At the close of last year, I declared to my wife, "The pioneer stage is over!".  God has raised up a team.  God has established a ministry.  God has given us influence.  God has answered our prayers, by God's grace, we have made it through the first stage.  This was an important message to give to my own soul.  It enabled me to cry, rejoice, and rest in God's goodness.

SOS Board with Dr. Albert Mohler at SBTS

Regardless of all the trials the Lord has brought, my main leadership team (senior staff) could not be a more unified and loving team.  My whole senior staff is now firing on all cylinders.  There is great growth and ownership by each manager.  Everyone understands his role and the high standards for which we are shooting and are in unison aiming to that end.  Each senior staff member is leading professionally and spiritually.  The depth of my leadership team was made evident to me as we dealt with sin in one of my students this past week.  Due to the significance of the sin, I brought him before my senior staff for assistance in handling the issue.  As I sat back and listened, they each counseled this young man with exhortations of Scripture and expressions of love in the most God-honoring way.  As I sat and observed, I could not help but praise God, because most of these leaders I have had the privilege of discipling to this point.  It was a blessing to sit back and witness: God is at work!  One of the highlights for me among my staff has been the hiring of Jacob Mayamba to handle all Baptist activities.  I was slow in hiring this young man because I took a long time praying over my decision.  I believe God has super abundantly answered my prayers.  This young man shares my heart and passion for the churches.  He has stepped into this role wonderfully and taken so much off my plate.  Additionally, he was instantaneously accepted and loved by the Union leadership.   

In regards to our ministry effort in the area of strengthening churches, five concepts would describe the year: Invaluable Church, Confidence, Constitution, Leadership Empowerment, and Pastoral Training Center. 

The Local Church Adds New Members

Invaluable Church - The beginning of our year was launched by the commencement of our Invaluable Church Conference series.  Having taken a year off of conferences, it was very exciting to kick off our conferences anew.  As always, we took this same conference throughout all the regions of the Baptist Union.  The conference provided both great encouragement and great conviction as were reminded of how valuable the church is from God's perspective.  We also exhorted them to surrender their lives to caring for the greatest organization in the world - God's Church. The conference was well attended and greatly received.  The conference continues to put key values within the pastors of the Baptist Union, as well as within my SOS team and community.  We are also praising God for the fact that we were able to have one of the conferences at our headquarters in Kubamitwe. 

Confidence - What is becoming more and more apparent is that God is granting SOS favor within the hearts of the churches of the Baptist Union of Uganda.  Despite the warmth of the Uganda people, culturally my African brothers and sisters are very slow to trust people, especially Americans.  But God has miraculously and sovereignly allowed SOS to have the trust of the whole Union.  The inward fighting for power among the Baptist leadership, the unmet expectations of the churches, and the Union's financial instability had led the Union to a state of hopelessness, prior to SOS's arrival.  In the midst of their dire situation, God brought SOS onto the scene.  Throughout the last 5 years we have served, loved, and genuinely cared for the churches and the leadership.  Thus, in God's providential graces, we have slowly and almost universally earned their confidence.  As a result the Union has granted to SOS a leadership role among its leadership and total freedom to help its churches toward spiritual maturity.  This kind of influence to impact a whole Baptist Union is unprecedented in our day, but for Divine purposes God has granted SOS this kind of molding influence. 

Constitution - Alongside the former Baptist President, Michael Okwakol (and current SOS, Uganda board member), his executive team, and the regional church overseers, SOS began the process of restructuring the Union by means of revamping their constitution.  In the current Baptist structure, the Executive has legal power, but the overseers have relational power, because they have the hearts of the churches. Therefore, we purposely brought the executive and overseers together because we wanted the document to be accepted and owned by the whole church.   The constitution document quickly infused new hope and unity within the Union.  Unfortunately, however, our work quickly came to a halt due to a change in leadership among the executive in 2011.  As a result the whole process stopped and SOS thought the much needed restructuring process was over.   To the praise of God, after I continued to push the need for a constitutional restructuring among the new executive, last year I was allowed to continue the process with the support of the new executive.  Consequently, this year, I was given the assignment of writing the constitution and presenting it to the executive and overseers for evaluation.  After finishing the most important parts of the document, the draft constitution has been overwhelmingly accepted and is serving as a unifying document.  We are now waiting for next year's AGM to take the document to the next step. 

Leadership Empowerment - After the change of presidents, I came to realize that the most important but most neglected part of the Baptist Union were the associational leadership. The associational leadership touches the pastors of every local church.  The problem, however, due to the total neglect and devaluing of the associational leadership, is that many of them became inactive.  So this year, through our Regional Leadership Team Training, SOS has worked hard to try and reenergize the whole associational leadership.  These trainings have gone extremely well and the participation has been close to 80% (almost 100% in the Western Uganda and 60% in central and eastern; the Northern training is in November).  The training consisted of taking these men through Quest For Truth and through the Glorious Gospel-Romans 1-4 DVD.  We did this because we feel that the Union really has no real grasp of the true gospel.  Their gospel is both watered down by easy believeism and polluted by the prosperity gospel.  We feel that all those who have attended our trainings have finally started to understand the biblical gospel and the teaching of SOS.  I believe this group is our hope for changing the Union at large. 

Pastors from the Central/East Pastors' Conference

Pastoral Training Center -  2014 marks the year of our first Training Center meeting.  In March, we met with my Ugandan board and a few key Baptist leaders to discuss our future aspirations of a Pastoral Training Center for all up and coming pastors.  It was universally agreed that there is a great need for this Training Center and that the Center must be discipleship focused.  Due to the lack of the basics among our pastors, it was agreed that the Center should include three levels - love God (one-year intense Discipleship Institute), know God (two-year intense Bible Institute), and proclaim God (two year intense Pastors' Institute).  The plan for 2015 is to discuss the practicalities of how the Center will run.  Tentatively, we would love to start grading the primary school area in 2016, and build four dorms in 2017 and 2018 (totaling 8 dorms), for a launch of the one year discipleship institute in 2019.  

In regards to our ministry effort in the area of community outreach, we feel encouraged, and hopeful. 

A Local Witch Doctor Repents and is Baptized !

Encouraged - We are encouraged because we feel like the ministries in our community could not be going any better.  Legacy Christian Academy has run without a glitch.  The unity among the staff has been incredible.  The enthusiasm of the students has been exuberant.  And the appreciation and ownership of the parents has been remarkable.  The biggest change for Legacy has been the development of its new home.  In June, we were able to bring out wheel loaders and graders to create roads, drainage, and building pads for each of the classrooms.  Furthermore, God has graciously allowed us to construct three new classroom blocks (the last one is currently under construction) and three teachers housing triplexes (the last one is currently under construction).  Community Bible Church is as well doing very well.  We have a great core of people attending or church.  People love the teaching, community, and worship.  The elders are completely unified and active.  And the people are growing.  The highlight of the year has been the establishment of discipleship groups among the men and the creation of women's Bible studies in the communities.  Community activities are happening, but is probably getting the weakest effort.  We had a mother's maternity day (which was a major service to our people), an agriculture day, and a dental day.  The main consistent activity happening in our village is the on-going medical care.  All of this is running with excellence and we could not be more encouraged. 

Hopeful - We are very hopeful for what God is going among us.  Many are still coming to Sunday School.  Many are starting to attend church more faithfully.  Many are asking right questions.  Many are starting to speak into the lives of one another.  Many are working harder.  Many are showing affection toward one another.  Many are being more transparent about their sin. Many are getting serious about loving Christ.  I have students in my home who have been chosen by the school administration to be their top leaders.  I have kids who are leading Bible studies and discipling their peers.  Such signs, despite the discouragements, make us hopeful that we are making an impact within our community.  One verse that has become sweet to me is I Corinthians 15:58, "Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain."