I am called Taremwa Julius Rubayombesa.
Rubayombesa was my late father’s name who was also born again. I come from Kanyanya, in Kikatsi village, Kashwa Archdeaconry, and North Ankole Diocese. Jesus saved me and it’s the main reason I am here.
I was born in 1987 before my parents were legally married. My parents were pastoralists so they would move from place to place in search of water and pasture for their cows and my grandfather was still alive then.
I was born in Mpanga Mushanju (7 Valleys) in Nshaara, where my grandfather died. My dad and aunt Hope Rutukana were older than the rest of their siblings.
We migrated to Rwanda Kikatsi where we are now, When we reached there after a few months my father married another woman. It’s my aunt who looked after me when I was a baby. When we migrated, my dad got me from my mum and my aunt took care of me.
She actually calls me her first born because I was the first child to breastfeed from her breasts before she even got married. When my aunt Hope got married, I stayed with my father and stepmother until my father’s death. When I turned 3years, I joined Kanyanya primary school. When I was in P.3, they told us about a new school in Rushere called Molly Integrated school.
My father loved educating his children because he never had a chance to go to school. So, he transferred me to that school. When I got to that new school, they demoted me from P.3 to P.1 because the standard was high compared to where I had been. So I had to catchup with the standard of the new school and luckily enough, I was performing well in class but very stubborn the entire time of my primary level.
I would beat up other kids, I would bully them, I would kick them around and they fall. As a result, teachers used to beat me too then I would end up abusing the teachers and calling them names. I completed my primary seven when I was between the age of 14-15 years and I passed with a first grade. My parents got me a place in Mbarara High School, but I continued being stubborn in that school as well.
They were very strict in my former primary school so I gained my freedom in secondary and I forgot the reason why I was in school. I loved football so much, so I spent most of the time playing football instead of studying. I did not stay long enough in that school because I was discontinued since I had failed to get the average pass mark.
They took me to Nganwa where I was made to repeat S.1 because I failed the interview, not because I was dense but I had not been studying seriously. Then I started falling sick. I had so much pain because of duodenal ulcers. I had an aunt to my dad here in Kampala, so they brought me to stay with her and I was taken to St. Kizito Secondary school.
When I reached S.4, the pain continued so I would normally pass by the hospital for routine checkups. During my S.3 second term holidays, I visited a doctor in Mbarara who gave me a lot of medicine and when we were about to sit for our S.4 final exams, he wondered why inspite of the lengthy treatment I was getting worse.
He was wondering why he has treated him for this long and there is no change and instead I was getting worse. So, after seeing the test results he told me that I could not proceed to school.
Then I called my father and informed him. Remember he used to give me money for school fees and I would bank it myself since I was old enough. The doctor told me that I had to undergo an operation and indeed in 2008 I was operated on.
A month later when I thought I was recovering, I felt the complication again and I went back to the hospital. It was a congenital disorder. Something had developed in my lungs. At first the doctor didn’t want to cut my lungs because I was young but later the pain reoccurred so he had to do the operation again.
When they told my father (Parents), at first, they didn’t buy the idea but I understood the situation and I accepted to undergo a second operation. It affected my studies and I did not sit for my S.4 exams.
When the results came back, my name had XXX. So, I hated school, Fortunately, when I went back home, I got healed. But still I was feeling bad going back to S.4 with younger kids. Fortunately my dad encouraged me to go back to school and try my best, I went back and completed my O’level passing with a first grade.
I loved schools from western Uganda because of the freedom they gave to students. So, I asked my father to take me back to schools in the west and he gave me the opportunity to choose the school I wanted.
I went to valley school where I studied my S.5 and S.6. My life changed because they were not as strict as it was at St. Kizito – the catholic school where they always monitored us. My lifestyle changed and I went back to living my luxurious life. Any way it wasn’t freedom as such but we were big boys, who understood the ways of evil and that’s the time I started drinking alcohol in S.5 in 2011.
We used to escape from school. The school never had a fence but the headmaster used to tell us that the fence was within your mind. “You know where the classes are, you know where the kitchen is, the playground, so it’s up to you to choose. You must have self-control.”
Most students would obey the rules but my wayward friends and I would not. I was told to do the HEG/D combination which required a lot of reading but I hated divinity, so I decided I would not attend divinity lessons, and the subject I would do was Fine Art yet I was not a talented artist, I kept doing 3 principal subjects though we needed to sit for four.
Most of the time my mind was always elsewhere thinking of going to movie shacks, drinking alcohol, playing football, that kind of life. Fortunately I was a fast learner so whenever I sat in class, I would easily get everything they taught in my head. So, I kept dodging the headmaster and the teachers.
They would make roll call and but I would be missing from prep. They were really strict but I also made sure that they did not catch me in the wrong. But whenever I decided to concentrate, I would sit in class and study. Don’t be surprised that whenever it was time for exams, I would wonder what I was going to do in those exams!
I liked Economics because it’s was applicable in life, so in exams I sat for only Economics and GP and I passed highly more than all those who had done all the subjects.
The Headmaster took me around the classes beating me and beating the students I had won. Beating me for dodging other subjects and beating others and asking them why I had won them yet I did only two subjects.
But afterwards I came to my senses and decided to attend divinity lessons as well. I would go to teachers and tell them the truth that I had no notes so they helped and gave me their books and I would also get books from my fellow students the time when they were sleeping.
So I studied like that and sat for my final exams and got 20 out of 25 points. Imagine someone who wasn’t serious from the beginning! I completed S.6 and joined the University but remember I was still drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes. At least I did not get into sexual relationships with girls at school although it was rampant at school. We used to call it “coupling.” Coupling means boy-girl relationships.
My biggest problem was drinking alcohol, having fun with my friends and playing football. When I joined University everything worsened.
It was Makerere University Business School (MUBS), I was given Bachelor of Procurement and supply chain Management course. My father used to pay for my tuition even though I drank a lot, my father never knew it.
I would make sure I was well behaved while at home. I was a good boy and I could never drink alcohol whenever I was around him but when I would. I finished the first-year drinking alcohol yet studying, but you know boozing is a bad habit. It keeps growing.
You start as if you know what you’re doing, like you understand and are in control of whatever you’re doing, like you can’t get drunk, or even when you are drunk. You still know what’s taking place. This capacity of being in charge keeps going down, For example when you get 1kg of ghee and put it on fire or boil it then it cools and becomes solid again it reduces to less than a kilo. That’s exactly what alcohol does to the human brain.
When we drink alcohol, our brains melt and when the alcohol wears off and we come back to our normal senses, our understanding reduces.
Brethren, I think you have all heard Julius’ example What hurt me most was when I had just reached my second year at university in 2014, my father fell sick. They called me while I was at school and informed me that he was in a critical condition, in that he could hardly speak. My younger brother who was in his S.4 vacation at the time took him to Rushere hospital.
So I kept communicating with him and he kept telling me that my father was not in good condition. They told me that they had moved him from Rushere and they had taken him to Mbarara, so I got onto a bus and went to Mbarara, and found him at a stage when he could not speak and he was on oxygen.
I talked to the doctors and asked them to allow me to enter the ICU, because I thought I would do anything possible to save his life. But God didn’t allow it, my father passed on. I stayed strong, I did not break down throughout the funeral and people who understood grief, kept saying that I was not well because I was in shock, I couldn’t cry.
The fake life I was leaving like a foolish man yet I was intelligent, but because the evil one was confusing me. Someone had promised to pay my tuition so that I could complete University. Someone wanted to pay for the remaining tuition until I complete my studies but I was traumatized, frustrated and depressed because of my father’s death, I ended up missing some lectures at university.
I had a mother but I didn’t grow up with her because she got married to another man and had a family of her own. For him, he didn’t bother following up on me all he did was to give me money and I would pay it in the bank because in my heart I wanted and hoped I would study.
But drinking alcohol and also losing my father worsened the situation. I became hopeless, desperate and just hid in Kampala and concentrated on my boozing. Every time I would sleep, I would get hallucinations while in the bar. So, I led a very lonely life.
Since I could hardly sleep at night, I would just go to bars. One day the female bar attendant asked me what the problem was and everybody else would also ask me the same question.
I was addicted to alcohol and the devil who deludes used to slowly push me into more and more drinking. So, I missed the opportunity of higher education that God had given me.
I decided to drop out of university and I never went back home. The students I studied with knew that I never completed my studies but they did not have the courage to face me and tell me the truth. We are still on shield of Faith program with Julius in the studios telling us about his life.
Like you have all heard from him. Imagine a person who had so many blessings and opportunities to study, had a loving father who paid for his fees and even when the father died, Julius got someone else to continue paying for his tuition but he didn’t study. He is now confessing his sins!
Like I told you earlier that when revival came to East Africa, people started admitting and confessing of their sins in all honesty without holding back anything. Julius here has admitted that he got spoilt and became a drunkard and it’s what stopped him from continuing with his studies.
Let’s go for a break and when we come back, he will tell us whether he continued with his studies or not and whether he became born again. But of course he is born again, that’s why we have him here and where and when did he receive salvation from.