Quarterly Events
& Prayer Requests
(for the Oyako Family News go HERE)
Renovating our Conference Facility
19th May 2013
Dear Prayer Partner,
We want to genuinely thank you for praying with us over various challenges; most especially the ministry related ones.
Last year, 2012, we could have saved over USD 4,000 used on rentals for trainings. We had two seminars conducted at Youth With A Mission base in Jinja. The first was a church leaders' seminar for 10 days. Accommodation alone for 50 leaders cost us over USD 3,500. The other was a three-day meeting for our sponsored girls at the same venue costing us near USD 500 on accommodation alone. These expenses would have been altogether avoided had we used our own premise in Soroti.
[Repair work on progress. Expert women are hired to repair the roofs].
At the beginning of this year, God put in our hearts strongly to renovate our facility in Soroti for the purpose of our own trainings, and probably hire it out for others in a way of raising income for the ministry. This property was not in effective use since 2005 when our strategy of residential training shifted to a decentralized one, although it was used temporality as a camp site for people fleeing LRA incursion in Teso sub region.
Revival Time Ministry began in Ngora, Kumi district in March 1993, from a rented premises belonging to Mr. Eriya Mambule. We had a discipleship school as well as evangelism training center. However, in 1997, we purchased property near Soroti town (4Kms away) and immediately constructed temporal structures to house the School of Disciple Ministry as well as School of Evangelism.
By year 2005, the records show that 207 pastors and evangelist all over Uganda had received thorough discipleship training, Basics in Theology, Church Leadership and Administration in 19 weeks residential sessions. The schools of evangelism had recorded 5,280 new Christian converts, and 27 churches planted and all are still standing. This was done in collaboration with PAG, Faith Mission of Uganda, Uganda Mission of Hope and other leading Pentecostal churches in Uganda.
The structures were basically grass roofed huts with cement screed floors. The walls were not plastered. It had expensive wooden beds, bed sheets, bed covers, towels, pillows etc. It had all the needed utensils and cutlery, plus all the necessary facilities. The capacity was for only 25 students.
Our focus remains largely of equipping the church of Jesus Christ through training and Discipleship of church leaders throughout the country. Our strategy is shifting back to the beginning where we invited participants to our base for training for 19 weeks. For this time, we will run 19 weeks sessions, but probably 2 weeks maximum. This would save me from too much running from place to place.
This year, we are not only targeting the renovation, but expansion from the original capacity of 25 to 40 and even more with time. The process includes replacing grass on the roofs of all the huts, plastering the walls, replacing the broken doors and windows, purchasing all the beddings, utensils, repairing and replacing broken or stolen furniture etc. The tent which was serving as a hall was damaged and the stands were also stolen. Our immediate challenge is to find the solution for that as well as storage facility. The total cost for basic renovation and upgrading the facility, excluding fencing is USD 9,000.
From 22nd July to 3rd August this year, we will have a seminar with 40 select church leaders in our base in Soroti rather than rented premise elsewhere. We plan to conduct all other meeting including annual girls' seminar in our base this year.
Because of high demand for affordable training facility in Soroti, we intend to make our facility available for others who may want to hire it as long as it is not in our use. This is a way of us raising some income for Revival Time Ministry.
We want to thank God that the work has begun and is in steady progress. We were able find grass for all the huts from Katawii, about 3 hours from Soroti town. One small bundle of grass costs us USD1. We have spent over USD 1,500 on the grass, transport, ropes and labor. Replacement of grass is successfully done. We received about 30% of the total budget from our faithful friend. We are urgently in need of the deficit of 70% before mid July. Please, pray with us.
Some of you ( my friends) requested that I produce a blog of my teaching ministry. I am still struggling with access to the blog. You may try it now. revival-time-ministries.info/Messages (blog).
I will appreciate if you continue to pray with us over this crucial project.
Pastor Isaac Peter Oyako
Exec. Supervisor/ Founder of Revival Time Ministry
Tel. +256 772 475720
To reach me by email use this contact form
University Ministry
and Prayer Requests
Dear Friends in the Lord Jesus Christ,
We are indeed delighted to share our ministry experience and excitement for University and college students in Uganda. We consider this a great privilege, and real opportunity to impact the youth and influence a future generation.
In the beginning of this year, I perceived that the Holy Spirit was guiding me to disciple college and university students. These are usually regarded as difficult communities by many of my colleagues in ministry; according to them, one needs to have sound academic credentials and eloquence in English to penetrate these communities. To me, the opposite is true; these are the easiest to disciple and open-minded candidates for positive change. The church in Uganda is missing a real opportunity to shape the future nation through building real Biblical values into lives and thinking of these people.
Only three months into this venture, we have become a real darling to universities and colleges. They call me “our Papa!” The National Teachers College honored me as a chief guest in a colorful hand over ceremony. I declined that offer, but two weeks later Busitema University gave me the same honor. To be a chief guest (Guest of honor) is not usually what I crave for. It comes with a price tag, that of wearing a full suit regardless of the temperatures, restricted behavior, and choice of words etc. I love the simple life; comfortable clothing and plenty of jokes and laughter. I am not diplomat material.
The students demand that my wife accompany me often. That was fine, but since traveling was on a Friday, I had to wait for my wife to dispatch part of her duties first. We set for a six hour journey at 3:00pm on Friday afternoon, arriving in Soroti town at about 9:00 pm, tired and properly beaten by the potholes and galleys on extremely bad roads. The 100 km stretch between Soroti and Mbale took us 4 plus hours. The road terrain could simply be described as impassable. While trying to rest in the PAG guesthouse, I got a reminder phone call from the Pastor of PAG Jinja that I was to preach on Sunday morning. The previous Sunday, 7th of April, I was supposed to be the preacher, but I was no where to be seen. I was at HTTI. When the announcement was made for a preacher, there was none for that Sunday.
So we had to cut our guesthouse booking to only one day and travel back to Jinja to catch up with church service. Unfortunately the function was so huge with many invited guests and activity that it ended at 7:30 pm. We left Soroti after 8:00 pm, arriving at our home in Jinja at 2:00 am. The service in PAG Jinja was scheduled to start 8:30 am; just six hours away. And above all I had no sermon prepared for such a big church. Fortunately, my wife had slept most the way, so I got a good chance to prepare my sermon on my head as I drove. But I did not just need one sermon but two. I had again forgotten that I had another distinct service in the afternoon with the youths.
By God’s grace, it all came out very well: People were blessed. It appears that I am not organized, but that is never really the case. I had everything written down in paper, but too much pressure from all corners. Sometimes, I find it difficult to disappoint people.
In 1994, I visited England and an old Englishman asked me a question,” Isaac, do you know what you have to learn? You have to learn to say No.”
Please, pray with me. In my outreach schedule for second quarter I have blank places for office work and counseling people.
Also pray for provision for fuel and car maintenance. I am doing it all by faith, and some times really struggling in areas of fuel and car maintenance.
Pray that God touches people to share the little they can spare for this ministry. We have Western Union and Money gram service every where in Jinja. I will be delighted to receive any amount for missions.
Easter News 2013
…“It is finished”… (John 19:30). The single Greek word translated, “ It is finished” used in this text had also been found in the papyri placed on tax receipts in the ancient times “meaning paid in full”. That denotes that the work of redemption for mankind had been accomplished fully. That was my purpose and a message on Easter Sunday.
Last weekend was a blessed time for true Christians: It was a time to reflect on the goodness and the mercies of God, but to the world, it was another holiday time; a time to eat, to drink and carouse.
When that time came, beginning with Good Friday, I had more invitations and opportunities to share the word of God with various people in various churches than I could bear single handedly. I sifted through the lists and discovered that I had double appointments. This was a huge error.
Good enough, I had deliberately left my April with breathing spaces which became useful leeways.
I was supposed to have confirmed my appointments by Thursday, but this fell through. I spent more than 30% of my day time in a traffic jam in Kampala city. Traffic jams in Kampala can be really nasty, most especially prior to important days.
When I got home late on Thursday, my wife had already prepared tools for me to officiate the two marriages on a Saturday morning across the Nile, about 20 minutes from our house. I knew there were wedding ceremonies coming up, but some how did not expect them to be that close.
The most close-by was to speak in an over night (all night prayer) revival prayer meeting the next day (Friday night). I had fixed an appointment for Easter Week-end with busy clients (counselees) from Kampala who had been tracking with me on phone for some time.
The only solution was to cram all these activities in that Easter weekend. But sincerely, I had no preparation for any: I was not at all prepared for all-night-through revival prayer meeting as the main speaker, neither was I really prepared with my wedding sermons. More over not just one couple, but two. I felt I did not have the grace to conduct a fruitful counseling sessions either.
But just as it was “finished” at the cross, God’s Grace took over in my circumstance. God sometimes works where I am least prepared. When I stepped up in the pulpit that night, I had no idea of what to say to a congregation of five churches gathered for that over night prayer meeting. I had been a Bible teacher for more that 20 years, but the Holy Spirit prevented me from using any recycled messages of the past. I stepped out into the pulpit blank-ready to lead prayer and intercession.
Five minutes in the pulpit, and there came a strong message as an encouragement to me first, and to the congregation. I talked about the power from Pentecost - the life-giving power.
After another 40 minutes, demons began manifesting (people falling, rolling on the floor and yelling loudly). I was into a deliverance ministry unexpectedly. Two pastors stepped forward voluntarily to assist with deliverance process. We took three hours conducting deliverance, before the whole congregation burst into tongues. I led spiritual warfare around the church building. It was a tremendous blessing, purely out of God’s own Grace. When we had done, it was 5:00 am in the morning. We listened to testimonies of deliverance and healings up to 5:45 am. I could not believe I was in the pulpit for more than 5 straight hours.
As my wife and I drove back home at 6:00 am to catch some sleep, the Lord told me that the devil had deceived His people, most especially the youth to neglect the Holy Ghost operation. We need to go back to that Pentecostal experience once again if we have to build a church of excellence.
I had about three hours to sleep before driving across River Nile to officiate at marriage ceremonies. That took me up to 8:45 pm.
The following morning I had to deliver an Easter Sermon before meeting the first counselees.
I met Sister Hellen, a school teacher from Kampala immediately after Sunday service. She had been counseling with me on phone for close to 4 weeks. I had a good two hours with her.
We had a late Easter lunch before taking on another set of clients up to 8:00 pm in the night. My email had not been attended to for close to three days, so I had to catch up with Easter greetings messages before retiring to bed.
But that next day was not without a challenge. On my way from the wedding ceremony at about 9:00 pm, the car blackened out and stopped at the middle of the road near the narrow bridge of river Nile. The automatic transmission just got stuck. It was time to sweat, and I did it profusely.
I called my mechanic who rushed in, but we had to clear the road for the already frustrated motorists first. He disengaged and two us pushed the car off the common path. Upon checking, it was the charging system that had failed and battery went flat.
Our first child and the only daughter, Liz Oyako had endeavored to come home from Kampala where she is attending University to discuss with me how she could proceed with getting a passport. Liz is invited by our friends, and is preparing to travel to the USA in December 2013. She is eager to experience winter and attend this year's Christmas in the USA, and probably New Year too. She has to get the passport first, then the USA visa.
But guess what? She could not get my attention and by this time she was frustrated. Unfortunately, Easter Monday could not could not work for; she had to return to Kampala on Monday morning as I woke up at 9:00 am.
I enjoyed my Monday rest. It was a sweet rest full of satisfaction, Amen!
Pastor Isaac Peter Oyako
[Previous reports are moved to the archive; Please check the index there for a link]
