ITESO
"The rot is very deep that only the word of God can handle."
THE PEOPLE OF SERERE
Serere sits in Uganda's Teso Sub Region, home to nearly 286,000 people. Most families are small scale farmers from the Iteso community, and Ateso is their heart language. Christianity is the dominant religion here, but for generations it has been lived alongside ancestral worship, witchcraft, divination, and prosperity teaching, so that the line between the two was never clearly drawn.
Most pastors in Serere never received formal theological training. Many lead from visions, dreams, and cultural tradition rather than Scripture. Bibles are scarce, especially in Ateso, and many churchgoers have never heard the true gospel clearly explained in their own language.
THE SPIRITUAL SOIL
When the EBC team first sat with pastors in Serere, they found a spiritual landscape shaped by fear rather than faith. Some pastors had been physically hunting Satan, running with stones to throw at him when spiritual signallers claimed to locate him. Others practiced fortune telling under the cover of prophecy, claiming to reveal hidden suffering or locate objects of black magic planted in people's homes. One field report described it plainly: the rot was deep enough that only the Word of God could reach it.
This was not fringe practice. It was woven into pastoral ministry itself. Congregations were taught a works based view of salvation, told they could lose what Christ had given them. Fear, not Scripture, was often the operating authority in the church.
The division ran deeper than doctrine. Serere's churches carry a long history of splits, denomination breaking from denomination, congregation breaking from congregation, until pastors who once shared a pulpit no longer shared a room. Old wounds had hardened into permanent distance.
Yet the hunger for something true ran just as deep. When EBC first visited Serere, more than 500 pastors gathered in a single room asking for training they had never been offered.
WHEN THE WORd TOOK ROOT
Serere did not need to be convinced. In the very first term, 342 pastors from 342 churches registered, and 78 slept on the floor without complaint rather than miss a session. Local leaders soon identified more than 350 churches ready to begin immediately, making Serere the clear next district for Every Bible Counts.
As the training moved through Scripture term by term, the corrections were foundational. When the doctrine of eternal security was taught, hundreds of pastors realized for the first time that a believer cannot lose their salvation, and many confessed they had misled their congregations for years. When the authority of Scripture was taught, two pastors who had been running fortune telling practices under the name of prophecy committed to laying it down entirely. When the fallen angelic world was taught from Scripture, pastors who had spent years hunting and fearing Satan found their fear replaced with reverence for God instead.
The pattern repeated itself outside the classroom. During a single outreach in April 2026, 312 trained pastors went out in teams of three and presented the gospel to over 1,500 people in three hours, with 159 professions of faith. One team encountered the village witch doctor mid session with his clients. He tried to bribe them to leave. They stayed, and prayed instead.
Something else broke open along the way. Pastors from denominations with decades of history behind their splits sat under the same roof, ate the same meals, and studied the same text. Men who had not spoken to one another because of old divides found their way back to the table. It became so central to what God was doing that the graduating class chose it as their theme, breaking down denominational barriers.
Shepherd the Word
350 pastors and ministry leaders began verse by verse training running from September 2025 through July 2026, representing churches across the Teso Sub Region. 318 finished faithfully and received their certificates. The 700 page curriculum covers Bible doctrine, spiritual formation, and practical ministry skills, delivered in English alongside Ateso translation for full comprehension.
A number of standout students have emerged from this training, men who have shown faithfulness, clarity in teaching, and humility of character throughout the term. EBC is piloting a program with this group, equipping them to go out and train smaller groups of pastors through the same curriculum they just completed. It is the beginning of Serere teaching itself, one trained pastor multiplying into the next.
SEND THE WORD
4,120 Bibles have been placed in the hands of pastors and church members, a mix of Ateso and English Scripture along with Study Bibles entrusted to select students for ongoing teaching, equipping men who have preached for years without ever holding Scripture in their own language. Over the next 12 months, EBC plans to distribute another 3,480 Bibles throughout the region.
SOUND THE WORD
700+ leaders, pastors and listening group leaders, completed a three day training from Faith Comes By Hearing and returned home carrying Ateso Audio Bibles. 300 Audio Bible Listening Groups have launched from that training, with an estimated 4,500 or more people now hearing God's Word in Ateso every week. Geofrey and Emmanuel now serve as EBC's Sound the Word coordinators for Serere, walking with these groups weekly. Trained churches are also standing up 6 to 8 Gospel Film outreaches per week using two projector sets, carrying the gospel from village to village on a scale Serere has not seen before.
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Send the light of God’s Word into darkness to transform communities and generations.