Update

Looking Back at What God Has Done in 2024

/ Leland Sawyer / 2 Comments

Garth Brooks is one of my favorite all-time musical artists. Sure, some can say that he ruined country music, but it can also be said that he SAVED country music. And one of my favorite songs is “The Dance.”

“Looking back on the memory of the dance we shared beneath the stars above. For a moment all the world was right. But how could I have known that you’d ever say goodbye…”

No one is saying goodbye but I love the way he looks back on an experience with such love and passion, knowing that the joy of that dance was worth the pain and heartache. And in some ways, that’s how I feel about looking back at 2024.

The year was too busy…not in a healthy way or a way to celebrate, but in a way that could have really beaten us down. And that’s something we have to address in 2025. But at the same time, 2024 was FULL of amazing God moments, both in family and in ministry. Here’s to “looking back…”

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Tent Making in Uganda

/ Leland Sawyer / 2 Comments

Have you ever thought about the idea of a financially sustainable mission work? I sure have. That’s the dream, right? A mission work that has the capacity to sustain itself financially and continue furthering the Gospel of Jesus without the need for ongoing foreign funds…But is it possible?

That’s the question we are wrestling with as a mission team. Not only do we believe it is possible, but we actually believe it is within reach. One of our major priorities is to be able to sustain the mission work in Mbale, Uganda by using what has already been given to create further ongoing funds for the ministry, plus initial support from partners. And the main priority in this endeavor is to build an apartment building that will provide needed middle class housing in the growing city of Mbale in a convenient location, while giving the mission ongoing funding from right here in Mbale. It may not be 100% sustainable from within (yet), but to be able to provide income that will go directly into the ministry is certainly possible!

The idea of ministry (or mission work) being supported by others is the norm in the modern world, and has been for generations. Truth be told, it has been common since the FIRST missionary was sent: Jesus. When the Father sent Jesus to Earth “to seek and save the lost”, he was supported by several disciples, mostly women. We see this very clearly in Luke 8:1-3 where it says, “They provided financial support for Jesus and his disciples.” Though Jesus did not collect money when He spoke, He also wasn’t 100% self-supporting…he had help from His followers.

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Happy 12th Birthday Adalyn!

/ Gina Sawyer / 1 Comment

It’s hard to believe we have a pre-teen, but it has been such a joy to watch Adalyn grow into the beautiful young woman she is. She’s still a child at heart, but it is a blessing to see how God is molding her to be the woman she will be. We have enjoyed asking her questions each year, and if you’ve been reading them all these years, you’ll see how some of them are the same, and some of them share her heart as she continues to mature. Here are the questions for this year…

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Women’s Discipleship Reunion

/ Gina Sawyer / Leave a comment

In Matthew 4:19, Jesus says “Come, follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” This verse means more to me now that we are doing ministry here in Uganda. Over the last 8 years, it has been amazing to witness the way God is moving in and through the lives of people here. As Leland and I have both mentioned previously, discipleship (making “fishers of men”) has not been an easy road. But Jesus’ call isn’t an easy one. He never promises health and wealth, although that’s often a lie told to people from all backgrounds. He actually says the opposite: that we will be persecuted, mistreated, abused, taken advantage of, scorned, laughed at…we will be tempted and pursued by Satan to discourage us and pull us away from God.

But God is faithful. Jesus is victorious. And we get to see how the Holy Spirit is transforming lives to be more like Jesus here on earth.

My first discipleship group was an emotional and spiritual challenge. The ladies were very spiritually immature, even though they would never admit it (which was part of the problem). They were hoping to get some financial benefit out of being in the group or from being close to me. Even my co-leader left the group once she realized it wasn’t the employment opportunity she was wanting. But I have stayed in contact with the ladies through phone calls, visits, and conferences, and I have watched how God continues to move in their hearts and lives. It may have been at a much slower pace than I wanted, I have seen how God is transforming each of them into who HE wants them to be. I have also experienced how God has been growing me through my relationships with these ladies: in trusting in His timing and in His plans. He has also humbled me, reminding me that I am NOT the one to save them, but Jesus. My job is to disciple them – He will do the rest.

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Steps to Freedom

/ Gina Sawyer / 1 Comment

Before moving to Uganda, I had never heard of Steps to Freedom in Christ by Dr. Neil Anderson. And I had never walked through the steps myself to be set free of past hurts, sin, and bondage that I never really realized I still carried. It wasn’t until we moved to Uganda, and I wrestled with my identity, I let insecurities overcome my thoughts, and I started to see the negative impact I was having on my family, friends, and my own spiritual walk. When I started with the first women in discipleship group, I wanted to join and not lead. I was very happy to sit back and watch, letting another very capable missionary lead. But because of different circumstances, and honestly God pushing me, I began leading the group with a Ugandan co-leader. It was hard. It was frustrating. It was ugly. It was GOOD! It was amazing to watch how God transformed these ladies’ lives, and mine as well. It was encouraging to be in His Word, sharing with others who are very different from me but who were also having similar struggles with living out their faith. God was present.

As part of the Discipleship Journey, my co-leader and I meet with one woman at a time to go through Steps of Freedom. It’s an intense time of sharing, confessing, prayer, and proclaiming God’s Truth. It’s powerful and we have seen God overcome so much in each of the women’s lives time and time again. It’s not an easy day together, but it is so beautiful to see the freedom each woman receives. I also walked through the steps myself before I led the ladies through the process (“you cannot lead where you do not go”), and it was amazing to see how God revealed things in my life that needed to be dealt with. It is also amazing to see how the Holy Spirit continues to work in my life to change me.

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2024: What Lies Ahead…

/ Leland Sawyer / Leave a comment

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!

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2023 in Retrospect

/ Leland Sawyer / Leave a comment

Every year is different, and every year is the same. Every year brings challenges, but what those challenges are can be different each month and week. Every year brings celebrations and successes, but we never know what that will be until they come. This past year has been a GREAT year in ministry, though it has been moving at a back-breaking speed. The stories of transformation and Holy Spirit impact continue to pile up, but so do the challenges and the work. We find ourselves continuing to pray as Jesus instructed: “Lord send your workers to THIS field!”

Here is a recap of some of the things we’ve been doing as a family and mission here in Eastern Uganda. Warning: This is a long post, but praise God – He has been moving!

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Checking in the Fields

/ Leland Sawyer / Leave a comment

At home, we have a vibrant and diverse garden! We grow all kinds of tasty treats and necessities (check out the details HERE). And we plant throughout the year because we have a way to irrigate. We love our little garden, but it takes a lot of work. It’s not as simple as plant, wait, and harvest. There are many steps along the way.

The same is true of sowing spiritual seeds in ministry. We can’t expect to plant the Word of God and wait around for the good fruit to come. No! We need to continue pouring into those people along the way (this is what we mean by relational disciplemaking).

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Lead Like Jesus

/ Leland Sawyer / 1 Comment

The Mbale Mission exists to “train, equip, and disciple leaders in the Ugandan church” with the purpose that they may also train, equip, and disciple others; DISCIPLEMAKERS that make disciplemakers, all following Jesus in everyday living. While we are not perfect, we put everything we plan and do through the lens of making disciples who make disciples. That is why in 2022, we began a Leaders Conference to gather leaders from the many churches we work with in ONE place for a time of teaching and sharing, specifically geared towards Christian leadership. This year we focused on key scriptures regarding Christ Like Leadership:

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Once in a Lifetime Trip

/ Gina Sawyer / Leave a comment

It’s no secret that we love to travel! We make it a priority for our family to save for traveling, plus we often celebrate birthdays and holidays with travel experiences instead of gifts. We never imagined we would get to travel on this side of the world, so it’s been fun and exciting to experience new cultures and ways of life. Australia has always been on our “travel bucket list” but towards the bottom, not because we didn’t want to go, but because we never imagined it would be possible. So when the opportunity arose and the funds became available, we decided there was NO better time to visit Australia (and New Zealand) than Summer 2023 when they were hosting the Women’s World Cup. We would be able to watch some soccer games as we explore two new countries on a new continent. But Australia isn’t very close, and it’s not so cheap…

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