If I am honest with you, this new year of women’s discipleship has been challenging to me in all aspects: physically, emotionally, and spiritually. In January, we celebrated meeting for a year. And while I didn’t verbalize my expectation, deep-down I was anticipating way more spiritual growth and eagerness to be transformed by Jesus than had actually happened. After a couple meetings in the new year, I was discouraged and frustrated. Continue reading
Author: Gina Sawyer
If I Am A Missionary, We Are All Missionaries
I have been listening the audio book by Bob Goff ” Everybody Always”. If you haven’t read it yet, you should. It’s a really good book about loving people. And not in the “because the Bible tells me to” but the in practical everyday life reality of who we are called to be in Christ.
Early on in his book, he challenged me about being called a missionary. We are all on the mission field and we are all called to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” – Matthew 28:19-20. Continue reading
Cultural Diversity is a Blessing
One of the elements of missionary / ex-patriot life that I was not anticipating and has been an incredible blessing is the cultural diversity. I knew we would be surrounded by Ugandan and East African cultures, but I didn’t really think about all the many other cultures we get to experience living among other missionary and ex-pat workers here. The beautiful mix of people, language, and cultures makes serving here a special and unique experience. We get to celebrate different holidays with our multi-national friends who live here Continue reading
Birthday Girl, Adalyn
Adalyn got to celebrate her birthday, both by dressing up at a school party and having a superhero birthday party. She had a blast playing with her friends and is loved well. We are thankful for another year of our spunky, fun, energetic and beautiful daughter. Here are the questions for this year… Continue reading
We All Have a Part
It’s easy to get distracted and busy. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by life. It’s easy to drown out the world and my troubles by ignoring them.
But sometimes we can look at all the problems in the world and 
wonder how we can make a difference. I don’t know about you, but it’s daunting to think there is so much need and I don’t have enough resources, energy, money, time, sometimes love…
Never Say Never
I have gone from cooking dinners of Hamburger Helper and Rice-a-Roni meals to making homemade food from scratch. I have gone from a city girl who had only one plant stay alive under 
my care to working a garden full of broccoli, cauliflower, colored peppers, lettuce, strawberries, zucchini, squash, tomatoes, jalapeños, and sweet corn. I came from a girl who wasn’t sure if she wanted to have kids to God working on my heart to have one beautiful daughter whom I love more than I ever thought I could. I 
went from working full-time (and if I’m honest, judged stay-at-home moms a little – sorry!) to a missionary, wife, and mom. And while I enjoy my ministry to women, I know my main role is keep some kind of peace in our home in a completely different world. I went from living and enjoying conveniences and luxuries to understanding basic needs and limited comforts. Continue reading
God’s Love is Better than Life
I don’t know about you, but I would like to stay away from suffering. And I don’t mean, just look the other way, but I mean, I want to run as far away as possible. Even when we talk about it during Bible studies, I don’t like to think about it. Reading about Joseph’s patience and faithfulness during his time as a slave in Egypt, reading letters from Paul from prison about 
how he would like to go to be with Christ but his work isn’t done here on earth. He literally has a captive audience in prison to share Jesus and he DOES! I don’t think my attitude would be very good, nor do I look at opportunities as ways I could share the glory of Jesus. Continue reading
Learning Lessons
Over the last 2-1/2 years, God has taught me, shaped me, and revealed more about me than I have experienced in my entire life.
When we first moved to Uganda, I wrestled with my identity. At first I learned that I had been finding my identity in my work and what I could produce. When my days were filled with a long to-do list but nothing of real substance to show for it, I discovered I felt lost and unsure of my value. After I wrestled with that, God very graciously reminded me that my ministry was serving Him however He needed me to serve Him, no matter how glamorous (or lack there of) it was. And that at first my ministry was my family as we all got adjusted and settled in our new culture. Continue reading
Living Overseas… And Goodbyes…
Sometimes we forget about the challenges of living over seas. The every day life stuff is hard, but you get used to doing things differently to live well. We get excited when we grow something in our garden or find something new at the supermarket. We deal with hand washing all our dishes, cooking all our meals from scratch, crazy drivers and bad roads, always being stared at, and the constant battle against bugs. We even adjust to the heat of dry season and the amount of dirt that’s everywhere. Continue reading
Mom-Fails But God Never Does
A friend of mine and a fellow mom of a 5-year old posts some pretty real and humorous mom-fails that she’s had. And it made me think about how we all have mom fails. Wether it’s when my daughter says “I hate…” and I realize “hate” sounds so much stronger coming out of her mouth than when I said it. Or when I was too busy doing other things that I kept telling her no when she asked me to play and then after she had gone to bed, I realized time with her was more important than marking things off my to-do list. Or when I see my daughter sitting by herself when other kids are playing but she doesn’t want to talk to me about it. I worry that I’m scarring her. I worry that I’ve failed her. Continue reading
Sawyers In Uganda 