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)

House to House has empowered Ugandans to move forward in their walk of faith. We have trained, discipled, mentored and coached many Ugandans who are leading their communities into a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ. We have challenged the cultural assumptions that Bible training is for the elite and instead made the Bible accessible to all through our simple model of small group teaching and empowerment. Our commitment to seeing house churches and leaders developed through those small groups have impacted hundreds of Ugandans who would not have had this kind of access to the gospel. 

Over the last several years we have made a commitment to simplicity, adaptability and reproducibility in any setting that Uganda laid before us. So that the gospel could move forward throughout Ugandan communities without barriers such as resources, literacy and time constraints. 

The year 2020 was incredibly challenging globally with the spread of coronavirus. When Uganda went into lockdown we were concerned that our work would come to a halt due to the restrictions. However, we found that the lockdown was the perfect condition to put our methods to the test. We have spent many years training and discipling people so that they could take the gospel to their families and neighbors. We have been empowering people to seek God and grow in relationship with Him, with only their Bible and the Holy Spirit as their guide. The time Uganda spent in lockdown was a wonderful opportunity for people to seek the Lord in a time of difficulty and we are so thankful that we had given them the tools to be able to do that. We are overjoyed to share with you that the training and discipleship of House to House is effective even during a difficult year. 

We are also thankful for the presence of our newest branch in Arua. They were able to establish roots and begin to build relationships with people who are hungry for the gospel and desire to see their communities come to know God’s love. 

In Gulu, several new house churches began in 2020. In addition, new leaders were trained through those house church meetings and were able to begin their own house church groups throughout Gulu district. We saw fruit from discipleship methods instilled by House to House expand into remote regions of Northern Uganda through visits from some of our local leaders.   We even witnessed effective discipleship happening remotely through visits on the phone.  

Our work has continued thrive in times of growth and in times of challenges, and that is not done solely through our own efforts on the ground in Uganda.   It is the product of hundreds of people like you who support us, donate to us, and pray for us as we continue to seek the kingdom of God to come in all of Uganda.  We are so grateful for your support!

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.

Beatrice Adong

Beatrice has been a follower of Jesus for many years. She always tries to share his love with the people around her wherever she goes. However, she was becoming frustrated with some of the methods of evangelism and discipleship that were known to her. She was able to share about God’s love, but people were not growing in their relationship with God. 

When we asked Beatrice if she was interested in discipling her neighbors with our methods, she gave a loud YES! 

She grasped our approach to sharing Jesus and discipling and training so quickly. She was able to start a small group of believers in many places in her life, at her work, with other believers at church, and with her neighbors. 

Beatrice and Disciples in Orom, Uganda

With all of the groups she has started she has been able to keep God’s word as the focus, each person is experiencing their own journey with God and obey the things that the Holy Spirit has called to them. No matter if the people in the group have been believers for many years, or if they have not yet committed their life to Jesus, everyone in her groups are able to participate. 

Beatrice has even been able to navigate her work group through time constraints and issues that pop up at work through allowing God to be the true leader of the groups while she remains a supportive facilitator.