It started with a thank-you card.

For several years, we had been using a giraffe-themed thank-you card. It had served us well, but we decided it was time for something new. So we asked Spev to come up with a new design. There was really only one instruction: no giraffes.

What she came back with made us say, “Wow!” It was a beautiful repeating elephant design—and honestly, it still makes me smile every time I see it.

Have you received one of these cards in the mail? If you haven’t, send me your mailing address and we’ll get one headed your way.  Because who doesn’t love getting mail that isn’t a bill?

But that little thank-you card became the beginning of something we never really planned. That little elephant design eventually found its way onto all kinds of things – including phone covers. Because apparently, even our phones can become little reminders of what God is doing!  

When God gives you a gift, you look for ways to use it.

Spev has been serving with the ministry for several years, and God has given her an incredible gift for design. She creates cards, flyers, newsletters, social media graphics, prayer cards, clothing designs, makeup bags, jewelry, stickers—and probably a dozen other things I’ve forgotten to mention. What I love most isn’t simply that Spev is talented. It’s watching how God is using the gifts He has given her to serve His purposes.

Looking at that elephant design we had a simple question: What else could we do with this?

We began praying about it. Could the design become another way to glorify God? Could it remind people to pray? Could it give someone an opportunity to tell a friend about the ministry? Could something as ordinary as a tote bag or a phone cover help keep the story of what God is doing in Uganda in front of someone during their everyday life? We didn’t have all the answers. But we started exploring.

Then God brought Jason into the story.

Jason, a friend of the ministry, helped us think through some possibilities for using design to advance the message of the ministry. He introduced us to print-on-demand services, which opened up a whole new world of possibilities.

Jason, thank you for pointing us in this direction—and for the many, many ways you continue to serve our King. May our Lord bless you abundantly, brother!

We started experimenting… T-shirts * Tote bags * Post-it note cubes * Phone covers * Stickers * And all kinds of things

We tried designs on products, laughed at some of our experiments, prayed over the project, and eventually began sharing them with you. It became a little project of love. And there was another beautiful part: any money earned through these products goes right back into the ministry of making disciples.

So perhaps you could say: Wear love. Carry purpose. Make disciples.

And then there is the Love Letter.

If you’ve been part of this ministry for a while, you may know about our annual Love Letter. Every February, we send an update to friends of the ministry—a way of saying, “Look what God has done!” We tell stories, introduce our School of Ministry students, share what God is doing through the ministry, and invite you to pray and participate.

But sometimes less is more.

Over time, we accumulated quite a collection of products and designs. And while it was fun, it also became a little overwhelming. So we prayed. We refined. We changed. And today we have about 20 products available, with several different designs.

But we’re making another change. Because we keep seeing God move, we will keep sending our annual Love Letter. And that means… there’s a new design coming.

A new story to tell. A new reminder of what God is doing.  new opportunity to invite people to pray, participate, and join Him in the work.

So, to make room for the new design, our current designs will be retired at the end of September. Want to see what else is available before the designs retire? You can view the entire collection here: hupsos collection

If there is something you’ve had your eye on, now is the time to grab it. And then keep watching your mailbox. Because another Love Letter is coming. And with it, another design from Spev—and, we pray, another opportunity to tell the story of what Jesus is doing.

Because that’s really what this has been about from the beginning.

It’s about telling the story of His work in Uganda. It’s about using the gifts He gives His people. It’s about inviting His people to pray, give, encourage, go, serve, and participate.

And it’s about making disciples who make disciples.

God is so good.

And we can’t wait to see what He does next.

Okutendeka abayigiriza, abanatendeka abagoberezi ba Kristo.

Making disciples that make disciples of Jesus Christ.

That is what we are working toward here in Uganda, and God gives us many opportunities to do it.

• Bible studies
• Bible classes
• Biblical counseling
• Medical outreach
• Sunday church services

(Pic: Deborah, Beverly, and Timothy the prison leader)

We go into prisons each week, not simply to conduct a program, but to meet people where they are and point them to Jesus Christ.

Today, we want you to meet one of those people, his name is Waiswa.

Waiswa is in prison, and he will be there for quite some time. Four years ago, he began attending our weekly Bible studies. Over time, God began moving in his heart in a way that led him to serve others. For more than two years now, Waiswa has been serving as a translator for our Bible studies.

Think about that for a moment.

Each week, Waiswa sits and listens to the teaching. Then he takes what he has heard and retells it in Luganda so that his fellow inmates can understand the Word of God. Week after week, he has been helping others hear about Christ so they can know Him—and know Him more deeply.

He was serving.   He was listening.   He was helping others understand God’s Word.

And then came another ordinary Bible study.

Just Another Day in the Bible Study

A few weeks ago, Timothy was teaching through 2 Corinthians 10. There was no special outreach. No big event. No unusual program. Just our regular weekly Bible study, working verse by verse through God’s Word.

As the Bible study came to an end, Timothy gave an invitation for anyone who wanted to respond to what God was doing in their heart. And then something happened that surprised him.

Waiswa came forward.

The man who had been translating the Bible teaching for more than two years walked to the front. Timothy listened as Waiswa explained why.

Waiswa realized that he had accepted Jesus as his Savior. But there were still areas of his life that he had not surrendered to Jesus. He had trusted Christ to save him. But he had not yet given Christ access to everything.

That day, Waiswa came forward because he wanted Jesus to be not only his Savior, but also the Lord of his life.

Hallelujah!

And then something else happened.

As Waiswa shared why he had come forward, other men began coming forward too. One after another, they responded. They wanted Jesus to be their Savior and their Lord.

Can we stop for a moment and praise God for this?

Praise God!

The Day That Looked Ordinary

From the outside, it probably looked like just another day. A group of prisoners. A Bible study. 2 Corinthians 10. A teacher opening God’s Word. A translator helping others understand it. Nothing particularly unusual.

But God was at work.

What looked like an ordinary Tuesday to us became THE day for Waiswa. And it became THE day for other men in that Bible study too.

That’s something we are learning again and again in prison ministry. We don’t always know when THE day will be. We don’t know whose heart God has been preparing. We don’t know who will suddenly understand something they’ve heard many times before. We don’t know who will decide today is the day they will surrender another part of their life to Jesus.

But we do know this:

   Every time we step through those prison gates, God has a purpose.

Every Bible study.

Every Sunday service. 

Every counseling conversation. 

Every Bible class. 

Every medical visit. 

Every conversation. 

We faithfully bring people to Jesus.

And then we let Him do what only He can do:

     He is the One who saves.

     He is the One who changes hearts.

     He is the One who transforms lives.

We simply want to keep bringing people to His feet and saying, “Lord, do what You want with them.”

God Is Working Behind Bars

God is working in prisons and we want to invite you to be part of what He is doing. We are sharing the Gospel behind bars. We are making disciples. We are teaching people how to study God’s Word. We are counseling people through difficult circumstances. We are serving people through medical care. We are loving people who are often forgotten by society.

We are pointing them to THE ONE who can bring lasting change. Because prisoners are people too. They are people created in the image of God. People Jesus loves. People who need a Savior. People who need to learn what it means to follow their Lord. Would you join us?

• Would you pray for Waiswa?
• Pray for the men and women we meet in the prisons around Jinja.
• Pray for those who are hearing the Gospel for the first time.
• Pray for those who have believed but are still learning what it means to surrender their lives to Christ.
• Pray for those who are already serving others, that they would continue growing as disciples who make disciples.
• And pray for us as we faithfully walk through those prison gates each week.

Because we never know when an ordinary Bible study will become THE day someone chooses to surrender everything to Jesus.

Mukama yebazibwe! (Praise the Lord!)

 The Jinja Team

P.S. Prisoners are people too. Will you join us in loving them right where they are and pointing them to THE ONE who can bring lasting change to their lives by praying for us and them? Thank you for praying. 

Oli otya bamukwano, Mukama yebazibwe (hello friends how are you, praise the Lord),

Have you ever sat on your front porch and listened to your parents, grandparents, or some older, wiser person having a conversation? Maybe they weren’t talking to you at all. But as you listened, you learned. That was part of the inspiration behind our Roundtables.

From the Porch to the Roundtable

When we first began doing Roundtables, we had a group of men—pastors and ministry leaders—sitting around a table having a conversation while others listened in.

The idea was simple: come and listen to wisdom.

We wanted it to feel a little like sitting on the porch listening to your elders talk. You could hear different perspectives, stories, experiences, and biblical wisdom simply by listening to the conversation.

After the panel talked for about 45 minutes, we opened the floor for another 45 minutes of questions and answers. It sounded like a great plan.

And then we tried it. 

We quickly discovered something.

People would stand up to ask a question and sometimes spend ten minutes talking about everything under the sun—sometimes with very little connection to the topic we were actually discussing!

So we changed the format.

Instead of people standing to ask questions, we asked them to write their questions down. A mediator collected the questions, quickly read through them, and presented them to the panel. That worked better. And we continued doing Roundtables that way for several years.

But as we did more and more of them, we began noticing something else.

People were enjoying the Roundtables, but something was missing.

The panel sitting at the front of the room was beginning to feel more like a classroom lecture than a conversation on the front porch.

And we didn’t want people simply to listen. We wanted them to think. We wanted them to process. We wanted them to open God’s Word and wrestle with what Scripture says about the real issues they are facing in their culture and in their daily lives.

So we prayed.

And we prayed some more.

We asked God to show us how to make the learning more effective for the people we are serving.

Then God gave us an opportunity to make a major change.

We Needed to Change the Way We Were Learning

When we took a break from running the full-time School of Ministry, we suddenly had some additional bandwidth to implement change. So we made a big change.

We cleared the room.

We put a large sign on one wall that said YES.

Another wall said NO.

And another said MAYBE.

When people arrive, Deborah stands outside and welcomes them. She explains how the Roundtable works, give each person a chair, tells them the topic, and asks them to choose which sign they will sit under.

For our upcoming August Roundtable, the question will be:

    “Is it okay to get a second partner?” 

People choose YES, NO, or MAYBE.

Then the mediator begins the discussion.

Each group is asked to explain why they chose their answer. The mediator moves from group to group, allowing people to hear different perspectives.

And then something really interesting happens.

People are allowed to change their minds.

If you hear something that changes your thinking, you simply pick up your chair and move to the sign that now represents what you believe. There is no shame in changing your mind. In fact, we want people to learn that changing your mind when you discover that your thinking doesn’t agree with God’s Word is a good thing.

We encourage people to support their answers biblically. Not simply: “This is what I think.”

But: “This is what I think—and here is what I believe God’s Word says about it.”

And at the end of the evening, Pastor Mugoya Joel, the lead pastor of The Bridge Calvary Chapel and a teacher at our School of Ministry, helps us bring the conversation back to the most important question:

     What does the Lord say?

Because our goal isn’t simply to have interesting conversations. Our goal is to bring our thinking into alignment with God’s thinking.

Biblical Thinking Leads to Biblical Living

We are now doing Roundtables this way four times each year, and praise God, the people here are loving it!

They come ready to discuss.

They come ready to wrestle with ideas.

They come ready to hear what other people think.

And most importantly, they are learning to bring those ideas into the light of Scripture.

As an education director, this makes my heart happy. Why? Because I don’t simply want people to know what we believe. I want them to learn how to think biblically.

Our culture gives us plenty of ideas about relationships, marriage, family, money, leadership, morality, and how we should live. But as followers of Jesus, we have a different question to ask: What does God say?

Our prayer is that as people examine their thoughts against God’s Word, their thinking will begin to change. And as their thinking changes, their actions will change. And as their actions change, their lives will increasingly reflect Christ.

Biblical thinking leads to biblical actions.
Biblical actions lead to godly lives.

Lord, do what You want with these people.

You Can Be Part of This

God is using HUPSOS and Called Christians in many different ways to advance His Kingdom, and we couldn’t be more pleased. The Roundtable is just one of those ways.

It does take resources to make it happen. It costs approximately $386 USD to host a Roundtable, advertise it, record it, and make it available online afterward. Would you consider helping us make the next one happen?

You can give a one-time gift of $386, or you can give approximately $130 per month to help make four Roundtables possible over the course of a year.

But perhaps even more importantly, would you pray?

• Pray for the people who will sit in those chairs.
• Pray they will be willing to examine what they believe.
• Pray they will open God’s Word.
• Pray the Holy Spirit will bring conviction where conviction is needed, encouragement where encouragement is needed, and truth where there is confusion.
• And pray God will use these conversations to make disciples who make disciples, because that’s what we’re after.

Creating biblical thinking, one soul at a time.

And the Conversation Doesn’t Have to End

One of the beautiful things about our Roundtables is that the conversation can continue long after everyone leaves the room.

Praise God for Spev, who faithfully records these discussions and gets them posted online. That means someone can watch years later and still learn from the conversation. You can find our previous Roundtables, click here:

Roundtable Playlist on YouTube

Thank you for praying.

Thank you for giving.

Thank you for believing that what happens here in Uganda matters for the Kingdom of God. We are grateful that God allows us to serve Him in this place.

Lord, may we faithfully serve You.

Mukama akuwe omukisa! (God bless you!)

    The Jinja Team

P.S. It takes approximately $386 USD to host one Roundtable. Would you consider donating to make another one happen? Or, for about $130 USD per month, you can help make Roundtables possible throughout the year. Click here to donate.