Religion correspondent Nadia Arandjelovic-Laws spent two weeks volunteering with a youth evangelism organisation, Word of Life Uganda. Its director, Thomas Obunde, has close ties to the Bermuda chapter of WOL — he’s visited the island on two occasions and has a handful of local sponsors here. This is his organisation’s story ...

Thomas Obunde remembers the exact moment he accepted Christ into his life.

He was 16 years old, and saw his life heading in the wrong direction due to drugs, alcohol and partying.

His younger sister intervened. She used her savings to send him to a Word Of Life camp in Nairobi, Kenya.

“I had been at camp for a week, but wasn’t interested much in what was going on until the dedication night,” Mr Obunde said. “I didn’t make a decision right there and then but later on, in the middle of the night, I couldn’t sleep. I woke my counsellor up at 3am on August 25, 1985. He asked me if I wanted to trust Christ as my personal saviour and I said yes.

“That for me is when my journey began and I never looked back, doubted my salvation or wobbled about in it.”

Today, Mr Obunde heads WOL Uganda, which runs a Christian school and small church in Kitende, a short distance from the capital city of Kampala.

The organisation opened the doors to its Bible institute in October 2014, a dream almost a decade in the making.

The lives of Mr Obunde and David Kirabira, the associate executive dean, were both changed through their studies at WOL’s Bible institute in New York and they were led to bring something similar to the African continent.

“I don’t think WOL International had that in mind at that moment, but soon after I came back to Uganda in 2008/2009 we started running a discipleship training school that was similar to what was being taught in the US,” Mr Kirabira said. “It wasn’t residential at that point, but the philosophy and focus were the same.

“WOL finally came to us and said it would be nice to set up a Bible institute in Africa.”

The move also proved cost-effective — for what it costs to send one person to the US to study they can teach five students in Africa.

So far they’ve taught 38 students. God has then used those students to start other initiatives and impact dozens of other lives in their own communities in Kenya, Ethiopia and South Africa.

The primary and high school run by WOL is no different, explained Faith Obunde, the school principal.

“I’m most proud of the many people we’ve seen come to know Christ through the school,” she said. “I know we’re helping children grow. Sometimes you don’t know what decisions they’ve made or where they are in their faith, but what gives us confidence to continue is the testimony of their parents and what they will say about the children at home and what other relatives say.

“We have never advertised the school anywhere, but someone’s relative will come and say, ‘I want my child to have what these children have. Is there any chance my child can have space in your school?’ That tells me that God works behind the scenes and is touching hearts and these children’s lights are shining.”

Her husband, Mr Obunde, said he’s also seen God’s hand upon their ministry.

“The only word I can use to describe my life is that every inch of it is a miracle,” he said.

“I can’t tell you it was because of my great plans. It’s just God working it out on my behalf. The ministry of WOL Uganda was created by miracles and that’s something God keeps doing here.

“The Christian school, we didn’t plan to start it the way it started. Our intention was on schooling our three oldest children: Vanessa, Matthew and Simon. Then other families started asking if their children could join. We saw how God just made it happen.”

Hundreds of young people and adults have since encountered God and grown in their spiritual walk, he said.

“We teach them that God is sufficient and His word is enough and through that we have seen lives changed.

“One of our young men started here when he was an infant and had a very bad case of terrible twos. He wasn’t disciplined and was considered a big-headed boy who never listened and had no desire to learn about God and how it could help in his life. No teacher wanted this boy.

“He would have been dismissed from school at a very early age after having broken all rules, but we kept him and today he’s a very responsible young man and I can see God at work in his life.

“His behaviour has changed, his life has changed. There are many examples like that.”