Our Partnership with Ruti Church, Uganda
Any up to date reports from Ruti will be available from our magazines downloadable from here
At our October church meeting our church decided to join in partnership with Ruti Reformed Presbyterian Church in Mbarara Uganda. The Romans One Eleven trust links churches in UK with churches typically in Malawi, Uganda and Zambia, so that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith.
In May Richard Tusiime, the pastor of Ruti Reformed Presbyterian Church, visited our church to tell us how God had encouraged him to learn English, to study and gain a diploma in theology, via the Romans 1:11 Trust. In Ruti, a poor district of Mbarara, the church has grown through Richard’s ministry, from a few to 150 people in a short time.
Uganda is a small land-locked country in East Africa, with a population of approximately 32 million people. It is astride the equator, on a plateau 3,600ft above sea level with a pleasantly warm climate. Mbarara, the chief city of the south western region, has one of Uganda’s four universities and a 300 bed hospital.
Often many more than 300 patients are admitted; they sleep on the floor. Life for the average Ugandan is much simpler than in the UK. The family house is the size of a small UK garage with not more than 2 rooms. Cooking is done with a charcoal stove. Matooke (savoury banana), sweet potato, Irish potato, chicken, rabbits, pineapple, mango, are typical foods.
Ruti is in the trading area about 2 miles from the centre of Mbarara so it has electricity and possibly water to outside taps. Five miles from Mbarara is the rural district of Nyamiyaga, where Richard is the director of the Spiritual Life Centre, where he trains pastors for Christian ministry. Here the buildings do not have piped water, and electricity will only be installed if one pays for the poles and wires needed.
Ruti church is vibrant and is helping their community. They have started a school for people who cannot afford the normal school fees. The school also offers teaching experience for trainee teachers.
Richard is not paid as a pastor or director/teacher for the Spiritual Life Centre. His normal (border-border) work was taking fare-paying passengers on the back of a motorcycle. Also he took, adjusted and printed photographs for customers. During August this year the bank repossessed the motorcycle from the man who hired it to Richard. In addition Richard’s computer now no longer works so he has lost most of the profit from his photography.
In November 2010 we sent £1,000 to Romans 1:11 Trust so Richard could buy a motorcycle and set up his own border border-border business, also to repair Ruti church toilet. One or our members has generously donated a laptop computer. Our September 2011 magazine has two articles about Ruti.
In October 2011 Mary our minister and one of our members visited Ruti, Nyamiyaga, other churches and schools in SW Uganda to join in their conferences and worship with them.
