Pastor Timothy's Story

As promised, here is Pastor Timothy's story. I pray that it speaks to you in a powerful way.

Pastor Timothy grew up in a family of 12. His parents claimed to be Christians and so the children grew up believing they were also Christians. Pastor Timothy was the youngest. His father was a judge for the government when Amin came to power over Uganda. During that time, many people were being tortured and killed, disappearing forever. His father refused to work for Amin because of what was going on. He only wanted to work for justice. Men in the army would come to their home and threaten Pastor Timothy's father. It was May of 1977. On June 22 of that same year, a friend came to their door to break the news that their father and husband was missing. He was never seen again.

After that, things changed in his home and his family became separated. His siblings joined the rebel army to fight against Amin. All of them were killed. His mother left for another village to find food. There was no peace in their home and Pastor Timothy was forced to leave home to find work.

Pastor Timothy started to get involved in the sport of boxing. He met other men and they began to get involved with alcohol. Pastor Timothy became a drunkard and started to rebel and misbehave. He had the skills to go pro, but due to his bad behavior and drunken state, his passport was taken from him so he could not compete. By now, alcohol had begun to control him and in the 80's he found himself looking for his mother in the village she fled to after his father died. He found his mother and they stayed together, but his behavior had not yet changed. He was still very disobedient.

In the late 1980's, God used a missionary from Texas to lead Pastor Timothy to Christ. Three months later, he was chosen by his fellow believers to lead them as their Pastor. At that time, many churches were established and many souls were saved. Pastor Timothy was married in 1984 and by 1991 he had three children. Because pastoring was voluntary work, he had no way of supporting his family. So, as someone who was experienced with the lake, he got a job helping the government to keep people from smuggling goods from Uganda into Kenya by way of Lake Victoria.

In December of 1991, he set out with a crew of four others to find a place where they would be stationed along the islands bordering Uganda and Kenya. At this point, Pastor Timothy was only thinking about money, and no longer about serving God. On December 11th, while his crew was in the middle of the lake, they saw a boat coming towards them. They did not know that this boat was carrying thieves who had planned on stealing what they had. When the boat came near, they realized Pastor Timothy's boat had army men in it and began shooting at them. All but Pastor Timothy died. During this time, Pastor Timothy repented to the Lord and confessed his sin, pleading for help. The thieves took off leaving Pastor Timothy with the dead bodies, which he took to the nearest police. Pastor Timothy was accused of killing these men.

After eight days in jail, he began to preach the Word of God to his fellow inmates. On December 19th, he was taken to court and sentenced to one and a half years in prison. They would continue to search for more evidence against Pastor Timothy. Within three days in prison, his fellow inmates chose him to be their leader. Pastor Timothy told his fellow inmates that he was a pastor and he had accepted the fact that God wanted him to work in that prison to minister to these other prisoners. On 26th day of imprisonment, Pastor Timothy went back to his dormitory after chapel. He said that he received a word from God and to that word he responded, "Lord, I have finished the work you have sent me to do. Open the doors of the prison and let me out." Not knowing where the word came from, he prayed and kept quiet.

During his time in prison, Pastor Timothy saw many miracles happen. Prisoners were released. The sick were healed. God's hand was there.

A couple days later, the night before Pastor Timothy had to go back to court, he had a dream. In this dream the prison walls were falling down on him and he was shouting to the Lord, "I'm dying out of air!" He woke up frightened and as he was going to court, three other prisoners approached him and told him they had a dream that he was going to be released. They were coming to say good-bye and to tell him not to forget them. Pastor Timothy shared his dream with them, but promised he would return because he had a one and a half year sentence to fulfill.

That day, when he went to court, he was released.

Once Pastor Timothy was freed, he returned to his village and continued to Pastor his church. But he never forgot the prisoners. To this day, Pastor Timothy has a heart for prison ministry. He continues to return to prisons to visit and to share the love of Christ. Even though he was disobedient to God, he was given a second chance to serve Him. It is Pastor Timothy's prayer that he can continue to serve the Lord in any situation and be the obedient servant he was called to be.