I welcome you all here on the shield of faith program on Rite TV. As always, we have guests that come in this place to share their life’s stories and experiences with us so that we can know the goodness of God.
The savior who never leaves us to die or perish. He who made us survive death and we thank Jesus because we are survivors of God.
Praise God.
00:46 Before I introduce to you our guest for today, I would like to tell you that we are survivors in all ways, right from the beginning of the church,throught its history.
01:02. we are survivors as the body of Christ, we are survivors because of humility, and we are survivors knowing that we follow the law of God. It’s by grace that we are survivors in all ways.
01:18. as our guest prepares to speak to us, I am Nuwamanya Godfrey and I welcome you all to this program which you won’t find on any other TV station but only here on RITE TV.
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02:06. so please do not miss watching programs that bring you the true gospel only here on Rite TV.
02:19. Allow me to welcome our guest today: Sister Vicky Tumwesigye Katotera.
I will not say much about her so let me welcome her to speak to us.
You are welcome, Vicky on the Shield of Faith program.
Praise God.
02:36. Tell us, who is Vicky?
02:43 Praise God brethren who are watching us here on Rite TV.
I thank God for this opportunity to be hosted here because I prayed to God about it.
02:57. among the things I prayed for, I wanted to be able to preach the gospel. So, I think God has finally opened doors for me to do so.
03:13.my name is Vicky Tumwesigye Katotera, I am a married woman and my husband is called Fred Tumwesigye.
03:33 God has blessed us with 4 children; 3 boys and 1 girl.
By the way I am a mother of twins
My first children were twins, both boys and I thank God for that.
03:48 I was born in Kiguma Burunga, in Kazo district. Both my parents passed on.
My father Yosam Katotera died in 2003 and my mother died last year in July.
04:08 My husband is from Sembabule, in Nyabinoga Kahanda sub county, Sembabule district.
The most important thing is that I am a born again Christian.
In 1991, I accepted Jesus Christ to be my Lord and saviour when I was in P.4
04:35 I always say it because I want to tell people that I was a sinner even when I was young.
Those people who never got a chance to give their lives to Christ at a young age should know that even young people are sinners; so it is not only adults who sin.
The bible says we were born sinners.
True that.
05:11Thank God I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal saviour when I was in P.4 on a Saturday.
I was born in the home of the Awakened Christians.
My mother became born again in 1984 and I was born in 1979, so I know what it means to be an Awakened Christian more than anything else.
05:39 I know that the Awakened Christians are true Christians because they confess their sins in all honesty.
06:10 Before you tell us how you got saved, you said you’re a Christian from St. Stephen’s church Kitara, where do you work and what do you do?
06:23 I work with Uganda Civil Aviation Authority which I joined in 2007 as a security assistant and I thank God that I also do God’s work while there.
I stay in Makindye.
06:56 when did you get married?
07:00 I got married in 2008 and we were wedded in North Ankole diocese by Retd. Bishop John Muhanguzi who is also related to my husband.
07:23 God has kept us together and has done us so well since then.
We are both born again Christians.
07:33. I will tell you how it all happened in my testimony.
07:43. you prayed in order to get a man?
07:46. whenever I used to pray, I would mention the things I needed as a person and those I needed when I got saved.
I prayed to God that I should be able to preach the gospel and being a young, I wondered how I would manage to stay in Kampala a city full of temptations until I got married.
08:10. so when I got saved. I testified about it in Kitara Church of Uganda.
I liked the fact that they would sing and praise God, so I would just go there to listen to them sing since I had a bad voice.
08:37.Since then that has been my church.
Since I could not sing, I would make sure to give my testimony every Sunday.
I would pray to God so that all the youth become born again.
09:04. First of all, as a young person, I used to pray so that I could be able to preach the gospel and even now that I am not so young, I still preach.
Secondly, I prayed so that I could find a good man for marriage.
By the way when I became born again, I thought I would never get married but I believed I would be a preacher of the gospel.
But when I joined university, my colleagues told me that I had to get married.
09:31.That worried me so I decided to pray about it.
09:41 I prayed to God to bless me with a man who would be born again.
As time passed, I lowered my standards and prayed for any man whether born again or not for as long as his parents or grandparents belonged to reawakened group commonly known as ‘’Bazukufu’’
I was not materialistic.
10:04 But I would pray for a man who belonged to the same tribe as was. That showed that I was tribalistic and that meant that I was not genuinely converted .I was what we call in slung ‘’fake’’.I was a fake Christian.
10:22 I really prayed for a man with a background of Christians who belonged to the reawaken fellowship. God indeed answered my prayer and my mother-in-law is a reawakened Christian.
The reason why I prayed thus is because Christians who belonged to that fellowship were most of the times upright.
11:00 I had never met my husband then,I always asked the boys I dated if their background was one of the ‘reawakened’ and if I found out it was not I would not date them..
11:40 Every time I gave a testimony in church at St Stephens Kitara, my local church, and my friends would say that I was foolish. They warned me that if I continued to give my testimony in all honestly, it would be difficult for me to get a man to marry.
11:48 But deep down in me, I used to give testimonies so that many could be brought to Christ.
I wanted to let people know that yes, it’s possible to go to school in a city like Kampala with all its night life and even go to university and not have a boyfriend even after the three years of my course.
By the way I don’t know how to dance because I have never gone to a night club.
12:18 while at the University my roommate was a Muganda girl who once lured me to go with her to a nightclub. When we reached Angel Nor discotheque, I looked at the blue and red lights together with the loud music, and I could not dare enter. I just stayed in the car.
12:50 My spiritual temperature was really low. Peers and the world had really squeezed me into their world.
The bible says that God keeps His children (the righteous) from sinning and taking the wrong path.
So, that day there is no doubt that God protected me and I did not go astray.
13:16. My friends from the university were inside the club drinking alcohol with the DJs until late while I waited in the car. So, I asked the guards to help me get a motor rider to drop me home.
Can you believe that it was around 1:00 am in the night, can you imagine how dangerous it must have been for me, a girl!
13:30. This ride on a motor bike was from Ange Nior to Nakulabye where I used to stay.
As if that was not frightful enough i later learnt that one of the girls had asked the DJs to come to the car and rape me since I had refused to join them.
Really?
Yes.
We face a lot of challenges but salvation helps a lot.
13:50 God really saved me.
14:00. please tell us about your educational background and how you became a born again Christian.
14:05. In 1991 while I was in P.4, I attended a convention in Kawempe, together with my uncle who was also belonged a ‘reawakened fellowship’. This group used to meet and still meets at a gazetted place I Kawempe – Kampala
In that fellowship, whenever we congregated we had to give our testimonies and confess out our sins publically.
14:40. My biggest sin was pride which led to me developing bad habits like theft, insulting people, yet it was unacceptable.
15:00 I want to tell you that I was so proud that I would do what boys did. For example in my culture, its only boys who milk cows, but I learnt how to milk cows at a young age because I had to do what my step brothers do. I would not accept any inferior position because of my pride.
The milk I got from the cows, apart from sipping it before bringing it in which was wrong, I would also selfishly serve my mother, then ignore the rest of the family.
15:22 I decided to separate our cows from those of my step siblings and I didn’t care what they would say or do to me because I was ready to deal with them.
15:55. Rev.how old were you then?
15:57 I was about 10 years old; I was a difficult child.
16:05. my mum asked why I had to milk the cows and I told her that I felt I was big enough to do it.
16:20. she was not amused at all; being a born again and awakened Christian, she did not approve of my arrogance and really made it clear that she did not support my going on.
I grew up with a lot of arrogance and grew up as a Tom boy.
16:32. when I was about 12 years my big sister came and took me to Kampala.
I went to Bat Valley Primary School while in P.6 and I was still born again at the time.
I went for my holidays at my mother’s place and while I was there my cousin brother wanted to rape me.
16:56. was your mother legally married to your father?
16:57. No she was not, she only had us her three daughters and I was the last born.
The first two girls had their father who passed on and I had mine.
I used to weave while grazing the cows because I didn’t want my uncle’s cows to mix with ours.
You used to behave like a boy?
My cousin brother who tried to rape me was much older than me.
17:42.While I was trying to fight him, my aunt’s big daughter came and rescued me so, he run away leaving me with bruises on my arms.
She asked what the problem was and I told her everything and she said that I shouldn’t mention it to anyone otherwise he would be heavily punished.
18:00 But when I went back home, I told my mother, the boy’s father and his uncle. Can you believe that they all were silent about the incident .They covered it up?
18:10 Meanwhile, I was frequently bullied by cousin sister as we grazed cows and she often reminded me how I did not belong to their clan and this made me bitter.
That made me feel bad.
I blamed my mother for not doing anything about the boy who tried to rape me. The fact that she did not punish the rapist made me so angry. I came to the conclusion that I was not needed at home.
So I decided to leave my mother’s place for good and move to my father’s home and I told her about my decision
I started going for my holidays at my father’s place.
18:48 The Lord kept me strong in salvation and after every holidays I stayed at my father’s home. I would go fellowships that they would announced so that students could be free to attend.
I completed P.7 and joined Mengo secondary school where I met friends who were also born again with a background of the Awakened Christians.
So, every Friday we were allowed to go for prayers at Namirembe Cathedral.
It was always announced in school.
19:32 The Lord kept me strong in spirit and in S.2, I joined Kitara church of Uganda in old Kampala.
19:40. so we used to fellowship every first Sunday of the month at Kawempe.
I actually know most of the born-again reawakened Christians from all regions in the country who were part of our fellowship team.
20:00 I completed S.4 but when I was in S.3 my friends started wondering what exactly was wrong with me because I neither had a boyfriend nor went out say at night.
I was so strong in my faith. However, after sometime I backslid and it makes me feel bad but I asked God for forgiveness.
20:54 But I know the Lord is merciful because He forgave me.
I repented of all the sins I committed and that’s why I never feel ashamed to mention them.
Rev. Was that after your O’level?
I was by that time a committed member of the reawakened fellows I used to cut off my hair and I would wear long dresses.
21:14 Those of you who may not know about Awakened Christianity, it’s the salvation that came with the East African Revival, who used to confess their sins in all honesty and who would walk in the light about everything.
They have very strong principles which every member must adhere to.
It wasn’t a must that one had to cut off their hair when they became born again but those were standards made to keep them strong in faith.
Rev: So, when did you start growing your hair?
22:29. at a later stage, I will talk about how I started growing my hair and even started putting on trousers.
I completed my O’level at Mengo S.S and joined Katikamu Secondary.
22:44 But when I was in S.3 at Mengo S.S, our house came first during house competitions. They organized a disco for to us celebrate our victory so I decided to join them and see what was happening in there.
When I entered, some boy held me so tight and I could hardly move. That did not go well with me until he let go and I walked out.
23:29. they used to say that I was backward.
I remember one day I went to Namirembe cathedral for fellowship and my aunt’s friend who had just come from the village asked me to take her to her niece’s hostel.
She was putting on bathroom sandals and a Gomesi something I didn’t have a problem with for as long as she was a born again Christian.
24:05 When the girl saw the way the lady was dressed, she hid herself and when I inquired from her friends, they told me that she had left.
I did not know what to do with the old lady, so I had to look for a motor cyclist to take her to Kololo where she was going.
24:33 The following morning the girl was so cross with me and blamed me for being backward because I had brought an old lady putting on slippers and carrying a polythene bag.
24:46 I asked for her forgiveness.
She said that I and she were of different social classes which was the fact anyway.
25:05 But God was faithful; He protected us from dating boys and desiring material things.
25:14 when I completed O level at Mengo S.S, I joined Katikamu Secondary, a Seventh Day Adventist school and while there I encountered a lot of temptations.
But still the Lord protected us from all the temptations and of course all our concentration was on studies.
Boys used to disturb me and they would be even violent but I was not shaken and I did not give in to their advances. i told them that my faith was different and I had to remain faithful.
When I completed S.6 at Katikamu, I joined Makerere University in 2001.
26:08. At the university,I met people from our village, relatives and friends from within Kampala. We enjoyed life to the fullest although I was not yet fully urbanized.
26:28 As we prepare to go for a short break, is it at Makerere where you back slid?
26:34 Yes but that was towards the end of my course.
Briefly tell us about it.
While at Makerere, I used to wear very long dresses but I never wore trousers and we were welcomed as Awakened Christians by professor Kiiza who unfortunately passed on.
The deputy headmistress of Makerere College School who was also an Awakened Christian, organized a welcome party for us fresher’s who were born again.
He used to say that Makerere University was a burial ground for born again Christians so he cautioned us to be very careful and not become victims of the same.
27:48 let me say something about this fellowship as they named it .Although we came from different tribes, these barokole embraced us as a family.
28:08 A good example was Prof. Kiiza who was a lecturer in Mathematics at Makerere University at the time. Every Sunday whenever we would go for fellowships at Kawempe, he would provide breakfast and lunch for us.
He would let us use his washrooms if one wanted to freshen up and yet he had a big family.
He would drive us in his Pick Up car and take us to Kawempe to attend the fellowships.
28:30 It never mattered whether he was home or not, we would get all the care we needed.
28:44.In my second year at University .I started to slowly drift into the world. I was of course encouraged and pushed on by friends especially my roommate who was not a Christian,i even started putting on trousers. My old fellowship looked at wearing trousers for women as a sign of worldly standards and those who didn’t belong to strict fellowships looked at wearing trousers as a sign of being modern.
So my roommate bought me some pairs and told me that I looked good in them.
29:23. some would discourage me from giving testimony in church on Sundays claiming I would not find a good man to marry me, yet others encouraged me knowing it helped people to get transformed.
29:37 So I compromised my faith because I wanted to get married and I wanted to fit in the University society.
I started putting on trousers and I couldn’t do without them. I would put on all kinds of trousers and felt smart but my faith kept going down.
30:22 However, the Holy Spirit would continue guiding me and I never stopped giving my testimonies.
30:29 As we prepare to go for a break, tell us how your faith became low while you were about to complete your studies.
30:46 As I was about to complete at the university, I started having boyfriends who would monitor my level of salvation.
There was a guy who was my friend and also an Awakened Christian like me.
One time I introduced him as my boyfriend to some other guy who was interested in me so that he could let go.
31: That guy felt bad when I told him that I did not want anything to do with him since I already had a boyfriend.
You used him as security?!
Exactly.
He was my good friend and he knew my background.
We actually graduated at the same time though unfortunately, his father passed on just before we graduated and mine had died while I was in my second year.
32:13 my father never liked educating girls. I remember when I was in S.5, he brought a boy to marry me off.
32:30 I was so close to my father and I loved him so much, in that I would share my secrets with him.
So, I told him that it would not be possible for me to get married to that boy since he was in S.4 and yet I was in S.5.
My father said the boy and I were of the same age only that I had studied from Kampala.
He wondered for how long I intended to pursue my studies and what I wanted to become.
He mentioned names of prominent people suggesting that maybe I would want to be like them and I said no.
33:23 I wished my father was alive when I graduated.
That boy that I used as security to get rid of the one who was bothering and I, cried a lot because we would have wanted our parents to see the fruits of our education.
33:45 but all in all I moved on with Christ.
Did you have a boyfriend by the time you left the university?
No, the Lord protected me and the fact that I had that friend of mine whom I had introduced as my befriend for security reasons, I left without having boyfriends.
34:12 we shall start from there Vicky and in our second part you will tell us more about your life, parents, and your journey of salvation and when you finally got a boyfriend.
Vicky is our guest for today and she is one of the 3rd generations of the East African Revival.
Much as she was a village girl, she studied from Kampala until University which means that yes, i lived in city with all its bright and lights and I still remain in the way of the lord.
We shall listen to the second part of her testimony as she tells us about her life after university to date.
Let us go for a break.
