Watoto Church on 21 May organised a mega family festival at Namboole Stadium, located 8km on the Kampala-Jinja highway.
Hundreds of thousands attended the celebration from all across the country. Gates were open at 9 a.m and lunch served in cell groups, whose leaders were later appreciated for outstanding ministry.
In her emotional speech, Marilyn Skinner reminded the Church of where the Lord has brought the ministry from.
We will not forget who blessed us, who had brought us through, she said.
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Her Speech:
I love 1 Peter 1:3 that says; What a God we have! And how fortunate we are to have him. I don’t know about you, but I would be very unfortunate if it wasn’t for Jesus Christ. I am standing here declaring before you that Jesus is famous for turning the unfortunate to the fortunate. I’m just a simple Canadian Pastor’s daughter, married to the most wonderful man in all the world… – but it was 34 years ago when God called Garry and I to Uganda.
God still speaks to people today. He didn’t just speak to Noah saying; it is going to rain, I want you to build me a boat, or to Moses; I want you to lead me a couple to million people out of slavery. He still speaks to men and women today if we are willing to listen. And 34 years ago, God spoke to Garry. He said; I want you to move to Kampala, Uganda – I want you to start an English speaking Church down town in the heart of the city. And through that church I will touch the city and I will touch the nation.
So 34 years ago, November 5th 1983 we moved to Uganda and friends, I have got to tell you, back then Uganda was not a country people were running to. It was a country everybody was running away from. It was so dangerous, we have gun fire every single night. sometimes across the city, sometimes across the street and sometimes on our front yard.
And there were very many occasions when our family could have been very unfortunate. But because of Jesus, 34 years latter we can stand here and give praise honor and glory to the name that is above every other name.
We had armed thugs try to break into our house in the middle of the night when I was all alone. 25 men for 3 hours tried to break down a simple wooden door but they could not get through it. I was so scared, we had only been here 3 months. And I had a message to give the man of God when he got home . I could picture the scene in my mind. He was going to drive the car down the drive way and expect me to come out and give him a big kiss… But I wan’t going to do that. I was going to walk down with my hands around my hips to say; Garry, what kind of crazy man could bring a wife and 3 Children to a place like this. They have a name for you here in Uganda, “Mulalu” (Luganda word used to refer to someone mentally incapacitated); take me home to my mother in Canada.
But you know friends, I had a voice. I had the voice of Jesus. That voice said; get up girl. I didn’t bring you to Uganda to be paralyzed by fear. I brought you here for a reason. I had had to do what I believe was the most important decision in my life.
I had to chose if fear had to be stronger than faith or that faith going to be stronger than fear. I said that if God can keep 25 men from breaking a simple wooden door, there is nothing in this world that He can’t do.
We have had men come in with guns, tie us up with electric cables, steal our things, demand more money yet we didn’t have the money. They put a gun to Garry’s head. Three times they coached a loaded gun, pulled the trigger but that gun would not go off. But I know a Man, and He is famous for turning the unfortunate into the unfortunate.
We were called a starter Church. We started April 2nd 1984 in Imperial Hotel, Crystal suit. But I tell people that it was not Imperial, Crystal and it wasn’t a suit. There were no light bulbs in the hotel. We had to bring our won light bulbs and screw them into the circuits. There were no chairs. We had to air-lift 400 chairs from London and chain them to the water pipes in the imperial hotel so people would not steal them during the week.
There were no electric circuits to plug in the sound system. So Garry taught me how to hot-wire (put wires together so that we have power). I have to tell you, 75 people showed up for that very first service. And the most important person of all showed up, His name is Jesus Christ.
Church I have to tell you, when Jesus walks into a room, everything changes. people change. cities, nations change. And the last 34 years of our life we have been tens of thousands of people transformed by the power of the good news. Transformed by the love of Jesus. And you are some of those people.
But not only have we seen tens of thousands of people transformed, we have seen an entire nation transformed as Jesus Culture has filtrated every sphere of influence. And the Uganda that we enjoy today is not the Uganda I knew 34 years ago. After 2 years we had out grown the Imperial Hotel. And then God led us to what was the larges auditorium in the whole country – Norman cinema. I will never forget walking in the first time.
As we walked through those side doors, the roof leaked so badly that when it rained, you had to get an umbrella inside to stay dry. The walls were sticky with rain. The screen was torn apart…as we walked through those doors, Garry cried out; Oh God, what a waste of a beautiful building. And then he had a vision, he didn’t see it the way it was, he saw it the way it could be.
Isn’t that like Jesus, He doesn’t see us the way we are. He sees us the way we could be. And we knew that was the building we had to have. We had a little problem, because Museveni wasn’t yet the president. There was a civil war going on. And when they would catch the rebels, they would bring them to the Norman cinema. They could torture them and even kill them in that building. There was no way we were going to get it. We did the only thing we know how to do.
When you call on Jesus, all things are possible. For one year we prayed, God give us the building. The political situation got worse. One day the American ambassador came to our house and said; Mr Skinner, I cannot tell you that you need to leave Uganda, but you need to seriously ask your self; why are you here.
And he told us how he has sent our his family, his team. And I was standing behind Garry saying; Yes Garry, listen to the ambassador. He is the voice of God for our family. We got down on our knees and prayed. We said; God if you want us to go, we will go, if you want us to stay, we will count the cost and we will pay the price even if it is with our lives.
And God spoke, and I didn’t want His answer. He said; Garry don’t go…So we went to the army, asked them if we could use the building. We told clean it, pain it. I think the idea of free paint appealed to them. So they told us we could use the building for two weeks.
To make the long story short, in the middle of two weeks to special meetings where hundreds of people coming, finding new life in Jesus Christ, Museveni matched into town, over threw the government, and all the soldiers who had threatened our lives run away for their lives, leaving us in the building and we have never left. God gave us that building January 26th 1986. and every Sunday now, we see without our eyes what Garry saw in his vision.
It has been renovated, full of light, and over 30,000 people gather every single Sunday to celebrate this God who is famous for turning the unfortunate in the fortunate. I was reading Deuteronomy 8 – Remember your story. When you remember your story, never forget who blessed you. We will not forget who blessed us, what He brought us through. We will not forget who gave us that building.
