Before & After

There is a deep hunger inside the heart of humanity to experience and witness transformation.

The evidence is everywhere. Take a look at the number of television programs featuring renovations and makeovers. It's easy to find movies that tell stories of rags to riches. Sports fans love the stories of athletes who, against all odds, perform at the highest level. Transformation ... it's delightful to witness. Weight loss. Restored classic cars. Before and after photos.

My wife and I moved to Uganda in 2005 convinced God called us there ... but without any missionary template. We possessed a deep and abiding love for the people of the nation but not much more than this strong belief that God had given us this love and we needed to live among them and faithfully express His heart for them.

So we took the road less traveled and shared a house and compound with a Ugandan family. Betty and Abdu Wasswa and their growing family were home for us for more than four years. They were our cultural mentors. We had so many significant and amusing exchanges during those years that familiarized us with the people and ways of Uganda. Those years formed a foundation for the next 11 years as we directed the work of Next Generation Ministries.

Early on it became evident that people in developed nations have far more options than people in third-world countries. I began to believe that the Lord planted me in Uganda to do whatever I could to increase their options.

Armed with a conviction that every person matters and that spiritual, relational, economic, medical, and cultural transformation is our priority we found four words that poured the foundation on which we built Next Generation Ministries.

• Encourage
• Equip
• Empower
• Release

One evening as the four of us discussed the challenge of getting visas to the United States, we began wondering why it was mostly pastors and business people who were granted visas while the general population had less than a 5% chance of being given a visa. Betty then asked, "Why do these pastors come back to our country with sound systems for their services? Why don't they harvest ideas and bring them back for the benefit of the people?"

Eventually, Bettty, Abdu, their daughter Sara, and their son Moses were granted visas and experienced some of the options America offers. Abdu made it clear that, unlike his fellow countrymen who view America as the Promised Land, he had no intention of coming to live in America, the land of abundance. He believed there was a lot of money to be made in Africa. More money than he could ever earn in America. It turns out he was right.

Betty, who was teaching school for a missionary from Georgia, had a vision to start her own school. She and Abdu had ideas they wanted to execute which they had harvested from their travels in America. Abdu who had a passion for agriculture and who told me even mentally disturbed people go through garbage looking for food, wanted to feed the people of his country.

Recently I returned from five weeks spent in Uganda. Betty and Abdu hosted us in the beautiful home they built. It was a delightful time. I celebrated the transformation they and their children have undergone. The principles of the Kingdom of God with which we encouraged, equipped, and empowered were evident in them as well as in their grown and growing children. When the COVID pandemic hit Uganda and school was not an option, all their children started businesses! They built upon the foundation set for them by their parents.

I visited Betty's school which has the healthiest boarding students I have ever seen. The school has dairy cows, chickens, fish, and cash crops on its property. The school feeds the students breakfast because Betty knows they learn better when they are not hungry. The children have protein in their diet. They witness the vast opportunity for wealth from agriculture. There are solar panels on the roof and a diesel generator if needed. These provisions are obvious to the eye. But Betty reminds us that beneath all of those observations is a foundation and history essential to where the school is now. It's not seen but it is there.

God is a God of continuity. Our days are connected to our yesterdays.

In the beginning, God created something out of nothing. God is life and it only takes life to make life. He began transformation when he separated the light from the darkness and the land from the seas. Transformation is His plan and transformation is the foundation of our organization modeled well for us by one of the five founding couples of NGM.

The motto for NGM is Changing Uganda One Person At A Time. At the heart of this change is transformation beginning with a heart change to educational change. Economic change. Medical change. Cultural change. Unexpected vocational opportunity.

Life must not be static. Change is inevitable. Does positive change come from the inside out? Does negative change result from unintentional living? What does your before and after look like today?