Neria Olua laid the foundation for thriving city Lugbara Church

Neria Olua’s late husband Birika Rubanoa, worked in the Forestry Department. In 1976, he asked his wife and their only surviving child then, Michael Edetia (RIP) to join him in Kampala. Seeing as there were only three of them; Birika saw no need to leave them in Arua while he worked in Kampala.

Initially, they settled in Nakawa then Kinawataka before moving to the Forestry staff quarters in Banda. While there, Neria planted vegetables locally known as Gobe that she sold in Nakawa Market to support her husband in fending for the family. Later on, she was given a stall in Nakasero market by her namesake Neria Tacia (RIP).

Genesis of St Paul’s Church of Uganda, Okuvu
“Initially, we were praying at Baptist Church, Kawaala. Despite being predominantly Congolese, the church service was conducted in Lugbara,” Mama Olua shares, “However, the commute was so long. Thus, together with a colleague, Phinehas Angundru, we decided to start Okuvu church in 1976 under a Jambula tree in Mbuya, Kinawataka where we worshipped in Lugbara since we could neither speak English nor Luganda.”

The church began on a plot of land she had purchased in 1973. The Jambula tree is now only surviving by a stump.
During the first service under the tree, only eight members attended. During this service, Olua was named treasurer so the first offertory collection was handed to her. The church is called Okuvu which in Lugbara means ‘from woman’.

Disruptions
The new church suffered many challenges. One of such was the 1979 war. All the people with whom she founded the church went into exile for fear of their lives. So she was left to take on all the duties in the church, including conducting funeral services. It was such a difficult time for her since there was no one to consult regarding church administration but by the grace of God, she was able to do the work.

There was need to create some form of shelter as the roof of the mud and wattle structure leaked relentlessly with every downpour. Mama Olua had to mobilise women to go with her to the swamp to collect papyrus reeds to continually cover the roof.

“Being a woman, this was such a daunting task,” Mama Olua reminisces, “What made it more difficult was that my husband was neither involved nor interested.”

After sometime, Olua and her team begun building a semi-permanent church structure but without knowledge on how to build, the structure collapsed five times.

Also, the labourers continually sold off the building materials such as cement she bought from her hard earnings as a food stuff vendor in Nakasero. This was because did not have anyone to supervise the construction work.
“But God brought me two men; Charles Agondua (now a retired civil servant) and Agupio who brought metal bars to support the beam,” she smiles, “With this, there was no more collapsing. I was also able to get new labourers to replace the old ones,” she recalls.

With those two issues solved, another arose-roofing. However, God would also see her through that as the Rev Canon John Edega (RIP) procured a donation that they used to roof the semi-permanent church. The balance was used to help the needy.

The church services brought together security guards, women who made papyrus items, those working in stone quarries, and a few civil servants such as Amayo Stephen, Martin Feta (RIP), Afeku Yuda (RIP), Asher Bayo, Drayo Tito and Engineer Luka Anguyo Oce, among others, most of whom were living in Bugolobi flats. Most civil servants and highly placed West Nilers were weary of the dusty church.

Assimilation into Church of Uganda
“Then as time went by, the church was accorded lay leaders who helped in leading the services,” Denis Adia, the translator reveals, “Some of them are Richard Abima and Alex K. Adroni who is now the Archdeacon of Maracha. The lay leaders worked under the caretaker priest Rev. Canon Edega (RIP), the parish priest of St Stephen’s Church of Uganda, Nsambya. He was posted to this church by Archbishop Silvano Wani (RIP) to help Christians who only spoke Lugbara by administering holy sacraments such as baptism and holy communion, among others.”

In the meantime, Alex K. Adroni did a lot of pastoral outreach ministry in various homes in Kajjansi, Namuwongo, Namataba, Gayaza and other areas, which brought on board so many new believers who eventually helped in funding the construction of the current permanent church.

Okuvu gives rise to others
As a result of the outreaches, many people gave their lives to Christ. However, it was difficult for them to come to Okuvu because of the long distance hence many churches emerged out of St Paul’s Church of Uganda (COU), Okuvu. These include; Beteli COU, Abiribani COU, Kagave COU, Namanve COU, Kajjansi COU, Namasuba COU, as well as Lugbara services at St Francis Chapel Makerere University and St John’s COU Entebbe.

There are 24 churches in total, located between Entebbe and Kakira. However, these churches are administratively under different dioceses such as Kampala, Namirembe, Mukono and Busoga where they continue to worship God in Lugbara as well as living in harmony with other communities.

St Paul’s COU Okuvu is administratively under Namirembe Diocese but because of the language barrier, Archbishop Wani asked the Bishop of Namirembe then for permission to have Okuvu under him in Kampala Diocese so that he would be able to address their spiritual needs in Lugbara, a request which the Bishop of Namirembe granted.

Attacks
Okuvu church also suffered attacks and persecution.
“During one of the services, as I stood at the pulpit preaching, I saw a gunman point directly at me through the window,” Mama Olua tells of the horrific moment, “I learnt that word had gone out that I was mobilising Lugbaras to rally behind Idi Amin against Obote. So the informant was tasked with the duty to show this Obote soldier who I was and the directive was to kill me.”

However, God would perform yet another miracle for her. As the man pointed the gun at her, he seemed to lose energy and start to lower it until the gun was facing the ground. For those that saw the gun-wielding soldier, the trauma was so intense that they left the church never to return. However, for those that did not see him, Mama Olua acted as normal as possible lest she scare them too.

“That which God did, was to me, an act of salvation”, she said, adding that this was the first time she was sharing this information.

Preaching with no formal education
While she never got any formal education, Mama Olua can read the Bible and preach the Word of God in Lugbara.
“Catechism, in my days, was such a rigorous event that lasted two years,” Mama Olua explains, “It was in the first year that we were tasked to learn how to read the Bible.” The first year was done at the local parish - hers was Ombaci and then the second year was done at the diocesan headquarters - that was Mvara. “The second year was the toughest as we were required to commute from Ombaci to Mvara every Tuesday and Friday without fail, for a whole year” Mama Olua shares.

Memories of those years bring a mixture of joy and masked pain.One moment, she cannot withhold however is that during this time, if the catechism candidate was seen near a bar or discotheque, or seen with someone of the opposite sex that was not a relative or caught in acts of vandalism during a funeral, they were disqualified, immediately.
“It was very difficult,” she exclaims, “And if one did not have patience, they would easily give up.”

She was baptised in 1949. In those days, the ceremony was done when one was around 10 years old.
While she is not sure of her age, using the baptism dates, one could place Olua’s date of birth between 1934 and 1936.

Other initiatives
In her ministry, Olua found it wise to encourage women to fellowship together. This was done every Wednesday and out of it was birthed the Lugbara Christian Community Fellowship, which later became West Nile Christian Community Fellowship (WCCF) with the department of youth under the Joint Youth Council, women under Mothers Union and Christian Women Fellowship. WCCF organises an annual Revival Convention in August.

On the advice of the Rtd Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi, the Alur community of St Philips COU Kyebando were brought on board. It is no longer just about Lugbara women but every believer.

Led by Counsel Caleb Alaka and Robert Ejiku, West Nile Foundation that brings together all the cream of West Nile in ‘diaspora’ , which continues to support the work of God in the churches under WCCF and even back home. They gather at St Paul’s COU whenever duty calls.

Having traded food stuffs in Nakasero market for more than 20 years, she influenced many women from West Nile in similar trades to buy plots of land, build houses as well as rentals alongside educating their children.

Secret to long life
Despite all the challenges, not to mention a narrow escape from death due to cervical cancer, Mama Foundation says, “My only secret to long life is God. “I also thank God for the medal that the president gave me on Heroes Day in Kakumiro, Who am I to deserve this?” She looks away in thought.

Worries
While she lives in a house built by the revival for the church, now that all her biological children and husband have passed on, Mama Olua is worried that in the event that the church asks her to leave, without a house of her own, she will have nowhere to go and yet she is now weak.

In spite of the hardships she faced in building a church and the loneliness in old age, Mama Olua or Mama Foundation as many refer to her has remained a role model to many Christians, preserver of culture, a pacifier and she has motivated many Christians to become self-reliant.
She has also shown them that widowhood is not the end of life.

Challenges
Neria Olua is a fish vendor but owing to extreme fatigue at the end of the day, and with no one to help her at home, she sometimes sleeps on an empty stomach. It is also a challenge when she falls sick because she lives alone in the house.

All those who identified with her have withdrawn because of her age.
She also sometimes forgets to pick up her bag of money after the day’s sales and she never recovers it since people are not sympathetic enough to keep it for her.

With the frequent loss of money, Olua is usually short on money for daily use. Though the church gives her Shs10,000 for food, it is not enough yet she hates begging. With that, she lacks basic needs yet she cannot work as hard as she did before.

She has had many accidents on her way from the market. However, she is thankful that no matter how serious some of these accidents have been, God has preserved her, so much so that, she has never sustained an injury.
With her advancing age, she is getting weaker by the day.