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.

Winnie B was leading a Bible sharing group that was struggling to meet together regularly. In order to address this critical issue and help grow the group in community, they resolved to rotate the groups location to meet at different members houses each week.

One of these members invited their neighbors when she was the host for the week. Some Muslim neighbors who were curious to see what the group was about decided to attend. They were moved by the spirit of God’s love and 3 of these women decided to dedicate their life to following Jesus.

They have continued to grow in their faith, connecting with a local church and growing in their love of Jesus.

In 2022/2023, we continued to partner with Kijani forestry, training their staff in Bible Sharing methods that House to House has developed. Our team members drove to their farm weekly to train over 50 believers who wanted to grow in their skills of sharing God’s love and guiding their communities in sharing the Bible together.

Roger and Santo shared House to House methods with these believers, encouraged them in their faith and in turn we saw them grow together as a community. They also expanded their vision to see the communities they were a part of as potential places to bring God into their conversations.

The Kijani forestry staff, once trained, have been assigned to locations all over the Northern Regions of Uganda. There, they have opportunity to build communities of Jesus followers with these simple tools.

The House to House team focused this past year on growing together as a team, praying for each other, as well as sharing ideas and resources. Our leadership gathered monthly to discuss the progress of our bible sharing networks and to encourage one another in leadership and direction. Out of these discussions our team has created a Healthy Groups Guidance Manual. This document outlines all of the characteristics of a healthy group, the structures needed to be in place and potential solutions to common issues in growing bible sharing groups. We are excited to see the benefits of having this Ugandan developed resource in place as our leadership is training and coaching new leadership for other generations of bible sharing groups.

You have God given Gifts. God made you unique for a reason! He has given you a mix of gifts that no one else in the world has. He is inviting you to share your gifts with other around you. So, what does it mean to share your gifts with others? How can you use the gifts and talents God has given you to create community. Here's the perspectives of some of our team on sharing their gifts with others.

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)