EASTER MORNING
A Ugandan pastor witnesses the collision of Idi Amin's terror and Christ's resurrection.
Kefa Sempangi
January 1, 1990
Adapted from A Distant Grief by Kefa Sempangi, copyright 1979, Regal Books (Ventura, CA 93006). Used by permission.
Despite the growing shadow of Idi Amin, Easter morning, 1973, began as a most joyous occasion for the Redeemed Church. The sun had just risen and the sky was empty of clouds when the first people began arriving at the compound where we worshiped.
They came from almost every tribe, from the Baganda, the Basoga, the Banyankole, the Acholi and the Langi, the Bagweri and the Bagisu. They came from as far away as Masaka, a town eighty miles southwest of Kampala. There were old men with walking sticks and young women with babies on their backs. There were small children with flowers in their arms. There were doctors and lawyers, businessmen and farmers, cotton growers and government workers. Only a few had traveled by private car or taxi. Most came on foot or rode bicycles. Others crowded into lorries so lopsided they seemed ready to collapse at any moment. But however the people traveled, they arrived with the same joyful greeting: "Aleluya, Azukide! Hallelujah, he is risen!"
By 9 A.M. over seven thousand people were gathered. It was the largest crowd ever to attend a Sunday service at the Redeemed Church. When there were no more places in the compound, people climbed trees or sat on the roofs of parked lorries. A few large groups set up in nearby yards with their own amplifying systems. Hundreds of others stood in the street.
...
As we poured our hearts out to the Father in agonizing intercession, desperate scenes from the previous weeks flashed again in my mind. I saw a face burned beyond recognition, and a woman huddled in a corner weeping. I saw a crowd of soldiers standing in the park cheering, and heard the sound ...
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