally, I own a Bible of my own… I am going to read it day and night”. He said. The looks on his face as he said this, priceless. In the bid to invest in young people, how better than investing the word of God itself?
