This year is flying by already…but not without some big plans and some big goals for the Mission here in Mbale. In December, we reflected on what God had been doing through and in the Mbale Mission in 2024 (Read HERE if you missed it). We are excited about what is ahead in our 10^th year working with church leaders in Uganda. Instead of breaking down the nitty-gritty, I want to share with you the BIG things that are going on here:

Leadership Growth – As we have shared with many of you in person, the level of Ugandan leadership within the Mission has sky-rocketed over the past few years. In 2025, we aim to raise the bar and raise the leaders to another level. We have been walking with several local leaders in different ways, and we can identify a handful of people who we believe should make up a Leadership Team. At the end of 2024, we started meeting with some of them for prayer and discussions, but our goal for 2025 is that this team increases their voice, responsibility, investment, and leadership in mission decisions and communication. We need local leaders to not only see the big picture (which is something that we’ve been working on for the past seven years), but we need them bought in and able to help us accomplish the big picture of disciplemaking. We are praying how to make the next steps in the process but we are wholeheartedly behind this goal and have some markers to keep us accountable to accomplishing it.

Leadership Development – In addition to growing leadership maturity and responsibility, we are still developing additional leaders: on the church congregation, cluster, region, and even staff levels. We continue to seek leaders we can train, disciple, and equip through Messiah Theological Institute. This is a key element to how we accomplish leadership spiritual maturity at each church. Through intentional relational investment in key leaders, our aim is to see healthier clusters that can help local churches with challenges in Godly ways. We will be multiplying disciplemaking groups at the cluster level, which will expand the language and impact of discipleship cohorts. And through pouring into the current, new, and potential mission staff members, we will expand our capacity for disciplemaking, training, teaching, development projects, and accountability.

Financial Sustainability – As many of you have read, we have begun a fundraising effort to construct apartments on current Mission property with the vision that these can provide stable and sustainable income. The goal is to expand our current ministry capacity while also projecting a future where the Mission needs to be more sustainable from within Uganda. You can read more about the fundraising effort HERE, but our goal is to break ground and begin constructing these apartments THIS year. We have already raised just over 10% of the overall goal and we are praying to raise another 25% from within Uganda. We also have additional plans to generate income utilizing office space we currently own. In conjunction with Leadership Development, financial sustainability is another part of the long-range vision for the ministry.

Expand VSL Groups – If we are working on Mission Financial Sustainability, we would also be wise to equip local church members in ways that they, too, can improve their own financial sustainability. Over the past two years, we have been working with former missionaries to Malawi to customize and develop their Village Savings & Loan (VSL) groups for the mission in Uganda. In late 2024, we launched our first VSL training for two groups and our goal is to equip more than 10 new groups in 2025. We have the resources, now is the time to prioritize this effort and move forward! (For more info on VSL Groups, read HERE.)

Focus on Spiritual Maturity – Through our conferences, classes, seminars, and church visits, our focus in 2025 is taking the next steps in our spiritual journey…to “Grow Up” in our faith. We will again be hosting annual Women’s and Youth Conferences in 2025, but we will also be holding conferences for church leaders and married couples. Plus, we will be hosting our first ever Men’s Conference in 2025, all of which are focused on becoming spiritually mature disciples of Jesus. Our disciplemaking groups continue to focus on helping people mature in their faith and becoming disciplemakers for Jesus. And as we visit churches, clusters, and different regions in Uganda, we will be focusing on “What’s Next” in our walk with the Lord – What is He calling us to be and do? How is He calling us to be transformed? This is the heart of DISCIPLEMAKING.

We will continue making disciples who make disciples, because that is our CORE VALUE. We will continue to hold monthly MTI classes to train, teach, and equip people for practical theology and ministry purposes. We will continue to train churches on how to use Discovery Bible Study because we believe that the Spirit of God works through the Word of God to transform the people of God. And we will continue to partner with local churches to help them grow through church and family development projects. But our goal for 2025 is to keep focused on the main thing…to see the Big Picture and to prioritize making steps on these major things.

We know we need to remain humble and wait for the Lord, but we also believe He is guiding and leading us into these big steps in 2025. And sure, we might be making God laugh by telling Him our plans, but we also trust that He wants us to continue growing and that He will be faithful in His promises.

Thanks for joining us in prayer!

Thanks for joining us in supporting these efforts!

Thank you, Jesus, for all that you are!