Tens of thousands of Pentecostal Christians in Mbarara – Western Uganda have in unity taken to the streets with songs of praise and thanks to hold a common celebration seen as a way of dedicating people’s lives to Christ and preaching the gospel across the entire district.

Many traveled from surrounding districts just to be a part of that celebration, to match in intercession, thank God and to celebrate His faithfulness.

Bishop Nathan Ibrahim Turyamureeba, the lead pastor of Daystar Cathedral Mbarara says the ‘Jesus March’ held 25 January 2018, is an event “uniting believers in the Kingdom mind.”

“I thank God for what He is doing in our time. Africa shall be saved,” he remarked.

“It was started by Daystar Cathedral and later embraced by all Pentecostal churches in Mbarara,”

The celebration was topped off by several renown preachers in the district including Akyiza Edson, Evangelist Chris Tusiime, Dr Joel Baziira, Pr Jimmy Henry and Pit Porter from USA, and endorsed by among others Pr Wilson Bugembe, Bishop Franklin Mondo Mugisha and Pr. Cindy Kiganda.

“It’s an event where we put aside the names of our churches, pastors and leaders and unite together under God’s Kingdom. Irrespective of denominations and following, we believe in the bible, our Lord God and his son Jesus Christ. So, we thought it important to always find time to worship and glorify our good Lord together and thus the birth of Jesus March,” Bishop Nathan, whose Cathedral has a sitting capacity of 10,000 worshippers recently remarked. Adding: “We are guided by the Holy Spirit to organise this match so we can’t say it’s annual, [In 2017], before this march we announce fasting for 40 days so this march climaxes our fasting. That’s why it’s a more respected and holy event in the lives of Pentecostals here.” Bishop Turyamureeba says the march from Daystar Cathedral Mbarara, goes through the streets , of Saveyo, Mile 2, Kisenyi, Kijungu, Kiswahili and Biafra, the suburbs which are said to be crime zones. “Through this event many people have given their lives to Jesus, including sorcerers and those practicing witchcraft denouncing their evil ways,” The celebration came following a Mega youth gala at the Church from 21-25 January, under the theme ‘Press on with Assurance.’ (1 Tim 4:12) “This is undeniable that people all over are hungry and thirsty for God. This fire shall keep not only today but forever,” said Evangelist Chris Tusiime.

By Paul W Dennis. </s> Image copyright KZN EMS/ Arrive Alive Image caption Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant was planning to attend the Good Friday service at the church

At least 13 people have died and many were injured when a wall collapsed in South Africa at the start of a Good Friday service at a Pentecostal church.

Emergency services said that 29 people were rushed to hospital after the collapse in the coastal province of KwaZulu-Natal.

Local officials have blamed the tragedy on heavy rainfall in the area around eMpangeni on Thursday night.

Most of the victims were reportedly women sleeping in the church.

An 11-year-old girl is thought to be among them.

The wall at the front of the Pentecostal Holiness Church collapsed at the start of what had been planned as a weekend-long service to commemorate the Christian festival of Easter.

On Friday, a special prayer service was held in a large tent in front of the church, reports the eNCA TV station.

The Reverend Thulasizwe Buthelezi, the mayor of Zululand municipality, said the community was devastated and they would be praying for those affected by the tragedy.

"Christians [from] all denominations - we are here in solidarity. We are here to pray with the church, to pray with the families and to offer our support that God may really heal their wounds."

President Cyril Ramaphosa visited the church last year and some of the congregants reportedly asked for his support to build a new church.

Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant is a member of the church and was planning to attend the Good Friday service there.

She visited the scene and said: "Even at this difficult time, we still need to trust in God."

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Local official Lennox Mabaso told SABC news that the church "a solid structure".

"It is an act of nature. It is an act of God. Not even a president could have been able to save this particular situation," he said.

"It was a heavy storm that affected this area." </s> Thirteen worshippers were killed when a church in South Africa collapsed during an Easter service.

A wall came down at a Pentecostal church last night with 29 people rushed to hospital, six of whom were seriously injured.

A local police spokesperson linked the tragedy to heavy rainfall in the area around eMpangeni, 105 miles north of Durban, on Thursday night.

Pictures of the scene on the emergency services' Twitter page showed bricks and piles of debris strewn across the church 

 floor, with pipes and pillars hanging from higher parts of the building.

Local reports said some people had been sleeping when the brick wall fell.

The wall at the front of the Pentecostal Holiness Church collapsed at the start of what had been planned as a weekend-long service to commemorate the Christian festival of Easter.

On Friday, a special prayer service was held in a large tent in front of the church, reports the eNCA TV station.

The ANC and the DA both sent condolences following the tragedy.

“The African National Congress in KwaZulu-Natal sends its deepest condolences to the relatives of the 13 people who sadly lost their lives when the side wall of the Pentecostal church building... collapsed following heavy rainfall.

“We join hands alongside the bereaved families who have lost their loved ones at this poignant time of the Passover due to such a sudden and unexpected disaster.

"We join hands with them, acutely aware of the excruciating pain that they must be going through," the party said in a statement.

The DA’s Zwakele Mncwango also sent the party's condolences.

“We are sad to learn that 13 congregants who were gathered for a Passover session on Thursday night lost their lives.

"We are further urging those who will be travelling to further away places for Good Friday service to be vigilant on the roads, ensuring a safe return to their respective homes,” he said. </s> Preaching the gospel in Bolivia, a country in South America, is the fastest way for Christians to get a prison sentence.

Church leaders report that a new law has been passed and it states that anyone caught telling others about their faith could face five to 12 years in prison.

The law titled Article 88 says, “whoever recruits, transports, deprives of freedom or hosts people with the aim of recruiting them to take part in armed conflicts or religious or worship organizations will be penalized five to 12 years of imprisonment.”

This is according to a translation by Evangelical Focus, a media initiative of the Spanish Evangelical Alliance.

which went into effect on December 15, 2017, affects approximately 2 million evangelical Christians in Bolivia.

ALSO READ: You get arrested for preaching the gospel in China

has been met with some resistance and criticism particularly because the Bolivian Constitution specifically protects religious freedom and freedom of worship.

The National Association of Evangelicals in Bolivia (ANDEB) issued a statement. It read: “It is deplorable that Bolivia becomes the first Latin American country to persecute the rights of freedom of conscience and of religion, which are protected by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the declaration of San José de Costa Rica, and our Constitution.

“Christian evangelical churches in our country are institutions aiming to rehabilitate the human being, improve the moral, spiritual, ethical and social conditions of our citizens. Now, we have been put in a situation in which practicing the Gospel has been criminalized.”

An additional statement said the code “is imprecise, ambiguous, badly written, contradictory and its punitive power can constitute state abuse.”

Pastor Miguel Machaca Monroy, President of the coalition of evangelical churches in the capital city asked, “Will they denounce us if we bring a group of people to a Christian camp? Will I no longer be able to preach the Gospel on the streets?”

On January 21, a national day of prayer and fasting was observed by Bolivia’s evangelical leaders.

This was their attempt to protest against their socialist government. </s> April 19 (UPI) -- A wall collapsed during a church service in South Africa late Thursday and killed 13 worshipers, officials said.

Officials believe heavy rains caused the front wall to collapse at the Pentecostal Holiness Church in Ndlangubo, in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province. Emergency personnel said nearly three dozen people were injured, at least six critically.

The rural church on South Africa's eastern coastline was filled with congregants Thursday night for the start of a Passover service to begin Easter week events.

A preliminary investigation cited the heavy rains as a primary factor in the structural collapse. KwaZulu-Natal Premier Willies Mchunu called for an investigation into the safety of the building.

"It is an act of nature, an act of God," municipal official Lennox Mabaso said.

Emergency officials were expected to visit the church site Friday. </s> Image copyright . Image caption In the video released of the children the man holding the camera turns it on himself at the end

Dozens of people, mostly school pupils, have been kidnapped from a boarding school in the west of Cameroon.

At least 79 students and three others, including the principal, were seized early on Monday morning in Bamenda, the capital of the North-West region, a government official has told the BBC.

A massive search operation involving the Cameroonian army is now under way.

Cameroon's North-West and South-West regions have been hit by a secessionist rebellion in recent years.

Regional governor Adolphe Lele L'Afrique blamed separatist militias for the kidnapping.

Militias, who have been demanding the independence of the two English-speaking regions, have called for a school boycott.

But no single group has said it carried out the kidnapping at Bamenda's Presbyterian Secondary School, which has pupils aged between 10 and 14.

A video of some of the children, believed to have been filmed by one of the kidnappers, is being shared on social media.

The students, all boys and crammed into a tiny room, all look nervous as the person holding the camera orders them to say their names and where they are from.

They also repeat the phrase: "I was taken from school last night by the Amba boys, I don't know where I am."

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption What's happening in Cameroon?

Amba is short for Ambazonia, the name of the new country that the separatists want to create.

One student, who managed to avoid capture by hiding under a bed, told the BBC that events unfolded quickly as the kidnappers entered the school.

"One of my friends, they beat him mercilessly. All I could think about was to just stay quiet. They threatened to shoot some people... all the big boys they rounded up, and the small ones they left them behind."

A teacher at the school described what she saw as she entered the principal's office after students had been taken from different dormitories.

"The military came in and went to the principal's house where we realised that her door was bashed and entered into, the glasses are still there on the ground," she told the BBC.

'Praying for the kidnapped'

The moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon, the Right Reverend Fonki Samuel Forba told the BBC that he had spoken to the kidnappers.

"They don't want any ransom. All they want is for us to close the schools. We have promised to close down the schools," he told the BBC.

"We hope and pray they release the kids and the teachers," he added.

It is not the first time students have been abducted in the area, known to be a stronghold of separatist fighters, reports the BBC's Ngala Killian Chimtom.

On 19 October, five students of the Atiela Bilingual High School were taken by unidentified gunmen. Their whereabouts are still unknown.

The separatists say that the Cameroon school system suppresses the English-speaking system that the North-West and South-West regions inherited from the British.

Separatist rebellion

The militias, who want to create Ambazonia, began to emerge in 2017 after a security force crackdown on mass protests, led by lawyers and teachers, over the government's alleged failure to give enough recognition to the English legal and education systems in the North-West and South-West.

The government was accused of relying heavily on people trained in the French legal and educational tradition to work in key posts and generally marginalising Cameroon's English-speaking minority, who make up about 20% of the population.

President Paul Biya, who has been in power since 1982, was recently re-elected for a seventh term with more than 70% of the vote.

Opposition parties allege that the poll was rigged, but legal attempts to overturn the result failed.

Cameroon - still divided along colonial lines

Image copyright Alamy Image caption Africa's borders were "carved up" up by colonial powers

Colonised by Germany in 1884

British and French troops force Germans to leave in 1916

Cameroon is split three years later - 80% goes to the French and 20% to the British

French-run Cameroon becomes independent in 1960

Following a referendum, the (British) Southern Cameroons join Cameroon, while Northern Cameroons join English-speaking Nigeria

Read more: Cameroon timeline </s> Ethiopian police in the restive Amhara region in the north confirmed Sunday that seven people were killed when worshippers celebrating the Epiphany holiday clashed with security forces.

The killings on Saturday in the town of Woldiya, 500 kilometers (310 miles) north of the capital Addis Ababa, happened on the second day of the colorful Epiphany celebrations in this East African nation.

Amare Goshu, a police official in the region, told the state-owned Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation that seven people died, including one security officer, during the confrontation. He said that the security forces responded with force when youths in the town tried to attack officers who were patrolling the holiday procession areas. "More than 15 citizens and 2 police officers were also injured and are now receiving treatment," he said. </s> A church wall has collapsed in South Africa, killing at least 13 people

Emergency services took 29 people to hospital after the tragedy in the coastal province of KwaZulu-Natal, at least six of whom were seriously injured.

Police spokeswoman Colonel Thembeka Mbele told the News24 television channel an investigation into the circumstances leading up to the tragedy was underway.

She added: "The congregants were sleeping in the building after the church service ended just after 10pm. There was heavy wind and rain and the walls collapsed.

"The 13 confirmed dead are 12 women and one boy. An inquest docket has been opened and police are still at the scene."

The wall at the front of the Pentecostal Holiness Church collapsed on Good Friday at the beginning of a weekend-long service .

Nomusa Dube-Ncube, Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs MEC, told local broadcaster Enca: “We received a call on Thursday night that part of a church wall had collapsed on congregants due to heavy rain and wind." </s> Thirteen people have been confirmed dead and several injured when a wall collapsed as Easter service got underway at a Pentecostal church in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

Reports indicate 29 faithfuls of the Pentecostal Church were rushed to hospital after the Friday incident.

Locals who spoke to the local and international media said some of the people involved in the incident were sleeping in the Church when when the brick wall fell.

Police report links the incident to a heavy rainfall on Thursday night

President Cyril Ramaphosa visited the church last year and some of the congregants reportedly asked for his support to build a new church.

Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant is a member of the church and was planning to attend the Good Friday service there.

She has arrived at the scene and said: “Even at this difficult time, we still need to trust in God.”
Tens of thousands of Pentecostal Christians in Mbarara, Uganda take to the streets with songs of praise and thanks to hold a common celebration seen as a way of dedicating people’s lives to Christ and preaching the gospel across the entire district.