There is a vast distance between who we are in our regeneration and who we will be when we are glorified. The process of sanctification is rarely instantaneous or linear; it twists and turns in surprising and sometimes maddening ways. This should not be surprising if we remind ourselves that even Paul’s letters to the Corinthians are first and foremost written to believers in that church, people who were practicing sins that Paul suggested would make even their pagan neighbours blush. Jesus also told us to expect as much. The kingdom of God, he said, grows secretly like a seed in soil. That is to say, nothing happens until everything happens. The seed of the Word swells and sprouts in a single human heart, taking root in ways we do not see or understand until the plant unexpectedly burgeons from the earth.
Cultural renewal on a large scale is no different. One rainy afternoon, I was sitting in the library of Knox School of Theology, across a table from Lokiru Timothy, asking him what he thought about the spread of the Gospel among his tribe. Inasmuch as he has just graduated and started his journey to ordination as pastoral intern at Nakaale Presbyterian Church, his response sounds less like pie-in-the-sky wishfulness and more like a manifesto. He envisions Nakaale as a hub (maybe the hub) for Gospel transformation in Karamoja and beyond. In his words “If Nakaale can really embrace the Gospel—by God’s grace, by God’s will—it will be of great value, great help to many parts of Karamoja. Christ has really instructed us—it’s a command from him—take his Word out, starting from home, then to other parts of the world.” In Timothy’s thought, the cultural transformation of Karamoja brought about by the Gospel starts in his humble village and branches outward in all directions, first in spiritual quickening, then followed by righteous living.
To look at Nakaale today, twenty-five years into the OPC’s ministry there, this still appears to be a tall order. Nakaale is a place where one would be hard pressed to find someone who could even recite the Ten Commandments, let alone have a go at living them. Still, the growth is there, subterranean and fragile as a seedling’s first rootlet.
It is hard to pinpoint this kingdom culture as it is growing up in Nakaale, but its tiny green stems heave up unexpectedly everywhere. Polygamy, the cultural curse which has dogged the search for church leaders for many years, has so far failed to take root in the generation of young men that is coming up in the church. Likewise, drunkenness—a condition that prevails among a large majority in Nakaale—is increasingly unknown among those in the church. Former missionary James Folkerts’s previously incisive comment on Nakaale Presbyterian Church that, “this is not a church, it’s just a group of Christians that meets on Sunday,” in recent days rings increasingly hollow. The church members grow in their mutual concern over the material and spiritual welfare of their fellow members. They keep each other accountable. They give their time volunteering in church activities. They show hospitality.
Even in the believers’ homes, God’s kingdom is sending up shoots. In asking a member of our ministry team, Locoro Emmanuel, how best to pray for him, he expressed a desire to better take the lead in directing his wife and children to Christ. Having grown up with no exposure to God’s Word, his strong desire is that his wife and children should be saturated with it, and he recognises his responsibility in this regard. Here in germ form is the seismic cultural upheaval that the Gospel cannot fail to bring about. We are seeing now the first generation of believers concerned to evangelise their own families.
The import of this should not be missed. Despite having left polygamy behind, young Christian men have struggled to enter godly marriages to Christian women. The fact of the matter is that even if there are godly women also looking to marry, the culture surrounding marriage and the payment of dowry means that parents have an overriding say in who their daughter is married to, and pagan families (especially the men) in most cases want a large dowry of cows above any other consideration—dowries which young Christian men who have not participated in the culture of cattle raiding or who have focussed their priorities in other ways than accumulating wealth, are not in a position to pay. Thus a number of our young people, serious as they are about their faith, perceive no alternative but to marry whoever comes along, and hope that their unequal yoke will be a minimal burden. In this some are more successful than others, and those who are not in many cases feel the sting of their decision acutely.
Going further, while the dowry system does allow for two individuals from two families to come together in a way that is both public and entails certain expectations and responsibilities, it is also attended by an understanding that the “wedding” will not take place until the dowry is discharged. Since dowries are rarely ever fully paid in Karamoja, the more explicitly Christian or covenantal aspects of the marriage agreement are rarely solemnised, and most marriages remain tentative, subject to the whims of the woman’s family.
The current generation of young people who have grown up with some form of Christian teaching in their lives are now trying to navigate these waters—trying to honour God in their marriages while also honouring their parents and remaining captive to the larger cultural currents in which they are caught up. We hope that these circumstances—often complicated and painful—will at least be instructive, and that today’s young Christian couples will raise their children with the admonition to marry within the Church, and in years to come give their blessing to such decisions even if it comes at the material cost of a merely nominal dowry. For Karamojong cultural transformation to find its feet, the dowry system, while it may persist, will have to be redeemed. Its critical evaluation by Christian parents launching their children into adulthood is the secret kingdom growth of years whose flowering will be one catalyst for the Gospel renewal of Karamoja.
Note: A simulacrum of this article appears in the July 2025 issue of New Horizons.