A businessman with a passion for sharing the Gospel, Haggai leader and author Peter Walyaula uses his education and experience, alongside his equipping from the Haggai Leader Experience to plant churches, equip pastors, and serve rural communities in Elgon Zone Eastern Uganda with programs of income generation, health care, discipleship, and self-care.

It’s incredibly important work in this area, one strife with socio-economic crises, but using his mediums on this canvas has created life-changing results for the people here.

Most of that work takes place in the Mount Elgon area, a place where Walyaula says drunkenness, illiteracy, child marriages, and polygamy are considered normal. Men and women can’t earn enough to care for their families, often lose the ability to send their children to school, and almost always have to sell their own property to the government. As a side effect, churches collect less than $10 a month — not enough, even, for a pastor’s transportation. The social need is so great, that even when people are led to Jesus, they nurture their new faith amidst social-economic hurdles.

Seeing this great need, Walyaula has used the success of his own businesses to mobilize pastors and plant churches throughout that area, teaching them to share the Good News and make disciples of their community amidst the obstacles they face.

“The purpose is to reach out to rural communities with practical Gospel that focuses on soul, spirit, and body. In the last year, three churches have been planted in the eastern part of Uganda through medical camps, spreading God’s message house-to-house, and open-air crusades.”

In Bunango last year, a medical camp provided healthcare services to the community while a team of pastors talked about Jesus with each patient. Out of more than 450 adults, 125 gave their lives to Him. Shortly after, a church was founded and is still growing, expanding from a local classroom to a new building on land donated to them. This growth is due to the work of the equipped believers who have continued to meet weekly in Bible studies and prayer meetings and reach out to their community with the Gospel daily.

Since founding a church in November 2021 in Magale, more than 150 men and women have come to accept Jesus. A young medical officer working with the government pastors this church, and ensures the church is reaching both youth and adults in the community. He has also integrated income generation for the congregation to ensure the church is self-sustaining. Because of this, the church supported vulnerable youths with scholastic materials and paid school fees for a few who could not afford them.

In Lwakhakha, a community filled with various cults, pastors helped lead more than 50 people to Jesus and established a church there in January. To strengthen the new church plant, Walyaula liaised with an organization of 30 medical doctors and pastors to bring a medical and Gospel outreach camp to the community. Through this outreach, more than 300 people heard the Gospel; 48 people gave their lives to Christ; 206 people received free medical treatment; 80 people had decayed teeth removed; and about 70 people received free reading glasses.

Walyaula’s work doesn’t end when the church doors open. In fact, it’s often where it begins, as he works to encourage church attendance and equip church leaders on income generation, discipleship, and sharing the Good News. He teaches community members how to talk to others about Jesus, start earning a living again, cultivate the land, and what adequate childcare and good hygiene practices look like.

Walyaula is grateful to the team of pastors, medical workers, and fellow believers who have supported him financially and materially to preach the Gospel in Eastern Uganda. The future in Uganda is hopeful and includes hopes for a health facility in Bunango and Lwakhakha to help pregnant women, as well as more churches in Bumbo, Luuwa, Butiru, and the Namisindwa and Manafwa districts.

Written by Jennifer Colosimo