Monica and her Baby

Since January of 2021, our team has been meeting weekly with Monica for What fellowship, prayer, and study of the Word.  Monica was really interested in learning about the stories of Jesus’ life and how she can follow His example.  Monica started to noticed how she had been growing in relationship with God over the months, and how she saw Him at work within different experiences in her life, especially challenging times.  Monica began to share about God and His love with her neighbors around her, including her family members who were walking through difficult circumstances. She now encourages and prays for her neighbors, and serves humbly in all she does with joy to the Lord. Monica has become a light within her family circle and in her community as she’s grown in her faith and passion for Jesus.

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. 

The year 2020 was an incredibly interesting start to our transition into living in Uganda.  We had only been in country a few months, so we had merely gotten to the point of knowing our way around town and where to purchase our basic needs.  We were supposed to move to our new home the weekend things shut down, so we had to stay put in temporary housing for the next three months.  Up to that point, we had had minimal opportunities to really start engaging with the local people.  

However, God was still very much at work, and the time was very good for our family.  God increased our faith, our disciplines, and gave us a check of our priorities.  We could invest more in our kids, their hearts, and how they were transitioning to life in Uganda.  Our idea of what was productivity shifted from a unhealthier mindset we found ourselves carrying to how God intended it to be for us.  He still brought people to our gate who we could share the Good News with, and opened doors for relationships.  It definitely wasn't what we expected our first year on the field, but we are grateful and know that God was still very much at work, both in what we could see and couldn't see.

Now, being a few months into 2021, we praise God that the year so far has been one where we are gaining more momentum in culture, language, and discipleship.  We have a language teacher we meet with multiple times a week to learn the local language, Lugbara.  God is deepening relationships through intentional discipleship opportunities.  It’s been a joy to study God’s word together, discuss cultural influences and how it affects our faith, and pray for one another.  We’ve seen God bring revelation through His Spirit, and a desire to dig deeper into His Word.  We give God all the glory for what He has done so far. 

Please pray that we would walk in sensitivity to the Holy Spirit as we continue to engage in these friendships, and that together we can more deeply understand how we all can obey the Word and be more like Jesus.     

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!

In our initial meeting with Santos we briefly shared with him our methods for discipling believers and training them to begin small groups, and he requested to meet again in the near future for more details. We were humbled that by the end of our second meeting he was graciously inviting us in to train some of his key church leaders in our methods. 

After a few weeks of partnering together we were really encouraged by the leaders' activity and new found confidence in leading others in discovery Bible study. Santos not only felt like he now had the tools to reach Gulu and his congregation’s relational network, but actively started sharing with other pastors this vision and method.

Santos is the pastor of a local church in Gulu, and is dedicated to sharing God’s love with his congregation. He had been unsatisfied with the typical methods of outreach in Uganda. He found evangelism crusades costly and ineffective in making lasting disciples for Jesus. 

By the end of 2019, we had trained 27 members of his church and prepared them for taking the Gospel out to their villages as they traveled home for holiday break. We had also seen multiple Bible sharing groups started, and one of those groups had birthed into a second generation.

Santos has helped us try out new ideas and continue to refine our methods. It has been a blessing to have him working with us. Santos’ vision for 2020 is to help other pastors learn our methods, starting groups in new towns, seeing another 50 people trained within his church, and generally leading leaders in taking the gospel out of the four walls of the church building.

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.

Have you ever watched the olympic sprint races? For the 100 meter dash, the whole race is over in about 10 seconds. But what about the work leading up to that race? How much time went into training for that event? 

In a fast paced world, we are tempted to want to see fast paced church growth as well. Especially when we’re trying to start a disciple making movement. Looking at a high view of disciple making movements globally it looks like they grow overnight! We have a friend heading one and we hear new reports every few months about another 100 or more house churches starting. It’s exciting, we want in, we want to see those numbers of people in our own movement out of Northern Uganda…. Yes! Let’s do it! Go! Go! Go! 

But wait…. Let’s zoom in on some of these movements…. 

Many of the people initially trying to start them spend 7-11 years plodding away trying to train, teach, disciple and encourage with little to no fruit. And then, when they do find someone who gets it those people invest in a few…. For a very long time. And then from the few they invest in some of them gather a group of their own to invest in. And on and on it goes. Everyone begins a new group pretty quickly in the movement and from a birds eye view it looks so sudden, so fast growing, so intense. Though the replication of groups happen quickly, the result is many people committing to disciple the people around them for the long haul. People are not just playing a game of telephone “Did you hear about Jesus? Pass it on.” No! People are committing to go deep into the word together. They are in community with people regularly, walking alongside them as everyone grows in their understanding of the word, and relationship with God. 

Slow growth, investment, commitment, regular, walking together…. Sign us up for that. We want to live amongst a group of people who are going to be in it with us, not for a flash in the pan, but for the long haul. This is community, this is church. 

To Our Global Team, 

We are humbled, honored, grateful. 

Just because there’s only 3 of us living and serving as foreigners in Uganda doesn’t mean we are a team of 3. We are surrounded by a team of people all over the globe who pray for House to House, contend in the spiritual realm for the people of Uganda and send their financial support so that we can do what God has planned. Our team is much bigger than what you can see, our team is the hundreds of people who’s hearts are for Uganda and send us to execute God’s vision for the people of this beautiful land. 

We have seen God stir of the hearts of national believers to join our team as well. They are so passionate about seeing their own people know God’s love for them. They are filled with knowledge, insight and great wisdom about their own people. We are honored to call them our friends and co-laborers in the harvest. 

As 2019 closes with a bang of new disciples, new house churches and more believers than ever we are humbled, honored, grateful for all of those who surround us working on the ground in Uganda to further God’s kingdom. Your inheritance is in Uganda. 

Much love, 

The House to House Team

Find sustainable resources instead.

Northern Uganda has been through some terrible times. A 20 year war isolating the North from the South of the country, placing people in camps, constantly worried if they will make it through to the next day. Aid groups have mercifully worked in the region serving for decades now helping through the crisis and the rebuilding of social norms.  But 20 years of living like this has had long term impacts on the internal monologue or messages people tell themselves here.

One of those messages is, subtly being told that they are not able to sustain themselves. That they are not strong enough to do it on their own. Aide must come, and it must come from outside.  These messages have come across in practical skills as well as in ministry.

Northern Uganda has been bombarded with missionaries, from around the world, as well as from within Uganda’s own borders, handing out bibles, tracks and making big speeches about converting to Christianity. The truth of the Gospel is sometimes proclaimed, but the model given is that leaders must come from the outside of the region.  The message is clear, you need Jesus AND a foreigners help to get on the right track. 

For a movement to be sustained here everyday Northern Ugandans need to be able to follow Jesus within their normal life schedule, and have the confidence that they can make disciples themselves.  When growth or discipleship is tied to outside leaders or resources provided by foreigners, movements stop.  If we are providing bibles, pamphlets, audio readers, and endless supplies to Ugandans who want to follow Jesus, then we are hinging the growth of a movement on the resources we provide. That is simply not sustainable.  The short term benefit from handouts is out-weighed by the dependence it continues to reinforce.

We have challenged our leaders, and they have challenged us, to find culturally relevant ways to answer these places of need in ways that will  reinforce community values and strengths. We have to think outside of the typical resource provision to find simple ways Ugandans can pass on their methods to others.

We cannot introduce financial constraints when God is moving. We want to give Him as much space as he needs to move and do his thing, and reducing the barriers to encountering his word together is something we are very serious about. 

We have the patience to see God move here in a way that honors and respects our friends.  That lifts them up and says we believe in your ability to lead others into all that God has for them.