Pastor Robert Kasaija of The Redeemed of the Lord Evangelistic Church in Makerere. ROLEC Photo.
The Redeemed Of The Lord Evangelistic Church commonly known as ROLEC, is set to celebrate 40 years of God’s faithfulness on 8th December, 2019.
Earlier this year, the ministry stated that: “A lot has happened, ministry has grown, prophesies have been fulfilled and members have been blessed.”
The born-again church dedicated to preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ in Uganda and beyond started 1979, after the fall of Idi Amin Dada, the then president of Uganda.
Amin’s regime was known for its hatred and persecution of the church. This prompted a section of Christian ladies and men to commit themselves to prayer and fasting for the freedom of the church in Uganda.
As the gatherings grew by each day, the Redeemed Society of the Lord, as it was then called, became an increasingly influential congregation as it commanded respect for the love and passion it exhibited.
It started to grow as many that visited its revivals, prayer and intercession meetings in the papyrus makeshift church structure embraced life transforming encounters.
With subsequent decline in persecutions, the church experienced significant expansion and growth in the capital Kampala.
Before long, the congregation was a family to many. It quickly engaged in frequent door to door and market to market crusades making known the good news of salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ. It was also the time and place where many of the ministers in the nation today found spiritual mentorship and direction.
The 1980s had a diversity of challenges, ROLEC pioneer members say.
“The fragile economy and politics of the day, high illiteracy levels, scarcity of food and clean water, poor drainage and sanitation, malaria and the new wave of HIV/AIDS and others such as these, greatly impacted on ordinary lives,”
Amid all this, the church experienced spiritual revival, its leaders say had “never been recorded in Uganda’s history.”
As a result, the 1980s, saw various evangelistic missions national wide and the beginning of cross border missions especially in the eastern and central parts of the African continent.
ROLEC leaders say one of the challenges they encountered within the early 1990’s was to ably to teach the word – especially then that cults and occults had risen – and address the diversity of people’s needs with balanced biblical perspectives.
The church reached out by establishing ministerial departments for the old and young alike, students and professionals, married, single to mention but a few. In order to share skills and change lives among themselves, the church gave way for specially designed fellowships in these departments to enable learning and creativity.
By 2000, there were enormous developments.
“It was clear that the Redeemed of the Lord Evangelistic church was inspired by God‘s love for humanity and had thereby prayed, evangelized, taught, and empowered people to maximize their potential and achieve their universal rights, basic needs and quality of life,”
Today, ROLEC has planted over 213 branch churches mostly in the districts of Kampala, Buwenge, Masaka, Jinja, Kamuli, Wakiso, Mpiji, Mbarara, Kabale, Hoima, Masindi, Mayuge, Mubende, Iganga, Mbale, Arua and Adjumani.
It also has community development interventions through its Projects Coordination Office. With the help of several of its partners, the church continues to empower communities through sustainable development programmes focusing especially on children.
