Life Ministries Centre

Life Ministries Christian Centre began with Emmanuel Rucyaba’s vision for evangelism and church planting in Uganda. His first church plant took place in a slum on the edge of Kampala called Namuwongo. Not long after the church was established, Emmanuel expanded his vision to include medical help for the poor. He recognized the need to have a medical center in Namuwongo where the patients would pay according to their financial ability rather than according to a fixed fee. At that time, Emmanuel owned a plot of land across the street from his church building where he was intending to build a house for his family. He decided to donate that land for a medical center and trust God to provide something else for his family. The medical center was constructed and has been in operation for over 25 years. In the meantime, God has, indeed, provided a home for Emmanuel and his family outside of Kampala.

After the medical center, which was primarily for out-patient care, had been in operation for many years, Emmanuel saw the need to build a full-scale hospital where patients could be admitted overnight for larger medical issues.

In 2010 Life Ministries Christian Centre was able to purchase six acres of land ten miles east of Kampala just off of the main highway between Kampala and Nairobi, Kenya. The first building was completed in 2014. Kairos Hospital offers excellent care by Christian staff in a very clean and pleasant environment. Just like the medical center, the hospital charges fees according to the patient’s ability to pay. In the future, Emmanuel plans to have a total of nine buildings including an operating theater.

Education in a Christian context is also a significant part of Life Ministries Christian Centre. Over the years an elementary and a secondary school have been built in Kampala and Christian schools have been built in three towns in rural Uganda.

During the thirty years of Life Ministries’ existence, over 150 churches have been planted in Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan, Congo, Burundi and South Africa. Church planting is the core of Life Ministries’ vision and is also the vehicle through which Christian schools are established.

Several years ago Life Ministries was able to purchase a large plot of farm land in western Uganda. The purpose was to generate income to help fund the other parts of the ministry. Presently, there is a flock of goats and a herd of cattle. However, there is much more that could be done with many of the acres on the farm. The African cattle are poor milk producers and need to be cross-bred with good milk-producing western cows. A business plan has been written to utilize the land to its potential and enable it to fulfill its purpose of generating income for the ministry. This project is now a very high priority for Emmanuel and his team.

Joya Children’s Home and Fermont School

_{Joya Children’s Home is located in the village of Nagavedu, approximately forty miles west of Chennai in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It was founded by Edwin Devadas and his wife Shashi in 2002. Edwin Devadas had been abandoned by his mother shortly after birth and put into a trash barrel where a poor widow found him. Although she herself barely had enough to live on, she felt compassion for this baby, brought him into her humble home and raised him. It was this experience that motivated Edwin to establish a home for orphans.}

_{Joya Children’s Home is presently adding on to its facilities and will be able to house approximately sixty boys and girls when completed. It is on a plot of two acres just outside the village. In addition to the facilities for the children of the home, there is also a small English speaking kindergarten and elementary school on the property. The children attending this school are day students who live in Nagavedu and the surrounding area. Joya Children’s Home also has a larger plot on the other side of the village that is presently being used to grow vegetables and fruit. As funds become available they plan to build a larger school building to enable expansion to higher grades.}

Meet the Team

Bob and Barb Lidfors

Bob and Barbara Lidfors moved to Germany in 1982 with a vision of planting churches in which the Holy Spirit would be free to move as He desires. They planted and pastored a church in the city of Firth for seven years, before turning it over to their German associate pastor. Towards the end of this time, Bob had a strong impression to start an evening Bible school to train believers in his region to be more effective serving the Lord in their church and out in the workplace. When Bob’s ministry shifted to the Bible school, the Lord opened a door for Barbara to hone her art ability and use art as a means to be a light in the art community, which she did in Germany and is now continuing in the US. Just a few years after moving to Germany, the Lord brought Bob and Barbara in contact with Edwin Devadas. Since then they have made frequent trips to India to encourage him and support his ministry. In 1992 the international aspect of Bob and Barbara’s ministry expanded to Uganda when Bob met Emmanuel Rucyaba in England. After Emmanuel returned to Uganda, Bob made his first trip to minister with him there. Since then Bob and Barbara have made many ministry trips to Uganda – sometimes bringing teams with them from Germany or the US, which they also do frequently in India. Since moving back to the US, Bob and Barbara continue their missions trips to both India and Uganda as well as leading a house church, which they started during Covid.

Uganda

Pastor Emanuel Rucyaba

Emmanuel Rucyaba (shown with his wife Dorothy) began his ministry, Life Ministries Christian Centre, in Kampala, Uganda in 1992 after training for one year at Proclaimers International Bible school in Norwich, England. Bob Lidfors met him at Proclaimers while Bob was visiting there for two weeks in January 1992 to establish a working relationship with Proclaimers. Emmanuel first planted a church in the worst slum in Kampala, called Namuwongo. Soon after that, he started an out-patient health center across the street from the church. Over the years, Emmanuel’s ministry has expanded to seven African countries and India, where he has grown a network of over 160 churches. In 2014 he added a Christian hospital called Kairos Hospital to the medical aspect of Life Ministries Christian Centre. Education in a Christian context is also part of his vision. Kairos Primary and Secondary School is now educating poor children from Kampala. In addition, there are three other Christian schools connected with Life Ministries churches in rural Uganda. Emmanuel is presently working to launch a dairy project in western Uganda to generate funds for the various aspects of the ministry. 

Emmanuel has three children and four grandchildren. In 2016 Jane Rucyaba, Emmanuel’s wife of many years, went to be with the Lord. God was gracious to Emmanuel and in 2020 Emmanuel married Dorothy, who not only is a wonderful companion, but also a skilled administrator for the Kairos schools. 

India

Pastor Edwin Devadas

Edwin Devadas came out of the most humble circumstances that one could imagine. His birth mother had abandoned him in a trash barrel but a poor beggar widow heard his crying and raised him as her son. Begging was Edwin’s way of life as he was growing up until he was able to join the army. After serving in the army he attended a Bible school and joined a pentacostal denomination as a traveling evangelist. While he was in northern India he met and married Shashi, who was willing to accept the fact that he would often be gone on long ministry trips. Shashi has been the greatest support that Edwin could have hoped for. In 1985 Edwin and Shashi were blessed with a son, Robin, who now works with them in the ministry. Bob Lidfors met Edwin in 1986 at the Billy Graham conference for itinerant evangelists in Amsterdam. Since then, Bob has regularly visited and ministered with Edwin, doing evangelism and leadership training of young pastors. When Edwin decided to start an orphanage to help poor children just as he had been helped, Bob began a sponsorship program in Germany, where he was living at the time, and also in the US. Through sponsorships and extra contributions, Joya Children’s Home was started in the town of Nagavedu in the state of Tamil Nadu. Five years ago, Robin and his wife, Sunita started a private school in English there in Nagavedu. This school presently has almost one hundred children in five grades and has become a witness and a blessing to the surrounding community. As Robin takes over more of the responsibility of the ministry, his vision includes a residential school, a health center and the establishment of businesses to employ the children of Joya Children’s Home after they have finished their schooling.