After many years of labor and prayers, this spring we celebrated the first graduation of the new Knox School of Theology in Mbale, Uganda. It was my last time to address the school as its principal, and I was overwhelmed. For my wife Connie and me, this event was one of the most emotional, joyful, and amazing moments in our life in the ministry. We didn’t know what to make of the flood of emotions coming together all at once—joy; thankfulness that we were finished after years of labor, mixed with a serious sense of loss and homesickness for Africa; appreciation for deep friendships; and an overpowering feeling of hope for what this graduation represented for the church in Africa. It wasn’t just the culmination of ten years of our lives; it was an encounter with the beauty of God’s work. It was the end of our work in Uganda, but for the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC), it was a great new moment in our church’s history.

On May 24, 2025, we granted four diplomas and ten bachelor’s degrees in theology. This graduation celebrates more than simply a newly accredited program in Uganda; it represents the greatest opportunity for pastoral and theological education in a Reformed confessional school in East Africa. It also highlights that the OPC, a small and relatively unknown church in America, is now at the cutting edge of Reformed theological education in Africa.

A Desire for Better Education

When I taught my first class as a visitor in 2013 at what was then called Knox Theological College, I began with four or five students. One failed because he didn’t know English well enough to pass the class. Another failed because he only came to half the classes. As I watched and listened to the students, I realized that most would not have qualified for an accredited program. From our arrival as missionaries in 2015, I dreamed that the OPC could expand Knox’s horizons with a more formal program and greater outreach. However, I was told that accreditation was too long, too hard, and too expensive. It was true that the process was long, hard, and expensive, but it was worth it.

God’s providence moved us all along the way. Soon after our arrival to Uganda, it became clear that pastoral training was going to need accreditation due to changing laws and growing pressure from governments across East Africa. We wanted to send qualified, better-trained students back to their churches as future leaders for gospel reformation in Africa. We couldn’t find any serious, accredited undergraduate programs of pastoral study that were confessionally Reformed in Uganda.

Our earliest attempt was to work with a local Christian university in Mbale, LivingStone International University (LIU). This worked well as a start. One of the first graduates, Pastor Muwoya David, is now working for Knox. (Incidentally, David grew up in a village church that OP missionary Tony Curto helped to start years ago in Kachonga.) Though LIU was a great partner, they were not Reformed, and we had a passion to train pastors biblically and confessionally.

When COVID hit in 2020, everything changed. The government closed churches and schools. Everyone was sent home to wait. Then it occurred to me that this may be the opportunity to do what we hadn’t had the time to do—create an independently accredited program. Starting from scratch, I formalized the name as Knox School of Theology (KST), and off we went. I hired a young MDiv graduate named Okuch Andrew Ojullo to help me work through the mountain of paperwork that we needed. We created a new curriculum, a constitution, bylaws, and multiple other documents and guidelines. God blessed the efforts. In summer 2022, KST was given a provisional license of accreditation, and we began our new program with a fresh batch of students from all over East Africa. It was so exciting!

At the Forefront of Theological education

The response to our new school has been overwhelming. Having never advertised, we have more students applying than we are able to accept. We are so humbled now to have students from Burundi, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Kenya, and of course, Uganda. Last year we had fifty applications from all over Africa—including Ethiopia, Tanzania, and even Cameroon (western Africa). Although KST can only accept a limited number of applicants from all these nations, it places OPC foreign missions on the frontline of theological education in Africa. God has providentially put us at the center of an amazing situation.

The new students at Knox represent a rapidly growing field of current and future pastors looking for an accredited institution dedicated to high-quality, undergraduate pastoral training. When you narrow down the field of Reformed theological schools that are accredited, KST is one of only a few on the whole continent of Africa. Can you imagine? The whole continent! Africa’s Christian population is experiencing rapid growth, but there are very few formally trained pastors in comparison.

Eager Applicants, Amazing Students

A few years ago, one of our potential students from South Sudan walked along dirt roads for two days, with nothing but a bag over his shoulder, only to find that the one road available for his bus to Uganda was flooded. He reluctantly turned around and walked home, still longing to come to KST sometime in the future. He represents so many passionate pastors and young men who yearn to come to KST, but due to poverty, civil unrest, and difficult social and cultural conditions, are simply unable to join us.

Each student at KST has a unique and beautiful story. Khamasi John graduated this past May as the valedictorian for KST in the diploma program in spite of serious health problems. John was born in Kenya, and as a young man, he sold drugs with his father near Lokichogio. After a dramatic conversion and many years in the ministry of a Pentecostal church, he made his way to KST at the urging of his friend, Santulinous “Santu” Ekada, a teacher at a Reformed graduate school in Kampala.

Santu told John that KST was the best and only choice for a Reformed undergraduate program in East Africa, and that, unlike so many other pastoral training centers, it is biblical as well as accredited. At our banquet, John testified to the grace of God he experienced through the loving and excellent academic training at KST, and he affirmed his strong commitment to Reformed theology.

Another beautiful story about God’s work is connected to the OP Mission in Karamoja. One of our 2025 graduates is a young man named Lokiru Timothy—often called “Timo.” Timo is a native of Karamoja and a fruit of God’s work through the Mission in that challenging place. He came to KST and personally testified about his wonder and awe at the education he was receiving. He said he had never encountered anything like it.

As a graduate of Knox, Timo is now qualified to pursue pastoral ministry in Karamoja with our mission there. You may think that since he is a local from the area, things will be easy—but remember Jesus’s words that a prophet has no honor in his hometown (Matt. 13:57). Timo’s natural ability to know the culture and speak the language fluently is a benefit, but it also means that clan, family, and cultural ties will be challenging to his work and witness. Praise God, and pray for Timo, that he may by God’s grace complete the circle of our work in Karamoja to have a local Karimojong pastor and a particularized church in that region.

KST is also situated brilliantly with full-time African instructors and staff. An OP mission’s task is to work itself out of a job by turning its work over to the indigenous church—and we are well on our way. Please pray for our instructors—Okuch (yes, the same man who helped me with the paperwork for registration) from South Sudan, Desire from Burundi, and Kakule Joseph, Paul Magala, and Muwoya David, all from Uganda. These men are not only academically qualified by government standards but also honest, humble, hardworking, and godly young men who love the church. Please pray for their future in the ministry.

The Beauty of God’s Work at KST

In addition to all the other beautiful stories over the past few years, we can recall how God allowed the school to purchase more land beyond the initial land that missionary Phil Proctor had helped to purchase years ago. This additional land was exactly what the National Council of Higher Education requires schools to have. God provided the means to renovate the old buildings and build a new pavilion, a new kitchen, and two new dorms. And just in time for graduation, we officially opened a new administration building, containing offices, classrooms, a computer lab, and an expanded library, as well as a two-bedroom apartment for visiting professors.

These additions to our provisional program now complete all the infrastructure requirements for Knox to apply to move from provisional to permanent accreditation. With our two new missionaries in Mbale, Fred Lo and Mike Kearney, we can move to the next level for Knox’s place in African theological education.

As Connie and I close ten years of our lives spent serving God in Uganda, we are amazed at what God has done, especially in the work of Knox School of Theology. We are in awe at the beauty of God’s work. When I look at the pictures that I am showing to churches, I can hardly believe it myself. God has done a great work through the OPC these last three decades in Uganda, and he blessed us to be a part of it. We thank all the missionaries who work there now and those who went before us. Thousands in the church have prayed and supported this Mission over the years. We thank you all and ask that you join us in praying that God will continue to bless and to grow the work of the Lord in Africa.

The author is a former OP missionary in Mbale, Uganda. New Horizons, August–September 2025.