church

Partners in Ministry

/ Gina Sawyer / 1 Comment

We are always so blessed when people visit Uganda to see the ministry here. Not only do we get the opportunity to show them how God is at work for His kingdom in a variety of ways (from disciplemaking in villages to community development projects to bible studies in churches to conferences and trainings and so much more) but we also get the opportunity to share our life with people. And answer questions about our everyday life that is so different than what our life was like in America.

At the end of June, we were blessed with 15 men and women, ranging in age from 14 years old to adult (we won’t mention ages), from Quaker Avenue Church of Christ in Lubbock, Texas. This is a special trip because of the history Quaker Avenue has with the mission work in Uganda. It’s the founding church who sent the first missionaries here to Mbale to start the work with New Testament Churches of Christ thirty years ago, which is the organization from where all the various ministries have come from (Messiah Theological School, Livingstone International University, Tyler Homeschool Cooperative, Good News Production – Mbale branch), and of course what the work is doing now with disciplemaking and church leader development.

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Women’s DiscipleMaking

/ Gina Sawyer / 1 Comment

It is exciting to see how God’s kingdom continue to expand not just with pastors and men, but also with women. Since 2018, there have been three women’s discipleship groups that have concluded their meetings, and there are two women’s discipleship groups that are currently meeting in two different villages with women from area churches in the same cluster. These clusters are made up of area churches who come together for encouragement and helping one another.

At the end of April, the first two women discipleship groups met together for a time of prayer, encouragement, and spurring on one another to making disciplemakers. These groups started in 2018 and 2019, so we moved together through two Covid-related lockdowns and restrictions that delayed our group meetings, extending our time together for more than three years. It was a challenging journey for both groups, and we completed the groups unsure how the ladies would take disciplemaking to their churches and villages.

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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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Home Is Where Your Heart Is…

/ Leland Sawyer / Leave a comment

We have been praying for the past 4 or 5 months that God would continue to lead us to the church family He wanted us to call “HOME” while we are ministering in Uganda. Some missionaries call it “overseeing church,” “sending church,” or “sponsoring church” because of the many aspect of the relationship. For us, the single most important aspect as we’ve been praying for this, is a church that would see as their people; members of their body on the other side of the world – an extension of their ministry here in the States. Our HOME.

BVCClogoAnd we have been having conversations with one such church since the middle of January. Through much prayer, conversation, planning, and even more prayer we have our HOME church. The Boulder Valley Church of Christ in Boulder, CO will be our home church as we launch into Uganda, and we are rejoicing at God’s provision and guidance. Continue reading →