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What’s Working in Uganda

As technology advanced in African countries during the past few years, the Seventh-day Adventist Church realized that radio, television, and Internet preaching were beginning to take the place of traditional open-air preaching.

This led church leaders in Uganda – particularly the Central Uganda Conference – to establish Prime Radio a decade ago, with the goal of taking gospel outreach to another level.

Prime Radio can be heard locally on 91.9 FM and online at cucsda.org and primeradio.org. Since the station was established, many individuals have found Christian truth through its broadcasts, and hundreds of people have been baptized.

Two years ago, Prime Radio introduced the concept of on-air evangelistic events. Managing director Fred Nkayivu explains: “We have so far counted more than 1,500 people baptized from live meetings and on-air events, but we cannot ascertain the exact number, as we always encourage people to go to a nearby Adventist church for baptism.”

The station reserves 8 to 9 p.m. local time for these evangelism programs. Adventist church members and other loyal Prime Radio listeners mobilize their neighbors and friends to tune in for at least that hour.

“As the organizer, you don’t need to mobilize campers or spend funds on a venue, food, and public address system. This is the greatest advantage of radio over open-air crusades,” says Pastor Mayanja, the Prime Radio pastor. “Radio also reaches the ‘Nicodemus characters,’ who would fear coming out to declare their acceptance of salvation. I have witnessed religious leaders and great politicians drive to the radio station in Kireka, looking for me for baptism.”

Since 2011, five on-air evangelistic events have been broadcast. The results? Every single series has resulted in baptisms, with a total to date of 103 people taking their stand for Christ.

During the broadcasts, Mayanja invites those who have accepted the gospel to come to Prime Radio for baptism on the last day of the series. For those who live many miles from the station, he encourages them to look for a nearby Seventh-day Adventist church in which to be baptized. In that case, it is difficult to confirm the number of people who have joined the church, but Mayanja says he believes there are many.

The good news does not stop at the border of Uganda, however. In the most recent series, five people were baptized in the United States, after listening to the messages through primeradio.org.

The most recent radio evangelism series took place earlier this year, led by Pastor Hannington Ntuulo. In his final message, Ntuulo cited examples of people in the Bible who made the best choice of their lives when they chose Christ. He encouraged the brand-new church members, “You have now made the best choice ever in your life.”

Mother and child listening to radio in front of simple home.

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