I have always wanted to travel the world. Since my first week in ministry, I have wanted to tell everyone in the world about my God who reached out to me and changed my life. I am getting that opportunity this year on a global scale. In just 11 short days, I will board a plane in Chicago and, after a whole complete day of travelling, land in Entebbe, Uganda. I have had many inquiries about this trip so I will lay out the basics as I understand them so that you can all join with me in prayer for the pastors in Uganda.
As a basic starting point, we leave on September 23rd at 6pm from Chicago. (When I say ”we”, I mean Pastor Dewey Miller, Brad Beatty, and myself.) After a lengthy flight, we will land in Brussels, Belgium sometime during the day on the 24th. After a 3 hour layover, we will board another flight directly to Entebbe, Uganda, just north of Lake Victoria. Then, it is just a short cab ride to our hotel in Kampala, the Sportsview Hotel right next to the national soccer stadium. Wednesday will then be a recovery day. We will be getting ready for the rest of our week, as we prepare to teach.
Our mission is simple: we want to train pastors. We could travel anywhere and preach the Gospel, but we want God to take a permanent place in the hearts of Ugandans. We want continued discipleship taking place, a continuing renewal of Bible study, prayer, and accountability. The best way we can do that is to train new ministers on the ground in Uganda. So that is our whole purpose in Uganda.
We have called this idea The 3-5 Plan. 3 days, 5 topics of teachings. Pastor Dewey will be teaching the men on leadership, Bible study, and prayer. Brad will teach worship, as he is the worship leader at Dewey’s church. I will be training the men in discipleship and preaching. The seminar will span across 3 days. This time around, that means Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. There will be a time of prayer and devotion each morning, followed by 2 hours of class time before lunch. We have 20 men (the most we felt we could really handle with only 3 of us going) split into two smaller groups of 10. So in the morning, the groups will go to different classes. Then in the afternoon, they will switch and attend the other session, followed by group worship in the late afternoon. We have done this not only to help with getting everyone’s questions answered during sessions, but also to promote small accountability groups for the men to call upon later. We want to promote the building of relationships among the pastors who attend. Ministers here need support and so do our men in Uganda.
Our original plan was to have 20 men trained during the seminar in Mukono, just outside the capital city of Kampala. However, we received an email with wonderful news: not only had they filled the 20 slots in Mukono, but they had an additional 20-30 men who desired training as well! Since we just learned of this about 2 weeks ago, we have added a one-day teaching session on Monday the 30th in Jinja, a couple hour drive from Kampala, to accommodate the added demand. In total, we will be training 40-50 new ministers from all across Uganda during 4 days of teaching. God is so good!
Our plan doesn’t stop there, though. The men who attend the seminar are expected to, in turn, have 5 disciples of their own by the time we return again next year. In essence, we are training 20 men, but we expect them to pass on the knowledge we give them to 100 more young men. There will be a continued correspondence when we get back to the States as well, including Youtube videos they can get together watch each month for additional training on specific topics. They will have regular email and Facebook contact with us, as well as continued updates on their own disciples.
There will essentially be a sort of licensing system. This first group of men will be second year leadership students when we return next year and their disciples will be first year students. The hope is that over many years, this multiplication will yield significant results not only for the salvation of Uganda’s people, but also for deeper discipleship and a greater percentage of disciples instead of just converts.
Our goal is to reach Uganda the best way we know how. I love the idea of training new leaders and sending them out. They can accomplish much more over their lifetime than I can in just the few days we will be there.
I hope that answers some questions and explains the 3-5 Plan in a way you can understand. We are extremely excited for this opportunity and are praying for God’s favor to be with us as we travel. I simply ask that if you have read this, please add us to your prayer list and even say a quick prayer for us now. Don’t just pray for us, though. Pray for these men who will be attending to learn more about God and being a disciple. Pray for God’s favor in their lives. Pray for God to open doors not only for us, but for these men to share the Gospel in their communities. We are praying for AWESOME things to come from this trip and we hope you will too! Thank you so much for your support and prayers!
P.S. – I will post regular updates, if possible, from our hotel each night. If not, I will post a lengthy summary of our trip when I return. Stay tuned for good news from Africa!
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