The Work in Uganda
CHURCH PLANTING INTERNATIONAL REPORT:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE REFORMED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF UGANDA, Kalasa, Uganda, June 17-20, 2025
From June 14-23, Church Planting International (CPI) board member and missionary Rev. Donald T. Williams, PhD, traveled to Uganda to represent CPI at the General Assembly of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Uganda (RPCU), the denomination that grew out of early church planting efforts by the late CPI Directors Rev. Don Dunkerley and Dr. George Hutchinson. Kalasa Reformed Presbyterian Church, located in a village 45 kilometers north of Kampala, hosted about 80 pastors and elders from presbyteries across the nation. Williams served as the representative of CPI, as a consultant, and as the main Bible teacher for the gathering.
The Church and School at Kalasa
Williams presented four intensive teaching sessions on questions related to the conference theme. “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” (Hos. 4:6). 1. What is knowledge? Meaningful truth believed, understood, embraced, and acted on. What is this knowledge without which we perish? The personal knowledge of God, his Way, his Ways, and his Will. What is its place in the Christian life, the church, and the Great Commission? It drives them all. Then followed three things that church leaders especially need to know. 2. What is the true biblical Gospel? It is not self-help or health and wealth. It is “thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer, that he should rise again on the third day, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all the nations” (Luke 24:56-7). It is salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone for the glory of God alone. 3. What is true biblical leadership? It is not lording it over your subordinates like the Gentiles do but taking the place of a servant like Jesus did, coming not to be served but to serve (Mark 10:42-5). 4. What is true biblical church growth? It is not numbers primarily but rather the church building itself up in the knowledge of Christ and in love, flowing from the Head through what every joint supplies, with numerical growth happening as the byproduct of this deepening discipleship (Eph. 4:11-16). In all these areas, it is the personal knowledge of the true God as he is revealed in Jesus Christ which is the key to understanding and implementing the Great Commission. Without that knowledge people perish, and without the application of it to evangelism, leadership, and church growth, ministries perish. The brethren professed to be mightily challenged, instructed, and encouraged by these addresses. Thanks be to God.
The Delegates at Worship
Friday was the business session. The RPCU has made great strides in learning to conduct business “decently and in order” since my last time to be present at their General Assembly, in Kampala in 2018. They are to be commended for that. We should also thank God for the ministry of the late Stephen Bradford and the late Jim Romaine, who worked tirelessly to help them make that progress. Many of the issues discussed at this meeting would mean little to a reader outside of their context, but they are concerned that their churches make continuing strides toward being self-supporting. They are concerned about the growing popularity of false Gospels such as the Prosperity teaching in Uganda and the unethical “poaching” of individuals and churches by other Reformed groups that can offer more money (or promise to). These are valid concerns, and we should pray for them as they wrestle with how to address them. There are also areas in which they need to make further progress in mastering the tools of the public business meeting, which Williams will discuss privately with their leadership and the CPI board.
Road from the Church to the Village
There is a genuine desire to grow in the knowledge of Christ and of ways to serve him more effectively; and there was much appreciation expressed for the ongoing role of CPI in helping the ministers of the RPCU to that end. Williams returns impressed that there is much to be thankful for and much to pray for as the church seeks to grow in a healthy and biblical manner and to reach a country full of spiritual hunger but also abounding in false teachers of every kind. Please continue to pray for CPI and to support it financially as it comes alongside the RPCU and churches like them in other countries where we work, to help them do the work of the Kingdom.
Anyone desiring a transcript of Dr. Williams’s teaching sessions may email him at dtw@tfc.edu and ask, and he will gladly attach the Word file to his reply.
Williams Preaching (Peterson Sebuggo Interpreting)
On Sunday, after the delegates had departed, Williams preached to the congregation of the Kalasa church and then stopped to give greetings and a short exhortation to the church at Saange on the way back to Entebbe and the long flights home. It was an exhausting week but a good one which highlights the important role CPI can still play in supporting indigenous church planting efforts. Pray that God will raise up some younger men to take on the burden of travel and new donors willing to support their efforts. Pray for Director Dewey Roberts and his wife, who is seriously ill with cancer. And thank you to those who prayed and gave to make this expedition possible. Soli Deo gloria! Amen
Romaine Newsletter January 2022
Africa Reformation Theological Seminary Kampala, Uganda
ARTS Campus ARTS Classroom
Lord willing, on January 28th I will be flying from Philadelphia International Airport to Entebbe International Airport in Uganda. I have my Ugandan visa in hand, so I have been deemed worthy by the government of Uganda to enter Uganda.
I will be teaching a course on Islam to a group of 16 to 20 Ugandan pastors from January 31st to February 4th, 7 hours a day for 5 days. This will be a Masters level course so their English should be good and we will have plenty of opportunity for questions and discussion.
Prayer Requests
- Pray that I will have a safe trip. Travel is much more complicated now in the age of Covid.
- Pray for my teaching to be clear and my interaction with the students profitable.
- Pray that they will be encouraged in their ministries and reaching Muslims for Christ.
- Pray for my daily health and strength as I continue to battle my acute anemia.
- Pray for Karan as she remains at home alone.
- Pray for Church Planting International, our ministries and our finational support.
With Thanks, Church Planting Internatioanal
PO Box 836
Jim Romaine Gainsville, GA 30503
www.cpimission.org
Uganda and U
Summer 2021
Half of Uganda’s population of 44 million people are under the age of 14. Most families have 7 to 9 children because they believe children are their only hope. Uganda is also one of the most ethnically and culturally diverse countries with 53 tribes, 9 indigenous groups and 40 languages. If you pick two people randomly on the street, they would probably be of different ethnicity and speak different languages.
Uganda is one of the poorest and least-developed countries in the world. 20% of its population lived below the poverty line for Africa! It has a cash-based economy, all utilities and services must be paid for in cash in advance. The priority for most Ugandans is education for their children, their cell phone, food, and then anything else. Uganda has the largest youth unemployment in Africa, 82%, and general unemployment is 30% – 35%.
Education is the number one priority in every family. The government places strong emphasis on primary school education, however secondary school education is not available to almost 85% of the children. Every family that can sends their child to a private school, like the pictures below.
Travel is very dangerous because roads are in terrible condition. Most of the roads have deep potholes. Some holes are deep enough to “swallow” a truck. So, you are constantly swerving around holes and obstacles. There are thousands of “Bot-bot” motorcycles, used as taxis, but they are very dangerous, taking 3 or 4 people at a time, and constantly weaving in and out of the traffic.
Spiritually Uganda is exploding. 86% call themselves “Christians.” Church buildings are everywhere, and the number of Mosques is growing rapidly as Saudi Arabia is giving Muslims millions of dollars.
Our two main goals were to visit churches to encourage Christians and to meet with the local pastors and church leaders. During the three weeks I was there we visited about 12 churches and four Bible schools. We had preaching services almost every day (sermons were expected to be one hour or more in length), one three-day class on Muslims Evangelism, and 6 pastor’s conferences.
Thank U for your prayers and generous support that makes this ministry possible. Please continue to pray for the Christians in Uganda, especially for their desperate economic condition. All the pastors are bi-vocational and live off their small gardens where they grow vegetables that they try to sell in the markets alongside everyone else who has no money and is trying to sell their vegetables.
With thanks, Church Planting International www.cpimission.org
PO Box 836 Email: cpimission@juno.com
Jim and Karan Romaine Gainesville, GA. 30503 Phone: (770) 535-7008
June 25, 2021 Update
General Assembly of RPCU in Uganda
Steven Bradford and Jim Romaine were in Uganda for about a month from late April to late May. During that trip, Steven Bradford was able to attend the General Assembly of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in Uganda. The Moderator of the RPCU, Rev. Steven Hamya, recently wrote me the following:
“I personally wish to thank you on behalf of CPI for supporting our recently concluded GA, in May. God bless our generous donors, otherwise it would have been impossible for us. Rev Bradford was in attendance during another peaceful assembly that has continued to improve. There is still the need to improve even more, especially in training elders. Some few have grasped our rules but need to grasp the constitution, an area I have to deal with following my re-election this year again. 2020 was a dead year, as nothing much was done due to Covid-19. . .
We are again in a 6-week partial lockdown. Churches and schools are closed. Pray for me in particular that God may provide so that I can go back to business, my situation is bad as providing for my house is an area where I now struggle. I was tempted to get a bank loan but Rev Bradford discouraged me.
Rev Steven Hamya”
The world-wide pandemic has caused struggles for people everywhere and churches and Christians have experienced great trials.
Feb 2020 Update
Steven Bradford will be traveling to Uganda in early April and will be there for four Sundays. The emphasis, as always, will be on pastor training. One of Steven’s gifts is the ability to work with many different situations and help people to view things from a little different perspective. The churches in Uganda are still growing in their ability to be self-governing and function according to Scripture and Presbyterian polity. Steven’s ministry to the various pastors and churches has been well-received and enormously successful. Someone once said that Presbyterianism is just papacy written small. Too many Presbyterian elders believe that. They feel that Presbyterianism means we rule over others. The true spirit of the Bible is given in the Macedonian vision of Paul when he saw a man call to him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” The spirit of helping others or assisting them in their growth is the genius of Scripture. So, please pray for Steven as he continues to inculcate that spirit in the Ugandan pastors.
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2019 Update
Steven Bradford made two trips to Uganda. The first was in April and the second was in September-October. Both were multi-week mission trips which involved a lot of travel in Uganda for the purpose of equipping the leadership of various churches in the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Uganda. His labors were successful in promoting peace, unity, and growth in knowledge.