 |
Victory Christian Centre |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Bishop Joseph Serwadda of Uganda is overseer of 13,000 churches, and began the only Christian radio station in the East Africa nation, which reaches 8.5 million listeners daily. A former schoolteacher educated in Uganda, England, and the United States, he speaks three languages, including Arabic. He teaches in Arabic and uses the Quran to lead Muslims to Christ. One of his Islamic converts now pastors the second largest church in Uganda.
Bishop Serwadda became born again in 1975 on Christmas Eve at a street crusade. In 1977, when President Idi Amin banned all Christian churches, Bishop Serwadda escaped to Kenya where he remained four years, attending Bible school. He returned to Uganda in 1982 and began ministering on the streets of Kampala City as a street evangelist.
Out of these meetings in 1985, he and his wife Freda, a pastor, established their first church in a rented facility. In 1990, they relocated to permanent premises in Ndeeba, a southern suburb of Kampala City, where the ministry operates today.
That same year, God spoke to Bishop Serwadda to start a radio station. Due to government regulations, he was unable to broadcast until 1997. The station transmits on two frequencies, and plans to expand to the east of Uganda are under way. The main 4-kilowatt transmitter covers a 200-kilometer radius of Kampala, the capital city, including 14 neighboring districts. The second 1-kilowatt transmitter reaches the southern part of Uganda and parts of northern Tanzania, covering six districts.
Impact FM radio broadcasts 24 hours a day in English and in Luganda, the local dialect. Selected programs and newscasts are relayed from a satellite linked to Christian Voice International, a radio station based in the United Kingdom, which gives Impact FM an international flavor. In November 2001, Impact FM radio was voted the number one Christian station in the region.
At the 2004 New Year’s Namboliie Festival in Uganda, Bishop Serwadda brought together 130,000 Ugandans, including 3,200 pastors, to worship the Lord. Thirty-one thousand people gave their hearts to Jesus Christ.
Bishop and Mrs. Serwadda have 13 children – eight of their own, plus two adopted sons and three adopted daughters. |
|
|
|