Welcome to the NEW YEAR: new opportunities, new challenges, new faces, and new movements of the Lord! We are excited to start our 8TH YEAR in Uganda serving the ministry here, and we are looking ahead to the ministry the Lord has laid out ahead of us:

DISCIPLEMAKING GROUPS – As always, our #1 priority is making disciples that make disciples for Jesus. And we try to line up all of the ministry, resources, and time we have to accomplish that purpose. In the upcoming year, we know we need to update the Disciplemaking Workbook we use in order to make it simpler to access within village settings. This will enable and better equip men and women who we are discipling to use it more adequately in their disciplemaking efforts, further encouraging the multiplication of disciplemakers. This is one effort to continue to equip and empower Ugandan church leaders to form more discipleship groups, helping to grow leadership and spiritual maturity. We have already scheduled 10 churches for training on Discovery Bible Study and 15 additional churches to follow-up for encouragement and further teaching on how to use the Bible study method. This is also how we hope to distribute Bibles and DBS books in different languages. Currently, Leland meets monthly with a group of 6 men and Gina meets with 10 women. In addition to this, the Mission has helped another leader begin a disciplemaking group at LivingStone International University of 14 students. And at our monthly theological school, we have begun four new groups, and we will be discipling them throughout the upcoming year. So in all, the Mission is leading/coordinating seven disciplemaking groups ourselves, and we hope to add one more new group in 2024. We also know that many of the men and women we have discipled over the past decade are discipling men and women in their own communities and churches, which is EXACTLY the point: Disciplemakers making disciplemakers that continue to multiply disciplemakers for Jesus Christ! Amen!

Messiah Theological Institute (MTI) – We have begun another year with MTI, which focuses on training church leaders and members on practical Bible theology, understanding, application, and Christ-like living. While MTI focuses primarily on “head knowledge” during class, the relationships we build during the week enables us to go beyond the classroom and see how God’s Word impacts the heart of a student. (And as I mentioned above, we also have four disciplemaking groups within MTI that center solely on life-on-life relational discipleship.) This year, we are blessed to have 18 Advanced Students (second year) and 22 Basic Students (first year) join MTI, and we continue to expand the recruitment of students. We aren’t focused on MORE students, but are always asking God to lead us to the RIGHT students. We have increased and grown partnerships with other ministries (Ugandan and foreign) that also helps recruit students and further the ministry of MTI. Students come one week every month, from January to November. A graduation celebration happens at the end of November, as students finish either their first or second year.

Church Visits, Near and Far – As most of you know, we work with a network of churches across Uganda: some 200 individual churches spread across a country the size of Oregon. Each church has its own success stories, challenges, and needs for spiritual growth. Our aim is to visit many churches so that we can see first-hand how we can better equip and train church leaders for practical ministry. In 2024, our goal is to visit 25 churches for Sunday worship, 5 cluster (geographically nearby groups of churches) gatherings, and 30 additional churches in mid-week meetings/trainings. Our goal in each of these is to build up the believers and leaders that are in these churches, and to identify current difficulties the people are experiencing. In addition to these churches that are within 2 hours of Mbale, we also hope to go on two or three trips beyond that distance to visit churches further away. These groups of churches are often in different tribal, geographical, and regional areas, and they have a different set of strengths and needs. These trips are intensive trainings, visits, and counseling sessions.

Leadership Development and Growth – One of the top priorities in 2024 is to expand the group of leadership for the Mbale Mission. This will include missionary recruitment AND national leadership development/inclusion. Our plan is to begin meeting regularly with a national leadership group and to steadily increase their leadership role/responsibility. We must identify and train this leadership team, so that they can have the greatest impact within the churches we work with and to continue the growth of the Ugandan churches of Christ.

Conferences – Every year we host large youth and women conferences, and 2024 will be no different. We hope to expand the areas that youth and women come from to attend the conferences, and continue to grow the leadership of those who do the planning so that we can improve the vision, purpose, and quality of the conferences. We also plan to have a much needed Marriage Conference in the second half of the year so that we can spend time teaching and helping married men and women. Marriages are under attack in every culture/country, and Ugandan marriages have their own unique challenges. We believe that by gathering together for sharing and teaching, we have the chance to impact these marriages beyond just the conference. In addition to these three conferences, we are also privileged to host the Annual NTCC National Conference in Mbale this year. The four regions of churches take turns hosting the gathering of churches of Christ, and in 2024, it’s our turn! So we look forward to having visitors from all over Uganda join us in Eastern Uganda in August for a Churches of Christ Family Reunion!

Community Development Projects – Last year was a great year for community development with the Mbale Mission. We began as many local community development projects in 2023 as we had started in the previous 7 years combined. And in 2024, we aim to keep that momentum going and DOUBLE the community development projects started in 2023. We have already received a generous donation to help two new communities begin goat projects. And, because of the training and preparations we did in 2023, we also have the ability to better train groups on Village Savings and Loans groups. So our hope is to begin 15 new community development projects in 2024…BIG GOALS!

Additional Dreams and Goals for 2024 – There are loads of other things we plan to accomplish in 2024: We need to hire more ministry staff team members…please be praying for God’s discernment and guidance in this. We continue to jump through the hoops to satisfy and understand the Ugandan government policies on legal marriage certificates. We will partner with 5 churches to complete construction on their permanent church buildings, as well as contribute to the efforts of many more. We have more to accomplish in order to make the day-to-day mission activities more sustainable. We will continue to assist with eye glasses to rural church leaders/members who are in need. We will continue to stand with brothers and sisters in their grief during funeral plans by contributing and encouraging families… and so much more!

BIG PLANS – Many of you have heard me talk about the income generating project of constructing apartment buildings. We aim to break ground on these apartments in the first quarter of 2024. I will be fundraising for this project while we are back in America in June and July, and we need YOUR help in this effort. These apartments will build the Mission closer to long-term sustainability and leadership, and are a part of the long-term vision God has given us for the work.

As you can see, there are a lot of things on the table for the ministry in Uganda for 2024. And we know that every single word and action begins with PRAYER because anything we are able to do is from the Lord. So we ask that you pray for and with us in these efforts! And we ask you to JOIN us in these things!

May the God of all good things bless you and your family!