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Legendary Presenter Baptized

It was last December when the team at Prime Radio, in Kampala, Uganda, went out for their end-of-year staff party at Buloba Forest Beach. In the course of the outing, Daniel Bazaawe had a serious encounter with Christ.

Part of the event included the opportunity for individual staff members to have intercessory prayer and counseling sessions with the station’s board chair, Pastor Josiah Usaba (who is also stewardship director of the Central Uganda Conference). “Whenever a pastor is hosted at a radio function, the station uses the opportunity to ensure that staff members benefit from the pastor’s presence as they are prayed for and given spiritual nurture,” says Prime Radio pastor Mike Mayanja.

Among the people who took advantage of this offer that day was Bazaawe, a Pentecostal Christian who had worked with Prime Radio for 14 years. He currently is a presenter of a dily evening drive show. Before joining the radio team in 2004, he was a part of a secular music band that was headed by a famous singer, Chance Nalubega.

“God answered my prayers that day. I had been praying in sincere yearning that God would save the souls of Prime Radio staff members who have worked diligently for the radio that saves souls.”

“About 5 p.m., I left the party entertainment that was going on, and went to the pastor’s room to explain the personal stress I was going through and receive a prayer of relief,” he says. “As I described my burdens to this pastor, who looked empathetic, he began counseling me and giving me moral support, then started to pray for me.”

The pastor told Bazaawe that he had been deceived by the world’s sugar-coated offers and that there was a Christ who could give him everlasting life. Those words haunted Bazaawe for the next six months.

“Finally, I decided to be baptized into the Seventh-day Adventist Church, which believes in the true Christ,” Bazaawe says. “For the 14 years that I had worked with Prime Radio, I had decided not to listen to all of the preaching that I encountered, lest ‘those people’ convert me into their faith. But during those six months, I had such hard times as I was contemplating the pastor’s statements. Then I surrendered.”

At the baptismal pool, Usaba commended Prime Radio’s work of disseminating the gospel to the masses, noting that it’s even more joyous when staff members too receive Christ as their personal savior.

Mayanja, the station pastor, says, “God answered my prayers that day. I had been praying in sincere yearning that God would save the souls of Prime Radio staff members who have worked diligently for the radio that saves souls.”

The radio’s managing director, Fred Nkayivu, says, “Prime Radio recruits workers on merit, regardless of their spiritual background (save for top management positions), because it is a gospel mission-oriented institution.”

Founded in 2002, Prime Radio has registered baptisms of more than 1,500 souls every year through corporate prayer days, on-air crusades, and open-air crusades, as well as walk-in converts who follow the daily sermons and, after a while, look for the radio pastor for baptism. The station’s slogan is “Gospel, Music, Development, and Charity” which communicates its theme of gospel mission. The broadcasts can be found on frequency 91.9 FM and at www.primeradio.ug for online listeners across the world.

by Faith Nabukeera Kiyaga
Program Director
Prime Radio Uganda

photo by Daniela Bazaawe

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

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