Servant leadership, is a high value of House to House, and a value deeply ingrained in the teachings of Jesus. He emphasizes embodying a servant's role rather than seeking authority for a position of power. Servant leadership was modeled by Jesus himself through his acts of humility and selflessness towards others.

In the Bible, the act of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples is described in the Gospel of John 13:1-17. This moment is a powerful demonstration of humility and service, as Jesus, despite being their teacher and Lord, took on the role of a servant by washing the feet of his disciples.

“so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.”

— John 13:4-5

The disciples feet were not lightly dusty, no; they were quite filthy from walking in sandals through dirty and littered roads (my feet often get this way walking on dusty roads in Uganda in my flip flops). Jesus saw a need for clean feet to sit more comfortably at a meal, and rose to meet it with his disciples. Through serving his followers in this practical way, Jesus exemplifies a message of love, humility and serving one another with compassion.

3 Things Jesus did as a Servant Leader

1. Humility: Jesus exemplified humility by washing his disciples' feet, a task typically reserved for servants.

2. Compassion: He showed compassion towards the sick, the marginalized, and the needy, demonstrating empathy and care for others.

3. Sacrifice: Jesus willingly sacrificed his life for the salvation of all, embodying the ultimate act of selflessness and servant leadership.

As followers of Jesus we are urged to follow his example by prioritizing the needs of others over opportunities for power and recognition. We can try every day, in little ways and big, to embody the values of humility, compassion and sacrifice in our own life. Genuine leadership is bigger than titles and praise; it is grounded in the unwavering dedication to serve and elevate those around us. Let us mirror our leadership style after the ultimate servant leader, Jesus, who illustrated that true leadership is rooted in a heart of service.

Even if you have plans to be elsewhere, even if it feels like you need to be moving forward. You are where you are for a reason. You are friends with who you're friends with... for a reason! God is giving you an opportunity to share about his love with everyone you have a relationship with. Don't waste it! We hope you enjoy our discussion between House to House staff, Monica and Colleen, on sharing God's love with the people around you!

Raed grew up as a Muslim and then decided to dedicate his life to follow Jesus. Raed lived in Arua where our House to House team member, Korwen, met him. They developed a discipling relationship over the last few years and this past year Korwen trained Raed to use an app developed to help guide Bible Sharing groups through scriptures.

Raed has since used the app as a guide to found a bible sharing group at his nursing school. He as also taken the opportunity to reach out to the youth, in his home town, sharing Gods love with them during his school breaks.

Raed has grown in his love of Jesus, developed as a servant-leader and grown in confidence to share his faith with those around him.

In the heart of the ministry of House to House, we ask God to put us in relationship with people who have a desire to reach the people around them, where then we could equip them to become disciple makers in the plentiful harvest.     Sometimes this is harder to find than some would think.   We’ve had many invitations to come and disciple hundreds of people, and where there is discernment in situations, most times it isn’t at all sustainable.   We’ve met with interested individuals, only to find the heart is not to expand God’s kingdom, but rather for their own personal motives.   We’ve definitely had our ups and downs, but God has shown us His faithfulness in prayer and waiting for the connections with those He has prepared for us.  

But what happens when God brings this desired partnership together?  The result is that all He wants to see done, will be completed.   In one heart and vision in the Holy Spirit, we can work to empower these individuals to see God’s plans and purposes move among the people placed around them.  This could be pastors, teachers, mothers, businessmen, young adults, and any non-believer.  The list goes on and on and is limited to no person, but rather a person whose heart is on fire for the Great Commission. 

From there, we can give them the tools they are needing to disciple effectively.  We can help them strategically think about the people they are reaching, how to structure their groups, what tools to use in their discipleship, and how to tackle the challenges that come along the way.  Our desire is that they feel not only prepared to initiate these discipleship groups, but also equip others to become disciple makers.  This is how discipleship movements happen. 

Once the leaders are equipped, they can be sent.  Now this doesn’t mean that our relationship with them is finished, in fact it’s just getting started.   We have the opportunity to have an on-going, supportive relationship with these leaders as they continue to pour into their groups and the later groups that can also emerge.  

This is a discipleship movement.  Not just a one individual person moving.  It’s the body of Christ, moving together with the Holy Spirit, to obey Christ and teach others to do the same.   Leaving space for the Lord to do His work is the best thing we can do as disciple makers.  It’s not about us, it’s about Him.  

We are not meant to be alone! God has created you to need other people to build you up and support you! AND you are called to support and encourage those around you. Instead of a traditional blog, we decided to make a video blog discussion among our House to House Team. We hope you find this discussion encouraging to to reach out to someone in your community today!

At House to House, we have long ago given up counting “salvations” in our ministry as our definition of success. Don’t get me wrong, we love it when people decide to make a step toward following Christ, but we know that growing with God never stops! Accepting Jesus as your Savior is just the beginning of the never ending discovery with God.

We have decided instead to define success as people who are in community with one another seeking God together, and inevitably growing in their faith. Sometimes, the people who attend our bible sharing groups have not made a commitment to follow Jesus. Sometimes they come with resentment from former religious experiences. Sometimes they come with simple curiosity knowing nothing about following Jesus. Sometimes they have been “saved” for years, but they don’t know how to live out their faith in a community.  But in any case they are welcome just as they are.

We are constantly working out our salvation throughout our lives. Cultivating it and maturing in our faith through our experiences with God and with our community as it says in Philippians 2:12. 

So then, my dear ones, just as you have always obeyed [my instructions with enthusiasm], not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, continue to work out your salvation [that is, cultivate it, bring it to full effect, actively pursue spiritual maturity] with awe-inspired fear and trembling [using serious caution and critical self-evaluation to avoid anything that might offend God or discredit the name of Christ].- Philippians 2:12 AMP

If we were to make the mistake of making the goal of our ministry "salvations”, then we would miss all the opportunities for discipleship, growth and change that must follow after (and before) that commitment to Christ. If salvation were the goal, what would happen if someone attended a bible sharing group for months or years and did not commit themselves to Christ? Would we have failed in our mission? If salvation is the goal, then yes, we would have failed. But success at House to House is not counted in salvations, it’s counted in relational commitment to the community and to God. So, if we see the commitment of someone to engage with a community of believers, we define that as success because that person is growing in their community of faith. Maybe that person goes from hating Christians, to hating them less, to even liking some of them. Maybe one day that person will make a commitment to follow Jesus, but that decision is between them and Jesus and not for any of us to define. 

We are all on this journey of faith. Sometimes our faith journey is filled with deep growth and other times our faith can feel stagnant. But in any way, we are working out our salvation in our relationship with Jesus. We cannot rest our faith on a single moment of commitment to God. Much like the intimate relationships in our life, our salvation takes work, conversation (with God in prayer in this case), time and vulnerability. Let us surrender any pride or guardedness over to God and seek Him together and trust that we will grow in our faith. 

It’s June in Uganda, which means that it’s short term team season. There are a lot of visitors in Uganda, especially into northern Uganda coming into northern cities to evangelize and preach the gospel. As someone who participated in several short term teams in my life, I understand the compassion, motivation and excitement for sharing the gospel in a new place. However, Uganda does not need more evangelists. 

Uganda needs disciples and disciple makers. In order to be a disciple maker you need to be committed to the person that you are discipling and be a support on their faith journey as they continue to grow with God. Unfortunately, a two week visit into Northern Uganda with brief encounters with people will not make true disciples of Jesus.

In an effort to become more like Jesus we need to constantly be connecting with Him and to be in a community who asks about our connection with Him and cares about our relationship with Jesus. 

The point in which somebody receives salvation or a “soul is saved” is simply a starting point of a, hopefully, lifelong journey of continuously growing with God. If we stopped growing here we would miss out on all that God has for us. As disciples, we are ever changing to become more like Jesus and aligning ourselves with Him and the things that He believes and the way that He thinks. This takes time and community support.

I recently read ‘Renovated: God, Dallas Willard, and the Church That Transforms’ by Dr. Jim Wilder and he called this type of thinking, “Thinking  with God” instead of just thinking about God. It’s a subtle but profound shift away from trying to obey God’s rules, to thinking the way God thinks. They both have the same initial appearance, but aligning our mind with God’s has transformational impact. When our attention shifts to some other aspect of spiritual life, those learned behaviors won’t stick  unless we’ve learned to think God’s thoughts and been changed on the inside.

Thinking with God is difficult, and not commonly taught, but it is an important to do so that we can move forward in our relationship with Him. We need to understand HOW He thinks and HOW He operates. Then once we have aligned our thought’s with God we have become His mature disciples and we can say, “Imitate me as I imitate Christ.” like Paul did in 1 Corinthians 11:1. 

Also on this journey to become mature disciples of Christ, we need to have the support of a community with other like-minded people who are also trying to align themselves and their relationship with God. This group helps reinforce the things God is speaking to us. By being in this community, we are encouraged to press into Christ more and more. Our community can also call us back to Him when it’s difficult for us to remember why we even started this journey in the first place. 

Uganda needs more disciples, not more evangelists. More people committed to walking day in and day out with those around them furthering them in their faith. Myself and our team have seen it time and time again, that people are evangelized to, make a decision to follow Christ and are left to fend for themselves. 

Evangelism without discipleship is making spiritual orphans. 

It is our belief at House To House, that the best people to both share and walk alongside Ugandans who want to align themselves with Jesus are other Uganda’s who are already doing the same thing. Ugandan believers who have experienced the same culture, the same setbacks, AND have also chosen to follow God and to continuously ask for Him in their lives. 

If you are Ugandan reading this, then I hope that you will be inspired to gather your friends or family together to begin to align your thoughts with His thoughts and deepening your relationship with a God who loves you. 

And if you’re a foreigner who is planning your trip to Uganda, I ask that you would pray about using your time to support the ministry work that is happening here through the Ugandan disciple makers that live in and love this country and it’s people. You may not be the one to save souls here, but your encouragement of and solidarity with other believers here is like a cup of cold water on a hot day. (Also, you should totally go on a safari. It’s worth it)

I grew up in a time when a common training in the church was to learn how give your salvation testimony. In these trainings, the framework often prescribed was to share how you once were bad and then Jesus came into your life and finally, how everything was better. Though my own personal testimony fit this mold in many ways, I often shy away from these salvation testimony formulas. I would cringe as I watched many of my Christian friends, who had been raised by loving parents in a Christian environment, struggle with how to package their conversion moment as a 4 year old child. In reality their childhood conversion moment was not the end of their journey of faith, merely the beginning. But we were told to share that we were saved; that was the end of our salvation testimony, lets put a nice little bow around it. 

This, however, is not the real life of a believer.

I feel that we are setting up new believers for failure with these types of testimonies. These salvation stories do not embody the ups, downs, doubts and faith filled moments of a life lived with Jesus. Those of us who believe that Jesus is our savior are still in a process of maturity of faith every day. He paid for our sins so that we could live our whole life with God. Believers still have struggles; they still have doubts and fears but the difference is that God is present with us and we go through it with Him. 

If we can share with non-believers our honest life as followers of Jesus, then we can show them a life in relationship with an active, loving God. We can show them how God works through us in hard times. We can show what it’s like to live faithfully, trusting God.  Even when the circumstances are stacked against us. When we are vulnerable enough to share with non-believers all of the ups and downs, then we can show them the realities of a life lived in a relationship with Jesus. Then whenever they choose to engage with Jesus they will not be disillusioned by a “fix-everything”, “there are no problems” God.  They will experience what you’ve shown, God’s ever loving presence that is with them in all the hardships of life. 

God calls us to make disciples and one of the most important ways to draw people to God's amazing love is sharing our own story. Not the fairytale where it all ends up magically ok, but our REAL story, our PERSONAL journey of faith. About our difficulties, our struggles, our realities and the ever present love of God through it all. That's how we make disciples... so go and share your story.

Our team was able to lead a bible sharing group in 2019 with Kevin (featured) and a few other women. This was an opportunity made possible by a partnership with Kijani Forestry, who asked House to House to give Kijani Staff an opportunity to encounter God and receive our trainings.  We lead a bible sharing group with empowerment in mind. We encouraged Kevin and the other staff to reach out to others, whom may also want to encounter God through scripture and community. With the lockdowns in 2020 and 2021, Kijani staff made significant changes in locations and accessibility. Kevin was relocated from Gulu central out to the Kijani Farm. There, she was able to take our training and begin a church with other Kijani staff members. Due to the lockdowns and the location of Kijani’s farmland the church that Kevin was able to begin with her colleagues was the only church within walking distance. 

Kevin & Momo of Kijani Forestry

During the last 2 years, Kevin was able to take our training and share it with others. She has since trained Momo who is also a part of Kijani forestry. Momo has taken her training and felt empowered to lead a group at a Kijani tree nursery site in a different city. Momo has discipled a group of believers within the staff she works with, integrating God and His love into each part of her home and working life. Momo has seen people who have had a change in their hearts from rejecting God and are now becoming softened towards God and are incorporating prayer into their daily lives. 

We are so encouraged by these amazing women and notice the empowerment that has taken place through our simple replicable trainings. What God planted in Kevin in 2019 has become house churches and a transformation in many peoples lives. 

We are so excited to have the Kronberg family as a part of House to House. We had hoped to one day expand into more areas in Uganda and when they approached us about joining our team, we knew that God had answered our prayers.

Korwen and Julie have two children; they moved to Uganda in December of 2019. They desire to see God’s plans and purposes fulfilled on the earth, emphasizing discipleship and church planting. Both Korwen and Julie have backgrounds in missions, Korwen spending four years living in Pakistan with his family in 1999 and Julie spending time teaching in Kenya after receiving her bachelor’s degree in 2010. Korwen and Julie have been trained in discipleship and church planting methods since 2013. They specifically feel called to reaching Muslims and refugees in Uganda with the love of Jesus Christ. 

Arua is located in the West Nile Region of Northern Uganda and, because of its location, has several different people groups including Congolese, South Sudanese, and local Ugandans. Of Arua’s population of 62,000 people, around 60% practice Islam. Korwen and Julie desire to catalyze reproducible disciple making and church planting movements through training and equipping laborers of Muslim Background Believers as well as South Sudanese refugees. They are currently investing in learning local language as well as building relationships with locals. They are searching for believers who desire to empower others with the knowledge of the Bible and life changing impact of knowing God.