“Lord, send me where no one wants to go, to do what no one wants to do.”
A Brief Introduction to Favor
In 2001, Favor was founded in the middle of a war-torn Uganda in a civil war with a rebel group called LRA. At the time, the government and the people were unable to fend for themselves against Joseph Kony and his Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). Thousands of children were orphaned due to the conflict. Over 66,000 children as young as 5 years old were abducted and trained to kill and destroy by the rebel forces.
A UN representative summarized it like this, “I cannot find any other part of the world that is having an emergency on the scale of Uganda, that is getting such little international attention.”
Hope was lost and military options to defeat the LRA had failed. Two million people were forcibly interned in camps called Internally Displaced People (IDP) under horrendous conditions with no healthcare, sanitation and very little food. The same spiritual darkness that bore Joseph Kony and his rebels were lurking over the camps. A whole generation and a society was marked for annihilation, until God intervened by gathering courageous prayer warriors from the land – and across the world.
To everyone’s surprise, Carole Ward, a 3rd-generation missionary, began to cry out for God to call her to a lifetime of serving in Uganda. She prayed this bold prayer, “Send me where no one wants to go and to do what no one wants to do.”
In response, the Lord sent Carole Ward, a trained nurse and battle-hardened prayer warrior to northern Uganda, into the heart of the warzone. He baptized her with a supernatural love for the people that drove out all fear of rebel ambushes as she drove alone across the Nile into the lands that everyone fled.
Though needs were imminent and infinite, she began by doing nothing but 6 months of prayer and hugging and washing the feet of broken lives in the internment camps. The Holy Spirit filled her with a powerful vision to reach the forgotten people of this country by serving and training them into national leaders, to multiply and accelerate the Gospel to the rest of the land. She began simply by renting a house and put a sign on the front that read, “House of Prayer, 7a-7p.” Many indeed came with their brokenness that the Lord would later use to proclaim freedom to their neighbors, families, and country.
God confirmed His Word with countless dramatic miracles of signs and wonders, of healing, unity among a fragmented body, as well as deliverance from spiritual bondage, poverty and hopelessness.
“We will go to hell and back, if you will hold the ropes.”
In time, after much intercessory prayer, many came to join Carole in the ministry of evangelism, Bible teaching and caring for the orphans. When the government required registration to continue the work in this dangerous area, Carole formed the ministry in 2004, with two Ugandans. Though the needs were enormous, God told her, “Build My house, and I’ll build yours!” (1 Chronicles 17:10 & 25).
Soon after, Favor opened a simple community called the House of Prayer in Gulu, the regional capital in the center of the war. It became a center for a missionary movement that was in part instrumental to end the war through the power of the Gospel.
The ministry quickly grew to 90 national leaders in a few years. Those 90 leaders:
- Distributed 80,000+ Bibles,
- Trained 7,000+ pastors,
- Built a school with 400 attending,
- Graduated 500+ leaders from a Bible college,
- Reached 50,000+ through trauma counseling,
- Built the first Christian radio station,
- Held crusades with 1 million+ attending,
- Trained government leaders,
- Conducted mobile medical clinics for 8,000+ patients.
- Distributed 80,000+ Bibles,
- Trained 7,000+ pastors,
- Built a school with 400 attending,
- Graduated 500+ leaders from a Bible college,
- Reached 50,000+ through trauma counseling,
- Built the first Christian radio station,
- Held crusades with 1 million+ attending,
- Trained government leaders,
- Conducted mobile medical clinics for 8,000+ patients.
A real turning point in our story was the national prayer event in the Gulu. We organized and gathered in the War Memorial Stadium to unify to unify the tribes, leaders, churches, and regions in repentant prayer for the ending of the war. Simultaneously, Joseph Kony, the rebel leader, pronounced that his power over the land was lost, according to his former right-hand general who converted to Christianity and attended Favor’s New Life Bible College. After a time, the LRA evacuated out of Uganda, bringing an effective peace. The government admitted the healing of the land was brought about not by military might or diplomatic negotiations, but by prayer and fasting.
Through it, countless people in Northern Uganda, once broken and hopeless, with the help of the ministry, were able to rebuild their lives and the lives of others. Hope returned! There are tangible signs throughout the land and those who were once victims of war are now zealous instruments of revival in the region.
The decade following the end of the war in the north - ceased by prayer and not by diplomacy or military outcome - was uneasy as the LRA made many attempts to re-enter Uganda after the end of the war, and fill Joseph Kony’s vacant seat. One replacement even attempted several times to kill Favor staff. But, even as times were rife with instability and wounds, people returned to their homes and the Gospel accelerated across northern Uganda to begin restoration.
As people returned to their homes and children grew up with a missing generation, the Gospel accelerated across northern Uganda with salvations and discipleship.
To this day, Favor continues to vigorously bring God’s love and truth to a people hungry for both. The darkness of witchcraft and other idolatries are still challenges and are being driven out to build a new foundation of peace and righteousness among future generations who have never seen war.
Those who were once victims of war
are now zealous to serve the ending
of wars in neighboring South Sudan.
We began to focus more direct efforts to South Sudan in 2007 by sending missionaries and Portable Bible School (PBS) programs. We organized a legal presence in the nation through trusted Portable Bible School graduates and purchased our first office space in Juba in 2015. That same year we hosted a national prayer meeting in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, just as we did in Uganda, to bring God’s repentance, revival, and restoration.
As a result, the first set of peace treaties between hostile political leaders were signed, and many South Sudanese leaders requested a prayer gathering be hosted in each of the 10 states followed by Favor’s many other discipleship ministries.
