My heart beamed as I read the slew of “direct messages” yesterday: “…thanks so much for the opportunity you gave us to serve God…I saw the Lord move amongst his flock making them new, bless u sir…transformation is now activated inside the church!” Two of our volunteer missionaries were on the five hour public transport boat, coming back from a four-day teaching mission on Jana Island. Their joyful exclamations of ministry success reminded me of the seventy that returned to Jesus with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name” (Luke 10:17).
After six years of labor on Lake Victoria’s Islands, we are starting to see something very remarkable. Not only do we have increased participation in our Island Leadership Network and its training programs, conferences, and other events, but through our repeated visits and consistent care have gained an overwhelming favor and trust with a growing number of church leaders. Despite our young age, the threat from being outside of their denominational structure, and our status as foreigners, we have captured the attention of more than fifty congregations spread over the shores of this vast inland sea.
But the open door to influence among these fledgling communities of faith hasn’t started or stopped with our family alone. We’ve taught for years that every traveling minister must have a home base and while we’ve always upheld Life Church as a model for life and ministry we’ve also brought along teams of disciples that have spent months and years with us in training at Life Church. Every year as we graduate new students from our Ignite discipleship training school, more of them stand up and declare their intention to give themselves to the work of ministry. These passionate young people have truly caught the vision to reach the region and are giving their lives alongside us, rapidly multiplying the effectiveness of the work. And together with our larger fellowship body, Minister’s Fellowship International, we are sending teams of laborers throughout Uganda to spread the Good News and influence churches with solid Biblical teaching and skillful, anointed worship.
The team is still growing, disciples are still being trained, leadership structures are still being developed, and “it has not yet been revealed what we shall be,” but we’re beginning to see in reality what we’ve dreamed for many years: an army of local church-based missionaries is being discipled and sent to reach the world with the Gospel. We’re committing the things we’ve learned into the hands of faithful men who are able to train others (2 Timothy 2:2). This is exciting.