Miracle house born of vision and faith
Oct 20, 2004
IT started like a dream, a desire and an unrealistic vision, one afternoon, 18 years ago. <br><br>While he quietly prayed for peace to thrive in a nation that was then riddled with war, death and untold
By Raphael Okello
IT started like a dream, a desire and an unrealistic vision, one afternoon, 18 years ago.
While he quietly prayed for peace to thrive in a nation that was then riddled with war, death and untold human suffering, an enormous building gradually jutted from a desolate wetland located in a valley before him.
A sea of humanity flowed towards the grandiose structure that stood in splendour, replacing the water and eucalyptus trees. Then shortly after, everything was gone. The wetland once again took shape, with water and eucalyptus trees replacing the building and the people!
Eighteen years later, a majestic glass cathedral, the largest in East Africa, seating 10,500 people, has permanently sucked up the wetland. It sits in the valley like a perched dove with its wings spread out.
This vision appeared to Pastor Robert Kayanja of Miracle Centre Cathedral (MCC), Lubaga in 1986 when he was under a mango tree, praying for this country that was going through a political transition.
“At a distance, soldiers were beating up a man and his wife. I think they wanted to rape her,†recalls Kayanja, who saw the ordeal after the vision had cleared and he was sneaking back to the papyrus hideout where he spent nights.
“The Lord told me, ‘If you believe me and build that building as I have shown it to you, I will heal your country’,†says Kayanja.
It was not a miracle when two young men selling the piece of land where God had revealed the vision to him approached him. He embarked on a tough project that was not only financially demanding but also demanded a rare show of faith, sacrifice and perseverance.
He started out alone. He sold his first car to make the initial payment of the wetland that cost sh120m in Obote’s currency.
He mobilised and raised money.
“After three months, people joined me. I remember a Rwandese lady who kept coming around and supporting me for six months.
She never understood Luganda neither did I understand Kinyarwanda,†Kayanja recalls.
After a loan from a local businessman in town had been paid, several architects were located to construct the building he had seen.
However, they said the area was full of water and the land was too soft to support a building of such magnitude. It would cost large sums of money.
“They said I could build many houses elsewhere with that amount of money but this is where God wanted me to build,†he says.
More than three architects were employed. The first building came up like the railway workshop in Nalukolongo.
The second looked like a wagon but eventually they were able to come up with the building the way it was in his vision.
“As I began sharing my vision, I realised I was playing a major role in the outlook and design of the building,†he says.
After four to five years of obeying God’s instruction to pray for the area, Kayanja says, the water dried up, making it easy for the construction to start in 1997.
“That was a sign from God that it was time to start building. We dug 17ft below and used 12,000 9x9 blocks for the foundation alone.â€
Construction lasted seven years, with funds from within and abroad. But the cathedral was largely built on Biblical principles of sowing and reaping, sacrifice and great miracles.
“When I was ministering in South Korea, I prayed for a woman in a coma and Jesus brought her out of it. The family was so happy and they contributed the glass that was used,†he says.
A quarter of the roofing tiles came from South Africa and the rest from New Zealand, steel came from the United Kingdom, cement from Kenya and Uganda.
“It cost millions of shillings. We are still compiling how much exactly,†says Pastor Kayanja.
That afternoon when the vision came to him, Kayanja did not have a pen to make a sketch. Today, his vision is a living testimony of God’s greatness. Many look down in the valley and marvel at what power there is in prayer, faith and sacrifice.
The cathedral is a three-sided huge spiritual symbol whose wide glass arches stand on crosses. An aerial view shows a perched dove with wings spread out. Seven white pillars at the huge stage are ornamented with white, black and gold stripes that symbolise holiness, humanity and purity. The tiles, which spread out from the altar like a river, have a marked difference in form, colour and texture.
God showed Pastor Kayanja a vision and asked him to build what he had seen. And through hard work, he did. Now it is time to hand it over to Him.
On Sunday October 24, starting 8:00am, tens of thousands of people and Christian ministers (as was in the vision) from all over the world are expected to witness the dedication service that will signify the official hand over of the cathedral to God.
“This is the time to give it back to God. We have been illegal occupants.
The Dedication service closes the chapter of trying to do something for God and opens a new one where God begins to do things for his people,†Kayanja says.
President Yoweri Museveni, with his wife Janet, will be the chief guest, while the guest preacher will be renowned evangelist T.L Osborn.
And just like the wild festivities during King Solomon’s Dedication of the Temple, the dedication will be marked by instruments of music performed by celebrated American music evangelists, Byron Cage, Vickie Yohe and one of the greatest trumpet players of our times, Phil Driscoll.
The raising of the Cathedral in the vision was like a dove ascending to bring forth peace in a troubled nation.
Perhaps what we see is not actually a cathedral but a dove spreading out its wings of peace to cover the entire nation because today there are over 1,000 branches countrywide.
Since he started preaching in 1982, Pastor Kayanja has ministered in over 54 nations worldwide, holding life-changing crusades of up to 150,000 people.
Born in a family of 13 children, Kayanja did not grow up with a silver spoon in his mouth.
“I was born to an illiterate mother and a father who was a school teacher, a foreman and an Anglican priest,†he says.
He is married to Jessica, and together they are blessed with a son and two twin daughters.
IT started like a dream, a desire and an unrealistic vision, one afternoon, 18 years ago.
While he quietly prayed for peace to thrive in a nation that was then riddled with war, death and untold human suffering, an enormous building gradually jutted from a desolate wetland located in a valley before him.
A sea of humanity flowed towards the grandiose structure that stood in splendour, replacing the water and eucalyptus trees. Then shortly after, everything was gone. The wetland once again took shape, with water and eucalyptus trees replacing the building and the people!
Eighteen years later, a majestic glass cathedral, the largest in East Africa, seating 10,500 people, has permanently sucked up the wetland. It sits in the valley like a perched dove with its wings spread out.
This vision appeared to Pastor Robert Kayanja of Miracle Centre Cathedral (MCC), Lubaga in 1986 when he was under a mango tree, praying for this country that was going through a political transition.
“At a distance, soldiers were beating up a man and his wife. I think they wanted to rape her,†recalls Kayanja, who saw the ordeal after the vision had cleared and he was sneaking back to the papyrus hideout where he spent nights.
“The Lord told me, ‘If you believe me and build that building as I have shown it to you, I will heal your country’,†says Kayanja.
It was not a miracle when two young men selling the piece of land where God had revealed the vision to him approached him. He embarked on a tough project that was not only financially demanding but also demanded a rare show of faith, sacrifice and perseverance.
He started out alone. He sold his first car to make the initial payment of the wetland that cost sh120m in Obote’s currency.
He mobilised and raised money.
“After three months, people joined me. I remember a Rwandese lady who kept coming around and supporting me for six months.
She never understood Luganda neither did I understand Kinyarwanda,†Kayanja recalls.
After a loan from a local businessman in town had been paid, several architects were located to construct the building he had seen.
However, they said the area was full of water and the land was too soft to support a building of such magnitude. It would cost large sums of money.
“They said I could build many houses elsewhere with that amount of money but this is where God wanted me to build,†he says.
More than three architects were employed. The first building came up like the railway workshop in Nalukolongo.
The second looked like a wagon but eventually they were able to come up with the building the way it was in his vision.
“As I began sharing my vision, I realised I was playing a major role in the outlook and design of the building,†he says.
After four to five years of obeying God’s instruction to pray for the area, Kayanja says, the water dried up, making it easy for the construction to start in 1997.
“That was a sign from God that it was time to start building. We dug 17ft below and used 12,000 9x9 blocks for the foundation alone.â€
Construction lasted seven years, with funds from within and abroad. But the cathedral was largely built on Biblical principles of sowing and reaping, sacrifice and great miracles.
“When I was ministering in South Korea, I prayed for a woman in a coma and Jesus brought her out of it. The family was so happy and they contributed the glass that was used,†he says.
A quarter of the roofing tiles came from South Africa and the rest from New Zealand, steel came from the United Kingdom, cement from Kenya and Uganda.
“It cost millions of shillings. We are still compiling how much exactly,†says Pastor Kayanja.
That afternoon when the vision came to him, Kayanja did not have a pen to make a sketch. Today, his vision is a living testimony of God’s greatness. Many look down in the valley and marvel at what power there is in prayer, faith and sacrifice.
The cathedral is a three-sided huge spiritual symbol whose wide glass arches stand on crosses. An aerial view shows a perched dove with wings spread out. Seven white pillars at the huge stage are ornamented with white, black and gold stripes that symbolise holiness, humanity and purity. The tiles, which spread out from the altar like a river, have a marked difference in form, colour and texture.
God showed Pastor Kayanja a vision and asked him to build what he had seen. And through hard work, he did. Now it is time to hand it over to Him.
On Sunday October 24, starting 8:00am, tens of thousands of people and Christian ministers (as was in the vision) from all over the world are expected to witness the dedication service that will signify the official hand over of the cathedral to God.
“This is the time to give it back to God. We have been illegal occupants.
The Dedication service closes the chapter of trying to do something for God and opens a new one where God begins to do things for his people,†Kayanja says.
President Yoweri Museveni, with his wife Janet, will be the chief guest, while the guest preacher will be renowned evangelist T.L Osborn.
And just like the wild festivities during King Solomon’s Dedication of the Temple, the dedication will be marked by instruments of music performed by celebrated American music evangelists, Byron Cage, Vickie Yohe and one of the greatest trumpet players of our times, Phil Driscoll.
The raising of the Cathedral in the vision was like a dove ascending to bring forth peace in a troubled nation.
Perhaps what we see is not actually a cathedral but a dove spreading out its wings of peace to cover the entire nation because today there are over 1,000 branches countrywide.
Since he started preaching in 1982, Pastor Kayanja has ministered in over 54 nations worldwide, holding life-changing crusades of up to 150,000 people.
Born in a family of 13 children, Kayanja did not grow up with a silver spoon in his mouth.
“I was born to an illiterate mother and a father who was a school teacher, a foreman and an Anglican priest,†he says.
He is married to Jessica, and together they are blessed with a son and two twin daughters.