 A Rwandan refugee student had found Christ! A life of
hopelessness and statelessness had found the answer. For the first time in his
life Eton Mills could look up in dignity. Now he wanted to share the wonder and message
of this transformation. Jesus Christ had become the driving force of his
life...
My passion to
share Christ began with Christian Union, a campus fellowship at Makerere University,
Kampala Uganda. That generation of Christians and that
student movement taught me the ideal, something of the Jesus personality, and a
revolutionary way of being Christian. I
had found one pearl of a great price (Matthew 13:46).
It was the Bible
and the New Testament gospels that really influenced me. It was Jesus Christ
the Galilean Missionary that captured my heart and soul. No, He was more than a
philosopher. Wherever He turned it was the same story - miracles over and over
again. The cripples, the lame and the blind; the paralytics and those afflicted
by all manner of disease were cured and healed. Demon spirits succumbing to the
terror of his presence. This was the Christ, the World’s Messiah. And when he spoke about the Kingdom and
healed on the Sabbath, the religious establishment were bewildered, even
mad. I fell in love.
In the book of
Acts I followed the Apostles as they turned the world upside down, ablaze with
the proclamation of the gospel. Jesus had said they should go to the uttermost
part of the earth and they had – a stunning odyssey of world evangelisation.
There they were – the Christians – a mighty force, preaching everywhere,
telling the world about Jesus, who had died but was now said to be risen and
alive! It seemed like a rapid movement about to cover the globe. Their faith and reputation preceded them as
they spread out in the far-flung reaches of the empire of Rome.
As it happened,
it was the Apostle Paul, formerly Saul of Tarsus, the persecutor and murderer-turned
Wise Master Builder laying the foundation of this new edifice of the church now
towering over the Ancient World. In this church I was proud to belong and to
serve. In my restless search for meaning and faith, I had groped on in pseudo-revolutionary
Marxian socialism and joined those who railed against imperialism and
neo-colonialism. All that seemed to just fade. This Christianity appealed to me
immensely. I desired nothing else in life.
It was on that
night of my salvation that Sunday - August 30, 1981 – when I made the solemn
pledge before the Christian Union, to ‘cling to the old rugged cross and
exchange it some day for a crown’. In the language of the bible I had become
born again. A New Creature. I had become a Christian in the true sense of the
word.
Today I reach
back in memory to those revolutionary Jesus days when we would strike the index
finger skyward! The days when we
joyfully sang New Life in Jesus, New Life, New Life. When we carried our bibles
aloft with pride! Oh, Christians we were - that generation!
Eton Mills is now an international
evangelist preaching to multitudes in the stadiums of the world. He
speaks to a new generation with the sole aim to lead them to Jesus
Christ. It's a consuming passion.
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