So I finally went to Phaneroo. The fellowship was celebrating 10 years and among the mammoth crowd in Lugogo, there I was worshipping with them. This is a story about my experience at Phaneroo.
There were so many street preachers everywhere I turned saying everyone was invited. But whereas I occasionally gave them my ear and took their pamphlets, I was never really convinced until one time I was stuck in Bukoto Morning traffic jam( This jam gets really bad but that is a story for another day). So while in jam, I got a chance to have a conversation with one of the Phaneroo street preachers. These are not your ordinary street preachers by the way. They are smart, some wearing suits and ties and actually look like they had breakfast before coming to the streets. You could even catch a whiff of cologne here and there. In a nutshell, they looked like corporates who took off a few hours to preach in the mornings.
During my conversations, I asked about the event and why they were out on the streets in droves, he said it was an open invitation. Unlike some Kampala street preachers, he wasn’t screaming scriptures loud into my ear at the top of his lungs such that I couldn’t even make out what he was saying, this guy was just having a conversation. Because he spoke kindly, I promised him that I would indeed come for the event. It doesn’t hurt to take off a few hours in the evening to pray and worship and since I am already a “Mulokole”, I felt that this was the right thing to do.
The promise I made was just in passing and maybe a few times I thought to myself; “it wouldn’t be that bad if I just didn’t go, or maybe if I watched online” and then the bombshell dropped. My absolute favourite artist in Africa and one I consider a legend of worship music was coming to Uganda and he was going to perform at the Phaneroo event. Now it was no longer a matter of if I was going to go but what time I was going to get there. I had previously urged any Ugandan promoter to organize a Nathaniel Bassey concert and had offered to pay any price for a ticket to that concert and then here it was, free of charge. I could just walk into the Phaneroo grounds and worship with my legend, for free.
So it was settled, I was going to Phaneroo, come rain, come sunshine. As I always do, I took to twitter and asked my followers and the public how to go about it, I was particularly worried about finding parking and dealing with the crowds because of my introverted wife. But my worries were quickly averted as soon as my tweet went live as scores of Phaneroo members reached out to me offering to save seats for me. One of my followers (Now a friend) Rita Kabanyoro who was abroad offered to find me seats, my gym instructor Yada Shapes, who I didn’t know was a Phaneroo member also offered me seats. Even one of the pastors, who I later found out is one of the ardent kind street preachers I had found along Kisaasi Bukoto road also offered me seats. I had so many people offering to sit with me that I was spoilt for choice. These were people I had never met in my life, and they wanted to sit with me and my family at an event, I wondered if this was genuine kindness or “Taxi Conductor kindness.” (Just to get me in the door and abandon me as soon as I was sold) I took this kindness with a pinch of salt opting to wait and see for myself at the event.
I ended up going with Kabanyoro’s seats. She was out of the country and so she handed me to Omoding, a Phaneroo Usher. He guided me through WhatsApp from the night before d-day and kept checking on me. Whereas two seats had been saved for me, on the event date Saturday, 10th August 2024, my wife was feeling unwell so I had to go alone. I got on the road and kept in communication with Omoding. He directed me to the parking, where I also found so many Phaneroo volunteers smiling and directing all the cars; I found a spot. There was ample parking space and Uganda police on guard. I gladly left the car parked with the confidence that it was safe. I was now starting to feel welcome.
Omoding was at the entrance waiting to receive me and guided me through the security checks until I reached my seat that he had saved at the request of Kabanyoro. Kabanyoro herself kept checking on me on WhatsApp to prove that I had indeed arrived. I arrived at 4:00 PM in the middle of a praise and worship session and the sound was so on point, I could hear and see everything crystal clear. It was not long before another volunteer came around with a bottle of water for all of us. Now this was new church hospitality for me. And I loved it. My neighbours welcomed me with big smiles and before long, I was joining in the song.
Phaneroo
At 4:30 PM, Apostle Grace Lubega, the founder of Phaneroo and Nathaniel Bassey arrived at the Phaneroo grounds and once we saw them on the screens, jubilation began. Immediately after, we were shown a video of how Phaneroo started at Theatre Labonita in 2014 with just 1200 attendees.
As members grew, the Thursday fellowship ministry expanded to the MTN Indoor arena in Lugogo, they then moves to the UMA multipurpose hall also in Lugogo due to the expanding numbers of attendees. Finally, the fellowship moved to the UMA upper gardens.
On the day that I was there, Phaneroo was also using its new land for the first time, a land that they bought from the government of Uganda in Naguru.
Apostle Grace says he did not ever ask the church to fundraise for this land.
The ministry now owns Manifest TV, the most-watched Christian TV station in Uganda
At the event, Phaneroo explained why they chose this hands-on approach to preaching the gospel everywhere.
“Pre pandemic, 3,500 people left their religious congregations every day…“This is our church, if they don’t come to us, we will go to them”
On top of street preaching which I later discovered even Apostle Grace also does himself, Phaneroo has a prison ministry where they reach out to inmates and preach to them a Children’s ministry. Phaneroo says that
“A recent report shows that only 13% of churches have children’s ministries on top 3 lists of church priorities”
Nathaniel Bassey
Nathaniel Bassey’s performance was everything I hoped it would be. He got on stage and immediately blew his signature trumpet.
Bassey opened with “Take the Stage” and went on to sing most of his hit songs like Imela, Adonai and others.
The highlight of his performance was when he and his band sang the hit song “Jesus Iye” in Luganda.
So here is the exposé
I hereby expose Phaneroo for being very welcoming,
I hereby Expose Phaneroo for being very kind,
I hereby expose Phaneroo for being very organised,
I hereby expose Phaneroo for indeed manifesting the joy, love and kindness of Christ,
And lastly, I expose Phaneroo for being just an all-round fun Christian hangout spot.
I found that the only way to keep hating Phaneroo is not to go there. But when you go and see for yourself that they embody the kindness of Christ and actively practice what they preach, you will feel welcome. And this is just human nature, you don’t even have to be religious, we all love feeling welcome and welcome is an understatement to how I felt at Phaneroo.
