Biography
Kefa Sempangi was born in 1940s in Uganda, in the region of Buganda, into a Christian family. He grew up in the Anglican church and was a student at the Makerere University in Kampala. As a young man, he came to a living faith in Christ through the East African Revival, which had spread through Uganda. He felt called to the ministry. He studied at a theological college and was ordained. He became a pastor and an evangelist, and he served in the capital, Kampala.
In 1971, Idi Amin took power in Uganda, and a reign of terror began. The country was gripped by fear. Amin's soldiers killed tens of thousands of people, and the church became a target. Sempangi was the pastor of a growing church in Kampala, called Redeemer Church, which met in a large house. It was made up of young people, students and others, who were hungry for the gospel. He preached in a bold way, and he spoke against the killing. The authorities took note.
He was arrested several times and questioned. He was in great danger. He and his people met in secret, and they prayed for Uganda. He also helped the families of those who had been killed. As the terror deepened, many of his friends and church members disappeared. The security police tried to find him, and in 1973, he was warned that he would be killed. He fled the country with his family. They escaped through the help of friends and went to Europe and later to the United States. He had to leave behind his church and his home.
He wrote about his experiences in a book called A Distant Grief, published in 1979, which told the story of his flight and of the suffering of the church in Uganda. It was widely read and made a deep impression on Christians in the West. In it, he described the courage of the believers who stayed behind and the faith that sustained them. He spoke of Archbishop Janani Luwum, who was killed in 1977, and of the martyrs. The title came from the sorrow of an exile who longed for his homeland.
He went on to study at the Westminster Theological Seminary, in Philadelphia, where he was exposed to the Reformed tradition. He came to hold that the Reformed faith offered a deep foundation for the life of the church. He served as a pastor in the United States and also led a ministry to the poor. He founded a church, the Africa Christian Fellowship, in Philadelphia. He also was a leader in the work of relief for the people of Uganda and in the building of schools and churches in his homeland.
He returned to Uganda after the fall of Amin and took up a role in rebuilding. He worked on the education of pastors and the care of orphans. He was a man of strong convictions who spoke with a quiet gravity. He is also a man who bore the scars of what he had seen.
His life shows the cost of preaching the gospel under a tyrant. A young pastor in Kampala was driven from his country and became a voice for the suffering church. His witness reminded the church in freedom of the price paid by others.