As you all know how hard it is to stop smoking, after the fellowship, on our way home, I felt the urge to smoke. The following day I did not even get out of the house because I knew if I went out, I would drink. The day I told Obed, I had gotten saved I got the box of cigarettes and a matchbox and flushed them into the toilet. There is a hymn song 174 that says All you who are tired and weary come to Jesus Christ and he will give you rest. Believe in him and he will save you and give you rest. I like that song. Every time we have overnight, we can sing it like 10 times. True, I started the salvation journey in high gear but whenever the church service ended, I would feel the urge to smoke cigarettes. I asked Obed what I could do about that urge. He always advised me to go home though I would still feel restless. So, I resorted to buying some sweets called “sweet Pepsi” to take instead of cigarettes. This I did for 2 months. Whenever I felt the urge to smoke, I would buy sweet Pepsi and eat and I did that for quite some time until I asked myself when this would stop. And the lord told me to stop doing that too. I stopped buying those sweets for several days and I thanked God. After some time during my journey in salvation, there came an opportunity to go to Karamoja. Actually, they asked who wanted to go there and I was the only one who put up my hand.
Others feared and I remember you asking them why they are scared.
Then they collected money and gave it to me which catered for all the expenses to go for a Christian mission in Karamoja. I was there for a month and I couldn’t believe how engaging evangelism was because they used to wake us up in the middle of the night to go and pray at the playground. When I came back from that mission, I became even stronger in faith.When I came back, there was an opportunity at Burunga church of Uganda which needed a volunteer. Without me applying or making any phone calls, Kenneth Major the one who was volunteering there and he was going to Kenya for further studies. He asked me if I could go and I did not hesitate. He told me there was an opportunity to work and they were paying me two hundred thousand shillings but I was not looking for a job or seeking human opinion was not looking for a girl to marry was looking for how I could save my life. I was looking for nothing else other than saving my own life. I volunteered at Burunga Archdeaconry for 6 months with an NGO called Compassion. They needed one person at the Diocese because someone had resigned. While I was still working at Burunga, the director told me that some people had applied at the diocese for a job with the NGO Compassion and I told him I knew nothing about it, He told me to prepare my CV and take it to the office of DS, I was green about it and broke; I prepared myself, we worked on my CV with him, and the following day, he gave me transport and I handed it in.
I handed it in on Wednesday, it was reviewed that very evening, and on Thursday they short-listed those who had qualified to be interviewed. 65 applicants did interviews and they needed only one person. When I reached there, I realized that most of the applicants had been to the diocese several times unlike me. I did not know any of the staff members at the offices except for those I used to work within the field. We did our written exams and I was number 4, it was objectives and general questions; verses, and about compassion.
Then section C was about personal testimony and I wrote. Meanwhile, we even never put our names on the papers. They just gave us numbers to avoid favors, so no one could tell who was who when marking. So instead of writing your name on the answer sheet, you would just put a number
I guess the person who marked my paper was touched by my testimony because I wrote the whole of my testimony, I did not leave anything out. He read it yet he did not know me, when the time for orals came, he told his fellow panelists and said we should choose the owner of this testimony. I found out about this information four months later after the interviews and the offer. Out of 65 people they chose ten people and I was number 4. The winner had 67, another sixty-something and I had 55.When my turn came, they asked me for my credentials, they asked me a few questions and they asked me to give them my testimony and I gave it to them willingly. They then told me to leave and I spent the night at my friend’s place, Denis who was working with DFCU bank then. At around 10 o’clock I got a call from an anonymous number, only to realize it was the diocesan secretary and whether I was Acwamu Geoffrey. I said yes and he told me that I had got the job. Out of 65 people they chose Acwamu the drunkard, the one who had gone missing and was being looked for with the help of posters. I was the only one chosen amongst all of them and while talking to the DS on the phone, I requested him not to hang up so that we could sing together the song “Tukutendereza Yesu.”
I became anxious and even asked him when I was getting the appointment letter because I could not believe that I had gotten the job. He told me it was well and I had got the job. I was grateful to God for the gift of salvation In short, I can summarize this by saying it was purely my testimony that enabled you to get the job. It was a testimony that I was sure about it. When I joined the brethren team there was a verse that I liked in Jeremiah 31:3 which says; “The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness and that’s why I have had mercy upon you.”Every time I read this verse; I realize it was God’s everlasting love. Not only to me but He is merciful to all of us. Paul confirms it in Romans 5:8 which reads; “But God demonstrates his love for us in this while we were still sinners Christ died for us.” God demonstrates his love every day. He gave us His only begotten love, and He gives it at that critical time when everyone around you has lost hope in you and He comes in. The Lord was merciful to me even in my journey of salvation and I did not backslide back to drinking, fornication, and smoking. By the grace of God, I have overcome. The challenges are a lot along the way like work-related issues, and searching for wealth but I always look back and remember where God has got me from and that has helped me to go forward. Sometimes just looking at the way I am dressed makes me thank God for who I am.
Many churches keep inviting me to go and talk to the youth. There is another verse in Jeremiah 3:12 which I also like so much which reads; “Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, to the backsliding Israel, says the LORD; and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, says the LORD, and I will not keep anger forever.”
Jeremiah 3:13 reads; “Only acknowledge your guilt, that you rebelled against the LORD your God and scattered your favors among foreigners under every green tree, and that you have not obeyed my voice, declares the LORD.” In my journey of salvation, I acknowledged all my sins of fornication, drinking alcohol, and smoking cigarettes. Not to say that I am not a sinner but I do acknowledge my sins and repent of them because I know my God. Let’s get transformed by confessing our sins and turning away from them. In Romans 3:10 if you confess with your mouth and believe with your heart that you are saved. It’s not about being in the crowd but confessing your sins and being transformed. I would like to take this opportunity to tell the youth and everybody else that my life is now completely dependent on God. I would like everyone to know that true salvation, not getting saved because others are saved or because you are looking for something, but the salvation that the bible talks about eternal life.
So I encourage people to seek true salvation that will lead us into eternal life, because the life we live in where one is rich today and tomorrow, he is not, where you have parents today and tomorrow, they are gone. All we need is Jesus. This changing world changes when we do not expect it to change, so I think let’s seek Jesus and he is the one who will enable us to do all things. He will make us victors in our families, businesses, etc. Work if you want to work, accumulate wealth if want but remember eternal life is the life you should think about so deeply wherever you are. Whether you are a youth or an adult, think about that life but most especially if you have not yet accepted Jesus Christ to be your Lord and savior. May God keep you; may He bless you and have mercy upon you like He was merciful to me, may his grace keep us all, Amen.
