Goals & Plans for 2026

/ Leland Sawyer / 1 Comment

January is a time of year of dreaming big for what’s to come! It’s an exciting time, full of hope and possibilities. People make resolutions, big life changes, and dare to dream BIG! As a mission here in Mbale, we also want to dream (and PRAY) for big things in this New Year!

We are praying BIG THINGS for 2026. The first BIG thing we are praying and planning for is the Leadership Team. Last year, we started meeting regularly with leaders, who have been discipled and moved closely with over the past decade, to involve them in decisions, planning, discerning, and guiding the overall ministry. These are leaders who have traveled around with us to visit churches near and far, so they have a feel for the needs of leaders from all over Uganda. They are also men and women who we’ve seen fruit of spiritual maturity in their lives – and seen them actively making disciples – so they are able to think of Godly solutions in difficult circumstances. This year, our plan is to empower them more and more as the year goes by, so that their voices grow and their impact deepens. We believe this kind of leadership team is vital to the future of the mission work here in Uganda.

We also have plans to FINALLY break ground on the Apartment Complex! If you have been following along and praying with us over the past few years, then you are fully aware that a year ago we requested fundraising for this construction project that promises to provide financial resources from within Uganda. This is a BIG step towards financial sustainability for the mission work, which is one of our other major priorities. We are still in need of funds, but we hope and plan to be able to give you big updates in the coming months about this!

In addition to those two BIG THINGS for 2026, we also have many other things we are planning for this year:

We intend to hire one or two additional ministry staff members to expand our ability and capacity to train, equip, and disciple! (I hope to have word on this in the coming months.) This is an important decision for the future on the mission work, and we need prayers for wisdom, guidance, and discernment as we have interviews and make these decisions.

We are expanding our Village Savings & Loans trainings this year. Last year, we were able to launch and train 11 VSL groups at 8 churches. This year, we hope to double the impact and be able to launch VSL groups at 16 churches. We have also expanded our VSL trainers. In 2025, we had four people who could lead the VSL trainings. We have increased that to 6 people at the end of 2025, and we have added 2 more trainees for 2026. Our prayer is that by the end of 2026, we have ten functioning VSL trainers so that we can multiply these groups in churches which are eager to be invested.

Another major goal for this year is to include more disciplemakers into our MTI discipleship groups. We are adding FOUR new disciplemakers – leaders that we have discipled and seen them disciple others in their home churches – to broaden our pool of fully equipped and discipled disciplemakers. This not only gives them a chance to pour into others what God has poured into them, but it also allows us to continue pouring into them in a fresh, new way!

In addition to involving additional disciplemakers in MTI, we are also planning to launch up to five new disciplemaking cohorts in different clusters of churches. We continue to pursue localized disciplemaking multiplication. We saw great growth of that in two women’s groups in 2025, so we plan to build on that for two more women’s groups and three new men’s groups.

One goal we have as a mission is to visit a cluster gathering (a group of churches in relative close proximity to one another who gather together for support and encouragement) every month. This gives us the broader impact of visiting with more church members with one visit and have a broader impact to many different churches, while also being able to tackle some real challenges that leadership at these churches continue to struggle with. Our main purpose in focusing on these gatherings this year is to be able to empower the spiritually mature leaders of a cluster to provide more Godly guidance.

We ask that you be praying for these BIG THINGS that we are planning for 2026! We ask that you’re praying for even the small things that we continue to do on a daily basis. Thank you for praying with us!

Journey to Uganda – 10 Years In

/ Gina Sawyer / Leave a comment

Many of you have asked how we got to Uganda. Some of you have been with us throughout the long journey, but some of you are new to reading our blog and don’t know the full story. So, as we celebrate 10 years in Uganda, here’s the story. It’s a long one, so be prepared….

In 2010, Leland and I went on a “once in a lifetime” trip to visit our friend who was living in Nairobi, Kenya. We went on safari at Masai Mara, and then we took a 12-hour bus ride across the border to Jinja, Uganda to white water raft on the Nile River. Like I said, it was a once in a lifetime trip! One evening, Leland and I were walking around the village near the camp we were staying, and we asked the question “Could we live in a place like this? Our friend lives here, could we?” And thus the seed was planted…

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Recap 2025 – Ups, Downs, and In-Betweens

/ Leland Sawyer / Leave a comment

Another year of ministry in Uganda has come and (too quickly) gone by. This has been YEAR 10 for our family serving in Uganda, and each year seems to get busier and go by faster. Here are a few highlights of the year in ministry:

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Thankful in the Midst of Hard

/ Gina Sawyer / Leave a comment

I am in a season right now where I am feeling HARD of life in Uganda! In our training at Missions Training International, we learned that as missionaries, we wake up at a higher stress level than we used to when we lived in our own passport cultures by almost double. We have learned to adjust and adapt, and even thrive in our lives here in Uganda. But sometimes, all the things that we can normally manage become overwhelming: things that shouldn’t take as long as they do; having to go to several stores and still not finding the food items we want for months on end; instability of consistent water, electricity, and sunshine (which the combination is needed to do laundry); household items that continuously break without the ease of buying a new one or getting it repaired correctly; good mechanics are impossible to find and roads tear up our vehicles; having work done on the house NEVER goes how we expect or want, often with errors, lack of appropriate tools or supplies, and any mistakes are at our expense; and don’t get me started on driving with the “mosquitos” we call bodas (small motorcycle taxis) that swarm the streets in ridiculously large numbers. We typically manage these daily challenges, and they have been part of our lives for the past 10 years. We have not only adapted to these things, but things have also improved with more options available in town, people we can call when we need repairs, people who help us find things we need from town and even deliver them to us, and a community of friends that is always willing to help in all sorts of situations. In the midst of the HARD, I can also see the GOOD.

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Our Life & Home – A Refresher

/ Gina Sawyer / 1 Comment

Many of you have been with our family from the very start of this journey to Uganda, but others have joined after we moved here. Some people have not seen photos of our home, our town, Adalyn’s school, and the mission property in Mbale, Uganda. This post is for YOU! I want to give you an update of everything, so maybe it will help you visualize when we talk about our life and ministry.

We live at the foothills of Mount Elgon, under a ridge known as Mount Wanale. We have spectacular views of sunrises, sunsets, and waterfalls when walking or driving through our neighborhood and town. It is easy to sing God’s praises when we look at THIS every day!

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Officially a Teenager

/ Gina Sawyer / Leave a comment

We officially have a teenager. Adalyn has turned 13 years old. For us and for many of you, it’s hard to imagine that tiny little toddler who left America just as she was 3 years old is now a teenager. But Adalyn has grown into a beautiful young woman, both inside and out. Our prayer continues to be for her heart to love Jesus as she matures and gets older. Here are her annual questions and answers for your reading pleasure.

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Boys Becoming Men Through Disciplemaking

/ Leland Sawyer / Leave a comment

Recently I read that “The church doesn’t just exist to make disciples. We also exist to bring those disciples to maturity” (Deeper Walk by Marcus Warner). This concept has been a driving force for us as a mission for more than a decade, and has been at the heart of our family’s ministry since we began. We were never called by Jesus to merely make converts, but rather to disciple people into maturity…mature disciples was Jesus’ goal, and it continues to be our goal as His Church.

Earlier this year, me and Peter (a coworker at the Mbale Mission) decided that something MORE was needed to help the young men at the city church grow into deeper maturity in their faith. So we prayed for the young men and decided to invite them into a weekly disciplemaking group. From that first meeting, we have been open with them about the serious commitment that spiritual growth requires of each of us, and that begins with making the time and opportunity a priority: meeting at 8am on Sunday morning for late-teen and twenty-something guys is NOT easy to do in any culture. But that’s the standard we set before them!

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Realities of a TCK (Third Culture Kid)

/ Gina Sawyer / 1 Comment

As a family, we are very aware the impact living overseas in another culture has on each of us, our family, and our daughter, Adalyn. Some of our fears and stress come from worrying about what that impact will have on her future education, relationships, and life. This leads us to pray A LOT, and trust that God will continue to be faithful in the areas we screw up.

I recently asked Adalyn some questions about her worldview and life as a TCK. Here are some important facts about our TCK, from her perspective, along with some general perspectives of TCK life. Please continue to be praying for Adalyn! She needs to know she is loved and that she belongs, even when she is different; and be real with her, because she desperately needs that.

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Summer Fun

/ Gina Sawyer / Leave a comment

I don’t know about you, but I love summer! I love the chill vibes, slower days, low-key plans, sunshine, swimming, and traveling. In Uganda, summer is a bit different. First of all, the weather is the same year around, so the sunshine doesn’t change. Secondly, the Ugandan school system is not the same as the U.S. school system, so they are still in school during our “summer break.” Thirdly, we have more people who come to visit us in the summer months than any other time of the year, so we are busier hosting teams and groups of visitors. And, in the years that we are not in Uganda, we are traveling around the U.S. visiting churches, family, friends, and supporters on our home assignment. When we are in Uganda (like this past summer), our summer relationship dynamics change because the missionary community travels back to their home countries at different times; so friends are coming and going. But I still love summer, even though it looks different than a typical “American” summer.

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Relationship, NOT a Class

/ Leland Sawyer / Leave a comment

Jesus was a disciplemaker! Sure, He was a teacher, healer, miracle worker, resurrecter, rebel-rouser, and troublemaker, too. But first and foremost, when you comb through the pages which describe Jesus’ life, He was a disciplemaker. He was a RELATIONAL disciplemaker.

Jesus spent the majority of His time in ministry, for three years, creating, strengthening, and intentionally utilizing relationships in order to make disciples who will, eventually, make disciples. He would preach and teach in synagogues and hillsides, but in-between formal teaching times he would go to weddings, have meals, travel by foot, take boat rides, and many other things of everyday life. It is in these times that we see Jesus make use of His greatest tool to make disciplemakers – intentional relationships. He took full advantage of these times to share truths about God’s Kingdom, God’s nature, the Holy Spirit, His coming crucifixion and resurrection, Kingdom priorities, and so much more.

As people and leaders who follow Jesus, we look at His way of doing ministry. I heard once, “If you want to see the teachings of Jesus with the results of Jesus, then you better use the methods of Jesus.” So as disciplemakers in our homes, communities, and Uganda, we strive to focus our energy on intentional disciplemaking relationships.

What’s the difference between teaching a class and relational disciplemaking?

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