A life remembered

The Reverend Ammon Sereboya died last night, at the age of 83, friend of the mission and father of one of our nurse-midwives. His life was remarkable in many ways, and we were privileged to carry his body in the casket from town to his parental home for burial, and speak at the ceremony. He was born in 1925 in what is now the DRC, but his parents shifted a few miles eastward when he was a boy, into British- controlled Ugandan territory where he attended colonial-inspired schools. He was a primary school teacher and an Anglican pastor, and he taught at about a dozen different schools over the years. But Scott recognized him for two outstanding life features.

First, he was instrumental in the beginning of the Bible translation project. He served as chair of the Lubwisi/Lwamba Orthography Committee, and throughout the last two decades continued to work on the committee to oversee and check and promote the translation and literacy work. Sitting at his burial with hundreds of people today, I was struck by how his effort and vision contribute to a preservation and validation of their culture. And how the Gospel intersects with that, saying that each people group is valuable and unique and every language worth studying and encoding. What will the impact be on generations of children who learn to read in their mother tongue, who hear the truth in understandable words?

Second, he was married for 56 years, to one woman. Monogamy is not the norm here, particularly not for a man of his stature. Yet he persevered in his call as a man and as a pastor to the principal of "one life, one wife". Scott took some risks to stand up and publicly exclaim this in a crowd of men and women who may not agree. But he expressed admiration for the Reverend and compared him to the Ugandan national bird, the crested crane which mates for life, and people seemed to listen and enjoy the idea. I was at his wife's burial about a year ago. We have great respect for the elders who survived decades of disease and war and hardship, and brought a family and a community into being.

And so we joined our friend Alice, his daughter, and many many others today, lowering the body of a man whose soul, we were reminded by the main speaker, now walks face to face with God.