Pastor Paul of Gulu, A Tribute

by Douglas Aliro

Pastor Paul Celebrated in Gulu--
Now He Celebrates with Jesus!

This is a tribute to pastor Paul for His dedication toward building God’s kingdom through Kampala and then finishing it at Gulu which is his home town.

I really wanted to send a tribute toward this man whose dedications toward serving God was and is exemplary for anyone who wants to serve in ministry. This is a man who when [he] heard about the doctor’s report about his HIV status chose to run to Jesus and in doing so stayed on dedicated to toward serving  Him. This actually is what brought him to Kampala. He said that, he came to Kampala because the Lord had told him to find a missionary called John Barnett so as to train him and through this he would be equipped to start work in Gulu. And surely John was  at that time  working among the internally displaced persons resident in Soweto. And when Manna ministry went into Soweto and a house church started out there and John Barnett was always teaching and training out there.

Every week John was in Soweto doing what he does best! Through this commitment by missionary John, Paul found out and proved beyond doubt that John was the one the Lord told him about! Pastor Paul’s task was now to follow with the training! But this came with a challenge of where to stay. He struggled with that for some time looking for food and where to stay. He could not benefit from the food of Manna because the registration had already taken place and people with his kind of situation was the biggest numbers we got registered and hundreds were left out because we have food for only 50 recipients for each location.  In spite of his dire situation, he kept consistent with the trainings and when he opened to tell John about his situation of  need for food and a place to stay, he got help from John who most generously gave to Paul and he was so encouraged and continued on! Sometimes things got tight but he was focused to continue on! Yes he did!! 

Pastor Paul came to Kampala not to get wealthy materially but to be rich toward God and to serve Him!! He got the training (T4T) and mobilized for Bible Way too. He was always passionate about the Gospel! And because of his health status, he longed for the healing hand of God!  To the point that some times he felt like he was already healed! This feeling made him to be not so stable with ARVs he was on [and he struggled] a lot with his health. When we realized this we encouraged him to continue with the treatment through until the healing feeling could be tested and proved to be true healing!

    Pastor Paul was to us a voice to the internally displaced persons who are the Acholi speakers from northern Uganda sub region ( Gulu, Kitgum and Pader).  He preached and taught his people the word of God. And wanted very much to see healing in their lives. That’s why he planted the Gulu house church.

He had great passion for the Gospel and even through very poor he did preach that!! And he strived to teach that too! Even if he faced a lot of stigma for being a victim of HIV, he was never ashamed to preach the Gospel to people. He never felt sorry for being sick because he saw how God was using him in something greater than himself!! He knew that in his sickness, he was still useful in the hands of God for service!! And I was privileged to asked him about how he felt though it all! 

Pastor Paul loved his people and cared enough to tell them about Jesus when still alive! He never discussed politics or even soccer games, because this did not matter to him at all!! I asked him too about these things [but] he just did not know anything about these!!  But when I asked him to help us translate the God’s story project into Acholi, he just said [when] do I come!! Wow!! I was amazed!!

Anyway people like Pastor Paul we get to meet when Manna ministry steps into a new location!! We met Pastor Paul because we went into Soweto!! And we stayed there PREACHING and training (T4T) and meeting humanitarian needs!!