My name is Joseph Byamukama and I do serve with Veracity Fount Ministry in Kampala, Uganda.
How Jesus Found Joseph
I was born and raised a Roman Catholic – one that was religiously so. One that attended the ritual ceremonies and and Catholic services but one that never had a personal relationship with God.
So, I came to faith in my high school. I was part, you know, in a boarding school, in a cubicle, and my cubical mate, or you know we had those divisions where we were staying, one of the members was actually a believer. And so, he used to share the gospel with me constantly but I was quite resistant until one day God arrested me, and I believed.
The Bible Transformed Joseph
Now, what he did was give me the Bible and say, “Read it every day, memorize scripture from it and come for prayer.” Now reading God’s word transformed the way I thought about God, the way I thought about life, the way I thought about myself. So that my identity began to be oriented around God and his word. And that gave me meaning, it gave me purpose to live as well so that now I could not think of a life, indeed, a meaningful life, apart from a life that is lived for God. And that has shaped of course everything that I do. That my perspective towards everything including investment, including relationships, including marriage, including ministry, including work, it has all been shaped by God’s word but precisely because this brother cared deeply enough to invite me to have faith and to believe in Christ and to present and give me the Bible for myself to be able to read, to memorize, to meditate and to live it out.
Favorite Hymns And Why?
That’s a hard one, because I have quite a number, but one of them being, There is a Fountain. Right, because of its rich theology. Because of the fact that us as sinners you know as stained as we are can wash and be free within the fountain. Its lyrics of course are deeply rich but also invitational in that sense. And they offer assurance – assurance of salvation, assurance of the redemption that the cross provides, assurance away from my own abilities, away from what I can do, what I cannot do as well but rooted in the work of the cross of Jesus Christ. So, I would say that’s one of my favorite hymns.
The other is, The Old Rugged Cross as well which almost has similar themes.
I love those deep, rich, biblical doctrinal hymns that as well are congregational that invites us to sing together and not performance based in as such where you have people that are more in your singing and instruments but rather as a chorus, as a whole community, as a whole congregation we can confess the cross, we can confess the salvation that we have, the redemption, the cleansing, the justification, that assurance of God’s work and all that. So, for me, hymns are quite instrumental you know in terms of shaping our theology but also bringing us together as a community to sing out loud in praise to what God has done.
