By Christine Mirembe
From 2002 to 2004, Moses Bushendich struggled to balance two equally demanding roles in his life; he was a teacher and a full-time church minister. The only upside he saw at the time was that since both vocations were not highly financially rewarding, at least he had the opportunity to draw salaries from both. But he could not do it for long.
By 2004, Bushendich had made up his mind – he was to quit teaching and concentrate on church ministry. That decision brought ridicule to Bushendich and his family. Many people wondered how he planned to feed his family on a meagre pay from the church.
Among the few voices that supported him was that of his wife, Caroline Cherop. “All that my wife told me was: ‘it’s okay, if you are going to serve the Lord,’” Bushendich said during a recent interview he granted UCU Partners.
Bushendich says he, too, drew inspiration from Mark 10:29-30, where Jesus promises that anyone who sacrifices home, family, or property for his sake and the gospel will receive a hundredfold reward in this life and eternal life in the age to come. This passage highlights that while following Christ requires sacrifice, the spiritual rewards far outweigh what is lost.
Any keen observer of the life of Bushendich could conclude that already, there are rewards that he has harvested from that bold step he made 22 years ago. In November 2025, the Rev. Canon. Dr. Bushendich was named the Dean of Uganda Christian University’s (UCU) Bishop Tucker School of Divinity and Theology, taking over from the Rev. Canon Prof. Dr. Christopher Byaruhanga. Now one of the mandates that Bushendich has for the role he assumed on January 5, 2026 is to shape pastors, scholars and Christian leaders who will carry the gospel into the future. At a strategic level, he will be expected to lead the academic unit, overseeing the development of a curriculum that merges classroom learning with fieldwork to prepare students for Christian leadership.
His term as dean is inspired by a theme from Acts 1:8, a foundational Bible verse where Jesus promises his disciples power through the Holy Spirit to be his witnesses, starting in Jerusalem and spreading to Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth. Through this, he derives three core guiding pillars: informing students theologically, forming students spiritually and transforming them.
Bushendich gave his life to Christ in 1989 while a student at Majansi High School in Tororo, eastern Uganda. “Since then, I have participated in most of the church activities, like preaching, reading lessons and mobilization for fellowships,” he said.
Born and raised in Bukwo, a district in eastern Uganda, he spent most of his early life in the area, attending Amanang Primary School and Kapkoro Primary School (for primary education) and Chemwania High School for O’level. For A’level, he joined Manjasi High School in Tororo, where he studied Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Sub-Mathematics. With these subjects, he dreamed of a career in medicine. However, that was never to be as his grades at Senior Six could not guarantee him admission into university to pursue his dream course. He, instead, pursued a Diploma in Education at the National Teachers College in Masindi from 1991.
“After my diploma, I didn’t get a job right away, so I engaged in business, importing mattresses, fuel and sugar from Kenya into Uganda.” However, after some time, the taxman raised taxes for many commodities, including those he was trading in, significantly eating into his profit margin. Luckily for Bushendich, around that time, the government gave him an employment opportunity, to teach agriculture at Sebei College, Tegeres in the eastern Uganda district of Kapchorwa.
“The salary was low, so I started a business near the school,” he said.
Bushendich entered a business partnership with a neighbor, and they did business together. During this time, he also worked as a lay leader in Kutung Church of Uganda in Tegeres, Kapchorwa. He says he was initially reluctant to participate in active ministry, but he received several requests from the community.
In 1999, to cement his ministry work, he joined UCU to pursue a Bachelor of Divinity. Upon graduating in 2002, Bushendich was ordained and assigned a parish priest role at Kutung Parish. He later got a Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership and Management from UCU and a doctorate in theology at Yonsei University in South Korea. In 2018, Bushendich was appointed the international director role of the Church Mission Society-Africa (CMS), succeeding the Rev. Dr. Dennis Tongoi.
Bushendich lives in Mukono with his wife and their five biological children. His normal day starts at 5.00 a.m, when he wakes up. He teaches four hours per week and usually leaves office around 5.00 p.m., depending on the tasks he has to complete that day. Every Friday, he opens his office to all students and staff, to listen to their concerns.
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To support Uganda Christian University programs, students, activities and services, go to www.ugandapartners.org and click on the “donate” button, or contact UCU Partners Executive Director, Mark Bartels, at m.t.bartels@ugandapartners.org.
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