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Festo Kivengere served as a bishop in Uganda during the bitter days of Edi Amin. Under Amin’s rule, reports said 300,000 Ugandans were slaughtered. Despite that horrendous suffering, Christian believers persevered in their faith. Dr. Ernie Wilson visited Uganda in those days and told how when a person accepted Christ, the church erupted to sing with the new joy-filled believer, “Hallelujah, I have found him whom my soul so long had craved. Jesus satisfies my longings, Through His blood I now am saved.” They sang joyfully despite the possibility of suffering. In explaining how heaven rejoices when a person turns to God, Jesus said just as a shepherd rejoices upon finding his lost sheep; and just as a woman rejoices upon findingher lost wedding dowry coin; and just as a loving father rejoices when his lost son returns home; so heaven rejoices when a lost person repents of their sins and turns to God for salvation. Heaven is so overjoyed that the angels throw a party; they rejoice because they know what a sinner will now miss of eternal damnation and what eternal life and joy they can now anticipate.
