As “Impact Uganda with Jesus 2017” campaigns under Total Member Involevemnt (TMI) gains momentum in Uganda, members of the Seventh-day Adventist church from Brooklyn Church in Central Uganda have cleaned up Nakawa Market in the capital city and installed a solar lighting system at a dark zone of the market where 600 vendors operate.

Nakawa Market is located in Nakawa Division in the eastern part of Kampala City and hosts a total of over 3,000 vendors selling various commodities including food items.

Inaugurating this exercise was the Mayor of Nakawa Division, Balimwezo Ronald Nsubuga, who was flanked by the Nakawa Market Chairman,  Sebagala James Francis.

The mayor hailed the Adventist Church for their thoughtfulness and leadership by installing light in a dark portion of Nakawa Market and cleaning up the food vending areas thus relieving the market of darkness, refuse and stench.

The widely attended exercise was led by Brooklyn Seventh-day Adventist Church pastor Ndalike Stephen. Market vendors and members of the public participated in the exercise. In attendance also was the Immanuel Ogwal, communication director for the Adventist Church in Uganda.  

Hailing the mayor for the able leadership, Ogwal noted leaders are put in place by God and as such, members of the Adventist church should pray for them.

Amidst cheers from the TMI campaign members, Ogwal urged the mayor to accept Christ. “Mr. Mayor, besides leading God’s people in Nakawa Division so well, Jesus Christ would be so lonely in heaven without you,” he said. “ He is calling on you to accept him today”

He thanked the mayor for agreeing to officiate at the function. He pointed out cleanliness is next to godliness and the Adventist Church is keen on living in a healthy environment and lifestyle in general.

The installed solar light, valued at 500 dollars, is able to give light in a radius of over 65 feet, or 20 meters. Ogwal observed Christ is the light of the world and the Adventist church members found no better way of expressing this than having its members literally providing light to a dark spot of the market that serves thousands of Kampala dwellers.

One of the church elders, Lukoma Ahmed, an electrical engineer worked on this as the project engineer.

Jacob Kato, a member of the church, who also works in the market as a vendor, said they followed example of Christ who was good in making people’s needs assessments, meeting their physical needs before ministering to them spiritually.

Market vendors were overjoyed by this development. Several of them said they feel their property is safe and were glad to be able to sell their items for longer periods of time as opposed to when darkness would send them home earlier. They thanked the Adventist Church for the meaningful donation to Nakawa market.