On October 11, last weekend, a Sunday, I was graciously invited to the Kampala Bible Revelation Church at Makerere Mukubira Zone. I was invited to attend a book launch by Pastor Samuel Owere. He had just written a book titled, The Wife of My Youth: A Journey of Choice, Intentionality, And Commitment.
As I stood penitently at the approaches of the church, I worried that God might send down a bolt of lightning to smite me. After all, the last time I went to church, George Bush Jr was still president of the USA and Suunda, a pulsating dancehall song by Ziggy Dee featuring Bobi Wine, was still getting groovy behinds on the dance floor.
In the church
Walking in ever so gingerly, I looked up and then looked around. The coast was clear. God must have deferred my personal denouement, I thought. In the place of divine retribution, I was effusively greeted by churchgoers with the warmth often reserved for a long lost relative.
I must have been hugged by thirty persons as the love and good cheer in the church armed me with the harmony I required to relax. I was home again, a prodigal in the face of prodigious love. Sermons followed.
Initially, I imagined fire and brimstone cascading from the pulpit with a vengeance. Instead, pastor Owere, his beloved wife Hope Siima and a medley other preachers talked about the love that inspired this epic book.
“Finally, you have a book in your hands that has answers which are rare to find. Finally, you have in your hands a book which has come out of the many years experience ever since Pastor Sam Owere married his wife Hope in his youth to date,” said Hanning Mutukiriza, a senior pastor at Kampala Bible Revelation Church.
“Marriage in this context involves a man and a woman who live together as husband and wife. You would like to know that Pastor Sam Owere has had challenges and through them he never gave up but instead used those challenges to learn about marriage principles which have kept his marriage going from glory to glory. I have known Pastor Sam Jamwa Owere and his wife for over three decades.”