The OPC Committee on Foreign Missions has been working in Uganda for thirty years. Others, who were there before us, asked us to work in the east, around Mbale. Rev. Dr. L. Anthony Curto (who served 1995–1999) began by helping the Presbyterian Church of Uganda plant churches in the villages and train men to be pastors, ruling elders, and deacons. Soon, with the establishment of Westminster Theological College, pastoral training was being done in a school setting.

When Tony moved to begin church planting in Nakaale, Karamoja, Rev. Dr. Brian T. Wingard (who served 1998–2001) and Rev. Jonathan B. Falk (1999–2002) continued the pastoral training in Mbale until Tony’s return (2001–2004). Then, as the chapter of our work at Westminster Theological College closed, a new one began. Rev. Philip T. Proctor (2003–2011) arrived to start Knox Theological College. He would be helped there by Brian Wingard (2007–2011) and others until the work was eventually taken up by Rev. Dr. L. Charles Jackson (2015–2025) who guided the restructured Knox School of Theology toward seeking official accreditation. Many men, like Jon Falk, came for short terms to teach several courses.

For the reader, the change in school names, Westminster Theological College, Knox Theological College, and Knox School of Theology, may seem confusing, but those names changed, in part, because we were planting churches with and preparing church officers for changing denominations. While each change may indicate some conflict at the time, they also indicate growth, blessing, and the glorious work of Jesus Christ.

For thirty years, the OPC CFM has worked with our brothers in Uganda to seek and find spiritual maturity. In the following pages, we hope that you will see how God used you and your missionaries to walk alongside the church in Uganda to the praise of the glory of Jesus Christ.

—General Secretary Douglas Clawson

Where Shall We Find Leaders?

L. Anthony Curto (Mbale, 1995–1999, 2001–2004)

Kathleen and I moved to Uganda, East Africa, in the summer of 1995. We were to work with the Presbyterian Church in Uganda (PCU) as missionaries of the OPC helping to plant PCU churches in the district of Mbale. The PCU had a congregation established in the town of Mbale, and its goal was to plant churches in the surrounding rural villages.

The plan was to begin preaching in these rural villages each week on selected market days when the people would be gathered to buy and sell. Local Bible studies could be started with interested villagers. The hope was that these contacts would be the beginning of mission churches, which would in turn grow into fully established congregations of the PCU.

The Lord quickly blessed our labors, and we had about ten Bible studies in the first four months after our arrival. Each week I would go and preach on market days and then go to a shamba (compound) to teach a Bible study with interested villagers. From the very beginning, these studies began to grow.

The villagers’ interest in the Bible studies immediately made us ask: Where was the PCU going to get qualified men to be pastors and elders here? The PCU in the capital city of Kampala sent some men to help us out, but this was only a temporary solution. There were many young men attending the Bible studies, but most did not have education beyond primary school.

Training Church Leaders

Working with the session of the Mbale PCU, I started what we called the Mbale Christian Workers Institute. The goal of the institute was to begin discipling young men who were in the Bible studies, with the hope that what would emerge would be men the church could recognize as potential ruling elders and pastors. The session in Mbale invited several men from each Bible study. The program was to be one year in length. We would meet as a class once a week, and then I would meet with each student weekly at the village Bible study. The elders of the Mbale church appointed Moses Were to work as my translator.

We needed to give our attention to two questions: what would be our curriculum and where would we get materials? With the help of George Scipione from Southern California, we put together student backpacks. These backpacks contained books for each student, such as Berkhof’s Manual of Christian Doctrine, some Banner of Truth titles, and Dr. Scipione’s Timothy, Titus, and You: A Workbook for Church Leaders.

Westminster Theological College

While we were carrying on the work of the institute, I was also working with the brothers in Kampala on their vision to begin a theological college of the PCU. The church recognized that they couldn’t keep sending men abroad for their theological training. One major reason was the risk that those men would lose their roots in the village. Many of the men who went abroad never came back to Uganda, or if they did, they refused to go back to the village.

After much prayer and planning, the PCU decided to start Westminster Theological College (WTC) with two campuses, one in Kampala and one in Mbale. I was asked to be the teacher at the Mbale campus. The college would be under the oversight of the PCU’s general assembly. The training would be for three years and include a full theological curriculum. The men who would attend the Mbale campus would be selected by the Mbale session and myself from among those who had attended our institute. In the fall of 1996, we began with nineteen candidates from the villages in the surrounding area of Mbale.

At this time, we began to build the first classroom for WTC Mbale. The first year, the students met together on my compound. Classes were held in the mornings so that the work of village preaching and Bible studies could continue. Each weekday, I would go to the village, accompanied by the students from that village, to carry on the work of church planting. This gave the students opportunities to apply what they were learning in their village context.

The Lord brought great blessings during our first year. The classroom was finished in early 1997 on the grounds of the Mbale PCU. Also in 1997, through a generous donation, we were able to start purchasing books for a theological library.

The next great blessing from the Lord was his provision of OPC missionaries: Brian and Dorothy Wingard arrived in 1998 to labor with us in Mbale. Brian and I started teaching together at the college in its second year. In 1999, at the end of the first three-year cycle at WTC Mbale, we had our first graduation. Shortly afterwards, Kathleen and I returned to the States for furlough. But our Lord, who never goes on furlough, carried on his work to call and prepare men for the gospel ministry in eastern Uganda.

Students Rising to the Challenge

Brian T. Wingard (Mbale, 1998–2001, 2007–2011)

Dorothy and I arrived in Mbale, Uganda, early in 1998. My call from the Committee on Foreign Missions was to serve as a full-time teacher at Westminster Theological College (WTC), an institution established by Rev. Dr. Tony Curto but under the oversight of the Eastern Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church in Uganda.

Having come from my previous assignment in Kenya at the Reformed Theological College of East Africa, I was not altogether prepared for WTC. At WTC, we were required to enroll any student that the presbytery sent to us. Some of these men were up to the academic challenge of a theological college, but many were not. Some had not completed, or in some cases even started, secondary school—what in the States would be called high school—and many of them were very recent converts.

One incident stands out in my mind. In an introduction to the Old Testament course, I asked a question concerning the dating of an Old Testament book, and one student suggested the author was John the Baptist. Marking test papers was often distressing because I knew that these men would be sent to pastor churches in which the spiritual life and health of the congregation would be in their hands.

In the fall of 2001, I left Mbale to serve in Eritrea but came back to Mbale in 2007. Dorothy and I returned to find a newly organized Knox Theological College, several kilometers outside of Mbale.

The Rev. Philip Proctor had found property to begin to erect the school, and he served as the principal. The relationship between Knox Theological College and the indigenous church was slightly different from the arrangements between the Presbyterian Church in Uganda and WTC. As per a cooperative agreement, the OP mission now had greater oversight and could decide which students to admit. Because of the addition to our team of the late Rev. Thomas Mayville, Knox Theological College received students from the church in Kenya that the Reformed Church in the United States was assisting. This broadened the pool from which the college drew.

One class that stands out in my mind is Christian Ethics. This course gave me the opportunity to address ethical situations that the students faced. There was always a lively discussion as the students learned how to think biblically rather than culturally about these issues.

Another high point was the sermon evaluation class in which students would present sermons before the class and the whole faculty—Phil Proctor, Thomas Mayville, and myself. The faculty would rotate in leading the evaluation of the students’ efforts.

Between my years at WTC and Knox Theological College, there was progress. The students attending the schools had better educational backgrounds, and the school was serving a broader and more diverse area. I thank God for that progress, and for the further milestone of the present accredited institution.

Beginning a Community College

Philip T. Proctor (Mbale, 2003–2011)

We are temporary. Missionaries and pastors; families and individuals. Our lasting legacy is not in what we do but in the lives that God touches through us, his instruments. In 2 Timothy 2:1–2, Paul lays the foundation for Christian ministry: entrusting the gospel witness to faithful men who will themselves teach others. Who were those men that Timothy chose? Who were the men they themselves trained? Their names are not recorded, but history shows what mighty works God will do through anonymous, faithful people.

In 2003, Meredith and I arrived in Uganda as Dr. Tony Curto was transitioning to ministry in the States. The relationship with the indigenous Presbyterian church was also in transition. Training indigenous church leadership has always been at the center of the OPC’s foreign missions, so step one was to begin a formal training program.

Knox Theological College, later renamed Knox School of Theology (KST), was born out of my garage office in our home in Mbale. The aim was to produce graduates who were men of piety, who were preachers of Jesus Christ, and who understood how to use the Westminster Confession and Catechisms in their pastoral ministry. Training African pastors for God’s people in Africa is at the heart of our obedience to Paul’s “job description” in 2 Timothy 2.

Purchasing Property

Early days were, to say the least, eventful. KST had to purchase property, and the OPC needed to establish a local non-governmental organization (NGO) that could issue work permits and own real estate. I discovered that Uganda had two types of land ownership: customary and title. Customary ownership is the local method of neighbors agreeing that so-and-so has owned this piece of land for years, with such-and-such boundaries. Titled property has been surveyed and registered with the Ugandan government. Titled land usually comes with “squatters” who have paid for the land through the customary route and must be evicted by the owner of the land title. Learning these intricacies while teaching was an adventure.

In the end we purchased a non-titled piece of land through the customary process and then had it surveyed and titled. We found a beautiful piece of property four miles outside Mbale, and the school was “official.”

When I think of our ministry in Uganda, I immediately think of all the people who helped me to shoulder the load. Ministers from the OPC and other Reformed denominations throughout the world came and taught three-week classes so that I could focus on the labyrinth of paperwork. Short-term teams came to help with construction and participate in evangelism in the local congregations. During furloughs, we saw the eagerness of God’s people faithfully holding us in prayer. Our Foreign Missions general secretaries were endlessly patient and supportive, listening for hours on phone calls and offering wise counsel. During our second term, the Wingards joined us and were a rich blessing to our whole family. Thomas Mayville, a minister in the Reformed Church in the United States, joined us with his wife, Carolyn. Deep friendships were formed that continue to this day.

Developing a College for Pastors

Once we had purchased the property, the next step was to develop it. We put up a perimeter fence, built a road to access the property, and put in a well that would supply KST’s needs and also serve the community. As people came for their daily water, the students and faculty could tell them of the water of life which quenches the deep thirst of the human soul. Twenty years later, the well remains a gathering place for the community.

Generous donors gave both time and financial resources toward the construction projects. We were able to quickly construct our first three buildings for classrooms, administration, and a dormitory, enabling us to accept students from all over East Africa, including Kenya and Malawi. Meanwhile, the core focus of training pastors drove everything we did. We had chapel five days per week with a faculty member preaching on Wednesdays and the students rotating through preaching and evaluation the other four days. My goal was that by the time a student finished our three-year program, he would have preached and been evaluated on at least fifty sermons. I cut many a student off at the thirty-minute mark, which helped them learn to organize and distill a sermon to its key elements. We covered systematic theology in conjunction with the Westminster Confession. Above all, we poured ourselves into the Scriptures, outlining books of the Bible, showing the grand themes of redemption from Genesis to Revelation, and seeing Jesus Christ in every page.

Challenges and Blessings

While I was in the process of laying the foundation for KST, I felt like a constant failure. There was too much that I didn’t know, and it felt like I was walking blindfolded through a minefield. There was significant opposition from some in the Ugandan church to establishing an NGO and building the facility for it outside their financial ownership and control. Threats against me escalated, affecting my family. Civil lawsuits and false property claims overshadowed the efforts. When our time in Uganda concluded in 2011, I left behind a work that was essentially a community college and was carried forward by others who came after me.

I continue to be richly blessed through my service on the Committee on Foreign Missions. My wife, Meredith, and I just returned from a visit to Uganda, visiting KST and encouraging our missionaries in Karamoja. What a joy to support the missionaries just as the church had supported us so many years ago! What a blessing to witness the faithful, continuing service of many of our first African graduates who remain in ministry today! What a beautiful privilege to see what God has been doing all along!

A Vision for the Future

Jonathan B. Falk (Mbale, 1999–2002)

When Margaret and I left the mission field in Mbale in 2002 to help reopen the Orthodox Presbyterian Church’s Mission in Asmara, Eritrea, we never thought we would see Uganda again. Much to our surprise, we found ourselves back in Uganda for the fall term of 2019 at Knox School of Theology (KST). In our absence, the population of Mbale had almost doubled in size, which meant that driving in congested traffic was even more challenging than we remembered. It was a joy for us to visit with Ugandans who had worked and worshiped with us during our earlier ministry in the country. It was even more encouraging to see the former students of missionaries Tony Curto and Brian Wingard serving as faithful pastors in the
village churches.

Impressions from a Recent Visit

When I first saw the campus of KST in 2019, I recalled the early days of pastoral training in Mbale. Students used to sit on benches under a shade tree, and then they moved to a church building where instructors wrote on a primitive blackboard painted on rough cement walls. I encouraged my students to give thanks to our gracious God who had provided their new facilities. Today, with the construction of the Juba House dormitory, the new administration building, and the provisional accreditation of the college, there are even more reasons to give thanks to our Father in heaven.

On my recent visit, I was delighted to be able to spend time with my students, both in and out of the classroom. I commuted to school with a van-load of students driven by Paul Magala, the college registrar and an instructor. Chai (tea) breaks and lunches were provided for the students, and I enjoyed rich fellowship with them during those times. A good number of students were already serving as pastors in various evangelical congregations and commuted daily to class. My class on pastoral counseling used various counseling cases these pastors were facing and sought to apply biblical solutions. Depression and family conflicts are common to all societies. These problems are compounded by the traditional African practice of polygamy. I encouraged the students to use the Word of God faithfully in their counseling ministries.

Another course that I particularly enjoyed teaching was World Missions and Culture. We discovered that missions did not begin with Abraham or the nation of Israel or the Great Commission of Jesus, but in eternity between the inner life of the persons of the Triune God. God the Father sent his Son to redeem a people through his life and death, and the Father and the Son sent the Spirit to apply that work of redemption to his people. I encouraged the students to plant and develop churches that are sending churches from the start. We remain under the command and commission of our Lord and King to preach to all nations the saving good news of his life, death, resurrection, and ascension until he returns.

The church in sub-Saharan Africa is growing rapidly, as is the population of the entire continent. But the church faces great challenges. An aggressive Islam, funded by wealthy Gulf states, continues to build mosques, schools, and medical clinics. The temptation to return to the traditional practices of appeasing the spirits of deceased ancestors remains strong among poorly taught Christians. But perhaps the greatest threat the African church faces is the prosperity gospel, originally imported from the United States. It is a false gospel that claims deliverance from sickness, poverty, and suffering, and, in exchange, promises health and wealth. The students that I taught recognized it as a gospel without the cross and without saving power. We give thanks that Knox School of Theology is contributing greatly to the strengthening of Christ’s church in East Africa.

New Horizons, August–September 2025.