Isaac and Rahab Macharia, church planting pastors, talked with some of our church staff via Zoom from Kampala, Uganda, about the challenges and joys of planting a church and the unique ways they’re ministering during COVID-19 lockdown. If you’ve already read the Macharia’s part of the bulletin story, God Is Not on Lockdown, click to read the rest of their story.
God Is Not on Lockdown
Trinity Chapel Kampala was planted by Nairobi Chapel (Nairobi, Kenya) with assistance from Calvary. Located near several universities, it is a very young church with a particular passion for worship music. Our formal support ends this month; however, as TCK stands on its own, our relationship continues.
We’re in an eased lockdown. It’s a strange period because Africa is predominantly social. At the beginning, people were scared and more conscious compared to now. They have gotten used to the pandemic and loosened up. They are no longer scared even though the cases are actually going up. Recently, the Ministry of Health said they might increase the number of days of lockdown because of this. But people are saying, “We have died of AIDS. We’ve been dying of malaria and Ebola. So even this one, it will kill a few and we still remain.”
Isaac reads some of the testimonies shared that day, Testimony Tuesday, on the TCK What’s App group.
When the lockdown was announced, we had to come up with a plan. One thing we desired to do was keep the interactions and to keep the community, to make sure we are able to reach out to whomever we can. Lockdown means different things for different people. People who have a family, socially they are fine. But a student renting one room in a compound is alone. So we came up with a weekly rhythm and formed a What’s App group – Testimony Tuesday, Word Wednesday (how has God been speaking to you?), Throne Room Thursday (everyone picks an hour to pray), Friday Fellowship (fellowship and discuss the Bible), and Holy Communion on Sundays on Zoom.
Now that we are able to drive personal vehicles again, we have been doing lots of home visits – pastoral care. That’s an opportunity to minister especially to young people. Our pastoral care is currently on steroids so we can connect with the church while cannot meet in person. We try as much as possible to maintain the distance, but it’s a bit tricky. We have a lot of foreigners, especially from the Congo. So we are like their mother and father. When they see us after two months, they want to hug. So we do.
We are currently about 100 congregants. About 80 of those are under the age of 25. We are multicultural as well: Congolese, Kenyan, Ugandan, Canadian, and two Americans. Uganda is a very young country. The average age is 16.1, and the neighborhood we’re in is a university hub, so we are very intentional about reaching young people and discipling them.
Church Planting
Isaac and Rahab explain why they focus on ministering to young people in Kampala.
Before we came to Uganda, we were youth ministers. So when Isaac came scouting for a place to minister, he was looking out for places where there were more young people. He actually refused initially to plant a church because said, “Me, I’m called to youth ministry.”
Pastor Mike [from sending church Nairobi Chapel] told me, “Isaac, I know you have been a youth pastor and have done great things with the youth of this city. We’re sending you to Kampala, but we’re not asking you to lose your youthfulness. We want you to be a youthful lead pastor.” That’s a different thing altogether. He also cautioned me, “If you brand yourself a youth pastor for life, that means that even when God brings opportunities your way that are not dressed in the youth pastor apron, you might reject them and might reject God’s will.” We found that to be an encouragement to take up the challenge. Very scared. Very anxious in the inception days and weeks, but God has helped us navigate and be able to come this far. Any church not reaching out to young people in a country like Uganda that is so young is doing a disservice to the community and the kingdom. They are the majority.
The way that we tailor-make our ministry, our ministry culture, is very intentional to reaching out to young people irrespective of the challenges that comes with reaching out to young people. One of the most thriving ministry arms in the church is a monthly meeting we have for young people called 4G – Good music, Good conversation, and a Good God. It’s interdenominational and we fill the hall with 150 people. We’re doing it online soon because of the pandemic.
Rahab shares about the funny reaction in their neighborhood to the church’s drum kit and passes on their gratitude to Calvary for our support.
Fifty-percent of our church is Congolese, and the Congolese are very musical. So one of the best things we have in our church is good music. Calvary has given us a drum set, microphone, and guitar. [The church is sending a gift to mark TCK’s anniversary that they plan to use to buy a keyboard and discipleship materials, which can be hard for students and other young adults to afford.]
Some people want to join the church to sing in the church ministry. That’s when you discover they might be believers, but they are not discipled. We are very intentional on grounding them. We usually do a 10-week discipleship program and this group then becomes a small group, an Ecclesia group like your Life Groups. Buying their book is sometimes a challenge so we do a lot of borrowing. But when they get grounded, their worship – hallelujah! – it’s so powerful. Because now they are gifted and grounded in the Lord. And that is our joy.
The prayer needs of Trinity Chapel Kampala and the Macharias in their own words.
Trinity Chapel Kampala is now an independent church. This is part of the 5-year plan Nairobi Chapel lays out for church plants. (TCK is in year 4.) Here’s how you can pray the church and for its pastors, the Macharias:
Isaac and Rahab’s marriage and family
Continued provision from God as the church is on its own financially now
Leadership capacity – the Macharia’s are working to raise up leaders within the church
Wisdom as the Macharias and the church navigate this new stage as a church family
A final word from Isaac:
We have experienced some amazing and wonderful blessings. One of the blessings is that our faith has grown. We know what it means to trust in the Lord, it’s not theoretical. It’s something that is real. When you have to trust him for space, when you have to trust him for resources, when you have to trust him for people. Our faith, our trusting in God has really grown because of the kind of terrain that we’re navigating.
Trinity Chapel Kampala is on Facebook. Follow their journey and see their church worship in pictures.
