It’s not until you have talked to a member of the East African Revival, that you understand the value, meaning and origin of health and wholeness.
A first glance at Medard Rugyendo tells it all. He is a clean servant of the Lord.

Rugyendo is a senior Lecturer and acting Dean of Faculty of Education. He took on office after Rev. Sheldon Mwesigwa  left for  the Ankole Bishop seat.
A three minutes conversation with him is enough to bring out the humour and the untold stories behind a smile that cautiously comes out like the sunrise.
“As a child, I was always dirty, my feet were cracked from not wearing shoes and my legs covered in mud,” he says, adding that this had to stop for as long as he fellowshipped with members of the East African Revival.
They told him, when one receives Christ, he has to be clean physically and spiritually, that meant that he had to bathe.
Rugyendo took up this message and made sure that he scrubbed his body, especially his feet, every Tuesdays and Thursdays in order to please the elderly.
“It became a habit to please them, but in the end I became such a clean man in all ways,” he smiles.
His desire to teach God’s word started as early as childhood.  However, to a young man, born in a poor family, to parents who were nominal Christians, priesthood seemed more of  a dream than a reality.
“On November 6 1976, I remember the verse so well that convinced me about God’s work,” he says. He adds that When he heard the word, “Let’s return to the Lord, (Hosea 6:1), he knew it was the voice telling him not to backslide. His journey in the work of the Lord began that day.
Every week Rugyendo joined the rivivalists in fellowships and listened to their testimonies.
“Testimonies in this fellowship were more than the good things that God had done like providing fees. They were a time of walking in the light. A time to tell the brethren about your struggles and repentance,” he says. The people who nurtured him, attached a lot of value to this.
He was aware that if he were to become a priest, he had to do more than cleaning up. He spent most of his time with the elderly learning from them and attending church activities.
Every December, Bishop Kivingeri ordained priests at the centre in Kigezi. Rugyendo always walked to the place to watch the ceremony. It was an exciting time for him to watch these men who walked with their heads high, clad in their priestly collars. And right then, he asked himself, “when is my turn Lord,?”
At one point he did not want to go to school so as to achieve his dream. He shared with the elderly at the church who encouraged him to stay in school.  They always reminded him, “God is interested in educated priests. If you don’t study, you sin against God,”
He pressed on and thought to himself that he would leave school after senior four and become a priest since most of the priests at the time had not gone beyond that level.   However, he performed so well to stop there, he joined A’ Level.
While at makerere, and a student of Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies, he shared with the Head of department then, about his desire to join UCU and study to be a priest. He discouraged him from joining UCU even though he was an alumnus. He advised him to join the  department at Makerere as a teaching Assistant.
“I respected him and took on the job but held onto my calling,” he says.
Later in 1998, Rugyendo joined UCU as a lecturer of Ethics and in 2002, he did a Postgraduate Diploma in Christian Ministry and was ordained as a priest. He achieved his dream.
Since that day, he desires nothing less than his priestly collar that he longed to wear since childhood.
His prayer is that he achieves his goals during his tenure at the Faculty of Education. These include; Promoting Research and publication, encouraging and promoting team work at the faculty and promoting Christian values at the University.
He is married to Margaret and together they take care of four children of his late brother.  Since 2002, he has served as an Assistant Chaplain at St. Luke Chapel, C.O.U, Mulago.
Rugyendo likes reading books of history and Religion, doing bible expositions and leading worship.