Medad's Testimony - audio
I got a copy of the Cumbernauld service where Medad gave testimony and I have put it up so you can get the authentic rendition rather than my poor summary.
Testimony of Medad Birungi
Medad's Testimony - my summary as best I recall from the above service.
He was the first boy out of 5 children and his father hated his mother because she had borne nothing but girls, his happiness over Medad's birth was short-lived as he was followed by three more girls and his father married five other wives and they were snubbed by him and the other wives. They ended up a family of 32 sharing the one piece of land and it was acrimonious. His father would regularly verbally abuse them and beat his mother sometimes so badly she almost died from the injuries. One day they decided enough was enough and Medad and his eight sisters set upon their father with sticks, stones, burning firewood, anything they could find, when he attacked their mother. He was enraged and swore he would pay them for it.
Some time after their father came and told them he had found somewhere bigger for them to move to where there would be more space for the family. They were excited and overjoyed. So they packed everything up, sold the property and when the trucks were all packed and ready to leave their father singled out Medad and his sisters and told them to get down from the vehicle and he kicked their mother out of the truck saying he didn't want to bring troubles with him and that's all they had been to him. Then he took a bucket which was full of ash and he poured it out on the ground and it was blown in the wind. And he cursed them saying may you be like this ash to me my children and be blown away. They sat huddled around their mother crying as the trucks left. They were destitute and rejected and bitter. They hated their father and all woes thereafter were his fault. They were given board at a neighbour's who said they could stay for three weeks until they found somewhere but all they had was the clothes they were wearing, all their possessions and money was taken on the trucks. This neighbour was very kind to them and they ended up staying there for ten years. They lived by scouring rubbish bins for food daily and their mother worked so that eventually at age 10 Medad was sent to a school where the headmaster gave him chores to do, the payment for which was put towards his fees which his mother topped up.
Things improved for them when one of Medad's sisters married a wealthy man and she bought them a house and land and paid to send Medad to boarding school and he excelled academically. But the curse of their father was never far from them and during this time under the rule of the Muslim dictator Idi Amin many people were being murdered and people conspired in disapproval of his sisters' assistance to the family and she was murdered, shot eight times. And their father and his wives celebrated Medad's sister's death. And the world came crashing down around them. They cursed their father tenfold, they prayed for his death, they went to witch doctors, he refused to die. They no longer went to church and Medad turned to alcoholism and sank into deep depression. He would see student returning from school and would die a bit inside knowing he had the ability but the means was taken away. He called himself a walking corpse, he was full of hatred for his father and his sister's killers, and full of self loathing for himself after a lifetime of denigration from his father's lips. He tried to commit suicide nine times. Once he was stopped on his way to throw himself down the waterfalls by a Christian lady who told Him Christ could turn his 'mess into a message' and she stopped him from going through with it.
He was saved in 1982(?) when a Christian group sang at their school and someone spoke of God being able to forgive you for ALL your sins, no matter how bad a person you were and that you had to forgive those who had wronged you to which Medad stood up and shouted "I will never forgive them!" and stormed out. He got on a bus but still he was stirred by this thought of God being willing to forgive even someone like him and the Spirit broke him on that bus and spoke he wept and almost compulsively declared out loud on that 60 mile bus journey the names of each person (he had a list of people he had sworn to kill before he died in revenge for his sister's murder) he had hated and declared his forgiveness of them. When he got home that night he told his mother what he had decided and that he had forgiven his father and she broke down and accepted Christ that night also. He and his mother declared war against the devil in their family. Their was much witchcraft, charms and so forth and they renounced it all and within four weeks all his sisters were saved and they began praying for their father.
Their father fell seriously ill and alone and he sent word to them to please come and take him to the hospital for the operation he needed. They got a car and travelled the 200 miles to pick him up and they took him to the hospital. He was in hospital for seven months(?) and every day it was Medad's mother who sat with him, fed him, washed him and tended to him. A miracle of restoration was taking place in Medad's family. Though their father and Satan had cursed them and again and again tried to crush them utterly, Jesus had never cursed them. Though their father emigrated and left them with nothing, Jesus never emigrated he had the final word that no curse could withstand and it was spoken over their family as Medad and his mother and sisters consented to full and unconditional forgiveness of the wrings done to them. Their father got out of hospital and came home and he wept like a baby that day and begged their forgiveness and they begged his and he was reconciled to his wife and they ate and walked together again and both died happy in God and each other.
Today all Medad's sisters are married to highly respected and influential men in Uganda, Medad is married to Connie (or as he calls her 'Miss Uganda') with five children, he has four degrees and last year was ordained into the Anglican church after reconciling with his Arch Bishop who had him excommunicated, in front of hundreds of ministers, from the church in 1989 for introducing too much 'Pentecostalism' into his services after being filled with the Spirit in 1987.
The devil tried to destroy Medad's virtue of forgiveness by bringing strife from a fellow believer and public humiliation and this was much harder to forgive than an unbeliever as they should know better but God told Medad forgiveness was his "breakfast, lunch and dinner" and he called the bishop and told him that he forgave him for what he had done and they were reconciled. As he said tough time may come and go but tough people, people of Destiny, remain.
In 2000 Medad's vision to ensure no woman, son or daughter had to endure what his family had endured blossomed into World Shine Ministries, an inter-denominational, multi-focused ministry who's goal of 'Preparing the church to shine for Christ for the healing of the nations' (Rev 22:2) is pursued through an ever widening scope of activities from evangelism, missions, bible training, cell groups, prayer to social, education and health programmes helping widows, AIDS orphans among other disadvantaged groups and showing the transforming power of the love of Christ through practical acts (the 'washing of feet') as well as preaching and training.
I was very moved listening to Medad's testimony and when I accompanied him and Robert the following day to our (Struthers Memorial) Church in Cumbernauld on Sunday evening he again shared it but with an increasing sense of awesome reality of God on the congregation and as he rounded off speaking of how it was missionaries from Scotland who brought the Gospel to Uganda and for him to come here and see churches being turned into night-clubs and homes and shops and the empty youth walking the streets, the spirits of religiosity and intellectualism that have paralysed the western church he is deeply pained and burdened for this country. And the stark contrast between the faith proven power and reality of God in this man's testimony from half a world away and the spiritual apathy and half-heartedness that characterises even the best of us in Scottish and UK churches it moved us to tears and the congregation went straight into an agony of prayer after he sat down and Diana came to lead. Whether an agony for our selves or our nation or all at once, I couldn't tell you, but it was shame and contrition and obeisance to the Living God brought so simply and powerfully before us by this man from a savage background and a savage continent. Humbling our civilised Religion of vapour and smoke and kindling a fresh fire of yearning to be the change in a darkening world.
Testimony of Medad Birungi
Medad's Testimony - my summary as best I recall from the above service.
He was the first boy out of 5 children and his father hated his mother because she had borne nothing but girls, his happiness over Medad's birth was short-lived as he was followed by three more girls and his father married five other wives and they were snubbed by him and the other wives. They ended up a family of 32 sharing the one piece of land and it was acrimonious. His father would regularly verbally abuse them and beat his mother sometimes so badly she almost died from the injuries. One day they decided enough was enough and Medad and his eight sisters set upon their father with sticks, stones, burning firewood, anything they could find, when he attacked their mother. He was enraged and swore he would pay them for it.
Some time after their father came and told them he had found somewhere bigger for them to move to where there would be more space for the family. They were excited and overjoyed. So they packed everything up, sold the property and when the trucks were all packed and ready to leave their father singled out Medad and his sisters and told them to get down from the vehicle and he kicked their mother out of the truck saying he didn't want to bring troubles with him and that's all they had been to him. Then he took a bucket which was full of ash and he poured it out on the ground and it was blown in the wind. And he cursed them saying may you be like this ash to me my children and be blown away. They sat huddled around their mother crying as the trucks left. They were destitute and rejected and bitter. They hated their father and all woes thereafter were his fault. They were given board at a neighbour's who said they could stay for three weeks until they found somewhere but all they had was the clothes they were wearing, all their possessions and money was taken on the trucks. This neighbour was very kind to them and they ended up staying there for ten years. They lived by scouring rubbish bins for food daily and their mother worked so that eventually at age 10 Medad was sent to a school where the headmaster gave him chores to do, the payment for which was put towards his fees which his mother topped up.
Things improved for them when one of Medad's sisters married a wealthy man and she bought them a house and land and paid to send Medad to boarding school and he excelled academically. But the curse of their father was never far from them and during this time under the rule of the Muslim dictator Idi Amin many people were being murdered and people conspired in disapproval of his sisters' assistance to the family and she was murdered, shot eight times. And their father and his wives celebrated Medad's sister's death. And the world came crashing down around them. They cursed their father tenfold, they prayed for his death, they went to witch doctors, he refused to die. They no longer went to church and Medad turned to alcoholism and sank into deep depression. He would see student returning from school and would die a bit inside knowing he had the ability but the means was taken away. He called himself a walking corpse, he was full of hatred for his father and his sister's killers, and full of self loathing for himself after a lifetime of denigration from his father's lips. He tried to commit suicide nine times. Once he was stopped on his way to throw himself down the waterfalls by a Christian lady who told Him Christ could turn his 'mess into a message' and she stopped him from going through with it.
He was saved in 1982(?) when a Christian group sang at their school and someone spoke of God being able to forgive you for ALL your sins, no matter how bad a person you were and that you had to forgive those who had wronged you to which Medad stood up and shouted "I will never forgive them!" and stormed out. He got on a bus but still he was stirred by this thought of God being willing to forgive even someone like him and the Spirit broke him on that bus and spoke he wept and almost compulsively declared out loud on that 60 mile bus journey the names of each person (he had a list of people he had sworn to kill before he died in revenge for his sister's murder) he had hated and declared his forgiveness of them. When he got home that night he told his mother what he had decided and that he had forgiven his father and she broke down and accepted Christ that night also. He and his mother declared war against the devil in their family. Their was much witchcraft, charms and so forth and they renounced it all and within four weeks all his sisters were saved and they began praying for their father.
Their father fell seriously ill and alone and he sent word to them to please come and take him to the hospital for the operation he needed. They got a car and travelled the 200 miles to pick him up and they took him to the hospital. He was in hospital for seven months(?) and every day it was Medad's mother who sat with him, fed him, washed him and tended to him. A miracle of restoration was taking place in Medad's family. Though their father and Satan had cursed them and again and again tried to crush them utterly, Jesus had never cursed them. Though their father emigrated and left them with nothing, Jesus never emigrated he had the final word that no curse could withstand and it was spoken over their family as Medad and his mother and sisters consented to full and unconditional forgiveness of the wrings done to them. Their father got out of hospital and came home and he wept like a baby that day and begged their forgiveness and they begged his and he was reconciled to his wife and they ate and walked together again and both died happy in God and each other.
Today all Medad's sisters are married to highly respected and influential men in Uganda, Medad is married to Connie (or as he calls her 'Miss Uganda') with five children, he has four degrees and last year was ordained into the Anglican church after reconciling with his Arch Bishop who had him excommunicated, in front of hundreds of ministers, from the church in 1989 for introducing too much 'Pentecostalism' into his services after being filled with the Spirit in 1987.
The devil tried to destroy Medad's virtue of forgiveness by bringing strife from a fellow believer and public humiliation and this was much harder to forgive than an unbeliever as they should know better but God told Medad forgiveness was his "breakfast, lunch and dinner" and he called the bishop and told him that he forgave him for what he had done and they were reconciled. As he said tough time may come and go but tough people, people of Destiny, remain.
In 2000 Medad's vision to ensure no woman, son or daughter had to endure what his family had endured blossomed into World Shine Ministries, an inter-denominational, multi-focused ministry who's goal of 'Preparing the church to shine for Christ for the healing of the nations' (Rev 22:2) is pursued through an ever widening scope of activities from evangelism, missions, bible training, cell groups, prayer to social, education and health programmes helping widows, AIDS orphans among other disadvantaged groups and showing the transforming power of the love of Christ through practical acts (the 'washing of feet') as well as preaching and training.
I was very moved listening to Medad's testimony and when I accompanied him and Robert the following day to our (Struthers Memorial) Church in Cumbernauld on Sunday evening he again shared it but with an increasing sense of awesome reality of God on the congregation and as he rounded off speaking of how it was missionaries from Scotland who brought the Gospel to Uganda and for him to come here and see churches being turned into night-clubs and homes and shops and the empty youth walking the streets, the spirits of religiosity and intellectualism that have paralysed the western church he is deeply pained and burdened for this country. And the stark contrast between the faith proven power and reality of God in this man's testimony from half a world away and the spiritual apathy and half-heartedness that characterises even the best of us in Scottish and UK churches it moved us to tears and the congregation went straight into an agony of prayer after he sat down and Diana came to lead. Whether an agony for our selves or our nation or all at once, I couldn't tell you, but it was shame and contrition and obeisance to the Living God brought so simply and powerfully before us by this man from a savage background and a savage continent. Humbling our civilised Religion of vapour and smoke and kindling a fresh fire of yearning to be the change in a darkening world.