How did I get to know about worship Harvest and eventually joining its leadership Institute?

How did I get to know about worship Harvest and eventually joining its leadership Institute? What I hope to learn- By Edward Magumba.

About five years ago, a doctor moved to our Buwenda village, one day a church elder brought her to visit us.In the course of our discussions,she shared and interested me in the idea of having a university mission team come do door to door evangelism in the village. I quickly accepted the idea and a few weeks later, the university mission team came. During a little chat with them, most of them said that they attended prayers at Worship Harvest Nalya and told me about Pastor Moses, so I was curious to learn more about that ministry.

One day as I was moving on Kampala streets, I saw Moses’s books in a bookshop; I bought and read two (called to Greatness and Wealth Files) of them.
My brother Alex also got to learn about them, he would occasionally attend services at their Jinja branch or location as they call it. One time he invited me to their gathering for marrieds called Fireplace, at first I was hesitant to attend but later gave in. I have since been going whenever I have free time.

In the year 2017, I attended the Transform Leader’s Gathering for the first time. Their sense of order, time keeping, the quality of the meals, the pastors don’t carry themselves around with airs of importance, openness,etc., got me thinking, who are these Ugandan balokole who can behave in an orderly manner like this ? They even had the discipline to keep time and do what they said they would do!! I was amazed! Iam also a church leader but many church groups I come across don’t like behaving like this; many of them enjoy so much feeling so important and hardly anyone cares about time keeping, many can preach for years non-stop under the guise of him/her only having received the vision/revelations, many think that they are the only ones who can accurately hear from God and have to think for the members, with little or no delegation at all , many think that they are never wrong and do what they want, regardless of what the Bible says,etc.

So I quietly wondered where this group had learnt these values from and actually put them in practice, as walking our talk is quite hard for many of us. I come across many Ugandans who have heard about the importance of time keeping, actually not even only heard, but some have even been exposed to developed societies where time keeping is so much valued but who seem to put little of what they learnt in practice.

I normally get invited to conferences, Crusades, introduction/wedding ceremonies,etc which are planned 2-3 months in advance, then on starting day, that’s when organizers are looking for the keys to the door, there is no fuel in the generator, a service provider didn’t charge his/her phone the previous night, so his/her phone is off, one of the key organizers is late because of transport problems, another one has a ‘sick’ child, another one complains of rain, another one forgot about the function and blames others for not reminding him/her, the blame games goes on and on, with no one wanting to take responsibility for their failures.

I will not forget a church I one time went to, the preacher preached from morning up to around 1:00pm,then as we were about to finish, he claimed to have received ‘new revelation’ and just continued preaching up to evening time. These people forget that even with an adult, they also have a limited attention span.

Operating in a state of confusion is quite a challenge to many of us, including leaders at national level.

You find leaders who say that they are well learnt and exposed but who seem to put little of what they learnt in practice as they still act with carelessness and mediocrity when handling public affairs.Gabage littered on streets, nobody knows about time keeping, much of the time the streets are in darkness, even when they buy new lights, they are left to waste with zero or little idea on how to maintain them. All that is a manifestation of leadership challenges we all face.

During the 2017 Transform, someone handed me fliers of the Leadership institute, but I didn’t develop any interest, I doubted if it will be good for me. So I forget about it, email reminders were sent; I ignored them. I couldn’t see myself driving to Kampala for a training I had no idea about.

Last year which was 2018, I again attended the Transform Leader’s Gathering. I came along with my brother, as we finished the registration process, the ushers handed us books, I chose the straight forward financial growth while my brother choose the powerful living one. After reading mine I gave it to him, he also did likewise.

As I was reading the powerful living book, i noticed the author mentioning about attending the Leadership Institute and how they went through the 5 levels of leadership book.
I had earlier bought the 5 levels leadership book, but I had never read it, so I straight away started reading it. It opened my eyes to new realities I had never thought about, about leadership. I also got a good guess on why the leadership of this ministry don’t normally carry themselves with airs of importance.

After that book read, the idea of joining the institute started ringing in my mind and became stronger each passing day, but before joining I wanted to have a ‘feel’ of what the institute is all about, so I remembered a Jinja based friend whom I had heard, had been at the institute before, I asked him about it, he said, it is hard work but its worthy it. I told him I will be coming along with my work colleagues; he welcomed the idea but advised us to take assignments seriously as non-compliance is not tolerated. I tried to meet the Institute director while he was in Jinja, but somehow our schedules didn’t work out well, so I just had a brief chat with him.
I asked other people around, but most were ‘scared’ of it, they said, “it’s too much hard work”. Everytime someone would say, “it’s too much work”, two things would ring in my mind; first if other people can do it,may be I could also do it,two;I would also be reminded of the words of renowned author and leadership couch John Maxwell, who says that growth happens outside our comfort zones- so if I needed to grow as a leader, I would have to expose myself to ‘uncomfortable zones’.

Anyways I registered and was accepted, clear guidelines/assignments were issued on what to do before the class starts. So on Saturday of last week but one, we went through our first class. The introductory bit of the leadership course was made.

We were later grouped and each group assigned an assessor. During the evening session when we interacted with ours, she counseled and advised us not to give up. She has been through this and probably knows what lays ahead. I could visibly see it on her face emphasizing the importance of not giving up. I commend her for that wise counsel.
Also during the general session, we were told of the importance of taking control of our pens, so we are in better position to author the directions of our lives, obeying ourselves and having an accountability board among other things- I liked this stuff !!

This course will definitely take a toll on me, but am determined not to give up under all situations. In the book of John Maxwell’s 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, under law of sacrifice number 18, he says “a leader must give up to go up.” Maxwell also says, “There is no success without sacrifice. Every person who has achieved any success in life has made sacrifices to do so.” In other words ,to grow as leaders, we must pay the price, there is no way out. Personal growth comes at a cost. And I think I have started paying some of it as I have had to change my schedules and also cancel an engagement with our friends who are supposed to be here on the day of the Fearless Summit in Nairobi, they visit once a year and come from far.We tried other alternative dates, but it didn’t work. In situations like these, am always reminded of the word of Apostle Paul in Romans 8:28, where he says that everything happens for a reason and for our good.

By God’s Grace and Mercy,am determined to do all I can within my powers to finish this training and hopefully be a better leader. I think one of the problems Uganda is facing is leadership; at a personal, village, district and national level. We need to be in charge of our lives and start authoring our stories instead of leaving the pen to authorities with weak leadership and unknown motives. As John Maxwell says under the law of Navigation number 4, “Anyone can steer the ship, but it takes a leader to chart the course.” How will be able to chat the course and also take our pens back? First and fore most by being empowered with leadership skills to know what to do so that we don’t lead our people astray. And it’s for that reason, among others that I decided to come on board, in this wonderful and inspiring growth environment.

Blessings to all- Edward Magumba