Three years ago we came into contact with a small group of believers deep in the interior of eastern Uganda. A place without light or water, entirely under the grip of witchcraft. There were only 20 believers, discouraged and burnt out, who actually wanted to give up. The message Gerard van Amerongen brought then touched the listeners, and many bystanders gave their lives to Jesus. Some of them were witch doctors who turned to the Lord Jesus and literally burned their occult paraphernalia.
Revival
That was the beginning of a mega revival that also broke out completely unexpectedly for us. A sovereign visitation of God’s Spirit began to move over the Bukkobo area, and thousands gave their lives to Jesus.
We started setting up a Bible school and asked the leadership team to make a selection of potential teachers to start the school. We invited these potential teachers for a week of very intensive training in Jinja (a large city where we were allowed to rent the campus of a befriended pastor).
During that special week, at the beginning of November, the Bible school was born, and in January 2023 we started the first year in Bukkobo with 125 very hungry, newly converted men and women.
During one of the lessons ‘God’s Spirit fell’ on everyone present, and all were filled with power and received healing. It felt like a kind of heavenly starting shot.
The students carried the fire of the gospel to every corner they came from, and house groups sprang up everywhere, first of 10 people, which very quickly grew to 100 people, and a true multiplication of souls had begun.
After the first school year we offered the students a second-year programme, and at the same time we started the first year again with a new group of selected believers. In this way a spiritual ‘nursery’ arose, with equipped, Bible-faithful men and women of God who could be deployed for the enormous growth.
Of the second-year students we have meanwhile released 70 to be part of the ministry team. They go to all the house groups across the entire area to teach the foundations of the Christian faith and to lead the many hungry people to Jesus.
New churches
New churches have meanwhile been planted in 7 places; each place has a water well, a baptismal pool, a meeting place and sanitary facilities. Each also has a battery-powered sound system.
The churches are named: Jerusalem, Samaria, Judea, Antioch, Ephesus, Berea and Philadelphia. We have blessed seven wonderful pastors, and they are supported by trained workers from the ministry team. The ministry team now consists of 70 workers who have completed the two-year Bible school. So each church has a pastor couple and 10 trained workers.
Tens of thousands have by now come to a living faith, hundreds of witch doctors have dedicated their lives to Jesus and burned their magic items. Mosques have been preached empty, and sorcerers who did not want to repent have left the area for lack of customers. The curse has been broken by the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the hunger is enormous. Miracles are normal and healings take place continuously. We have purchased some farmland on which maize is grown, and a place where this maize can be processed into maize meal, so that there is food for the Bible school students and the workers.
The word the Lord gave us when we started the ANBI foundation ‘Bread For The Hungry Ministries’ was: ‘They need not depart; give ye them to eat’.
At this moment there are 68,000 registered converts in the age group 18 to 92 years and 33,000 in the age group 5 to 17 years.
In January 2026 we are starting a complete children’s ministry (Kingdom Kids) for all seven churches, to root this target group too in the love of God.
The loudest cry that is heard from all sides at this moment is: ‘Give us a Bible’!
In January 2026 we are also starting the baptism of more than 60,000 believers within the seven new churches that were planted in the past year.
In addition, 10,000 Bibles are being distributed among the believers. This is done with great care: one Bible is shared by three families, so that as many people as possible have access to the Word.
In February 2026 we are travelling with a team of seven people to the revival area. There we will train the local leaders and help them develop a complete children’s ministry for all seven churches.
The theme of this training week is: The Mystery of the Church Revealed.
When we first came, there was only 1 Bible in the entire area, which had been torn into various books so that everyone had a piece of the Bible.
By God’s grace we have been able to build the natural infrastructure so that there are ‘channels’ through which the living water can flow. This has resulted in seven healthy churches surrounded by flourishing, evangelising house groups, two Bible schools where 250 students are trained every year so that the ministry team can expand structurally, and food production on a small scale.
The project now has a legal government status in Uganda, so that continuity is secured. The government is extremely enthusiastic and amazed at how all this is possible.
The hunger and thirst is and remains truly overwhelming. We see with our own eyes the book of Acts being fulfilled, and we realise that it is all too big for us because of the speed at which the harvest is pouring in.
Bible schools
Over the years we have learned that wherever a move of God arises, it is very important that Bible schools are set up. It fits the profile of God’s order as we learn it from the book of Acts, where the first church grew through ‘the apostles’ teaching’.
We have worked out this vision in both Kenya and Uganda.
In Kenya a full-time programme called ‘School for Harvest and Ministry’ has existed for 15 years. This training school gives potential leaders and pastors the opportunity to be trained and equipped during the training year. Afterwards they return to the church that sent them, to continue the process of church planting under their leader. Over the years more than 100 new churches have come out of it, even in Congo, Burundi, Uganda and Sudan.
In Uganda a different approach was chosen: there, 125 selected candidates come to school for an entire week every month for intensive training. This programme lasts 2 years. So 250 students are trained every year.
Given the enormous revival in the area, the urgency is high to train as many workers as possible for the Kingdom of God. Candidates are selected from the second-year programme to be part of the ministry team. They are sent out to teach the foundations of the Christian faith in the house groups everywhere.
