discipleship

Boys Becoming Men Through Disciplemaking

/ Leland Sawyer / Leave a comment

Recently I read that “The church doesn’t just exist to make disciples. We also exist to bring those disciples to maturity” (Deeper Walk by Marcus Warner). This concept has been a driving force for us as a mission for more than a decade, and has been at the heart of our family’s ministry since we began. We were never called by Jesus to merely make converts, but rather to disciple people into maturity…mature disciples was Jesus’ goal, and it continues to be our goal as His Church.

Earlier this year, me and Peter (a coworker at the Mbale Mission) decided that something MORE was needed to help the young men at the city church grow into deeper maturity in their faith. So we prayed for the young men and decided to invite them into a weekly disciplemaking group. From that first meeting, we have been open with them about the serious commitment that spiritual growth requires of each of us, and that begins with making the time and opportunity a priority: meeting at 8am on Sunday morning for late-teen and twenty-something guys is NOT easy to do in any culture. But that’s the standard we set before them!

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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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A Little Glimpse of Heaven

/ Gina Sawyer / 1 Comment

One of my favorite things about living in Uganda is hearing the many different languages. While sometimes it’s a little overwhelming to be surrounded by languages I don’t understand, I am reminded of how diverse our world really is. When I hear other people praying to God in their native tongue or are singing worship to our God in a variety of languages, it makes me think of heaven.

This world has so many different people, cultures, and languages. What an amazing God we have to create so many unique people! And while sometimes we get distracted by our differences, it is so refreshing to share the unity in Christ when I come together with brothers and sisters in Uganda and recognize there are so many amazing things we can celebrate about one another.

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Disciples Expectations

/ Gina Sawyer / 1 Comment

At the beginning of 2024, I asked the discipleship ladies to write down their expectations – how they wanted God to be moving in their lives, in their families, in their churches, and in their communities. When I looked at the expectations, they were common prayers I had heard before: they wanted God to help them by providing school fees for their children, provide ways for them to pay off loans or get money for various needs – seeds for the garden, building a home, etc. These were – and continue to be – ongoing needs, but my hope for these ladies was different. I wanted them to seek God for more than just physical needs. In a country of poverty, there will always be these needs.

So at the beginning of 2025, I asked them to reflect on what they had written in 2024, and prayerfully write down their expectations for how they wanted God to be moving in their lives, in their families, in the churches, and in their communities for this upcoming year. And man, was I blown away….

The expectations are so different than in 2024, and it’s a testimony to the spiritual growth and maturity I have seen in each of them this past year. What these ladies wrote down gave me chills. I am excited about how God will work in their lives and use them in 2025 because they are open and seeking Him.

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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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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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