Partners
Pastor Robert Kaahwa (Masindi, Uganda)
Erin met Pastor Robert Kaahwa in 2011 while doing an internship in Uganda. At the time, Pastor Robert was serving as Spiritual Director for the Ugandan office of an international development organization. Late in 2011, he left his job in the capital city of Kampala to follow God's call to grow the church in his home town of Masindi. Since that time, the church has grown to around 1000 members, stretching from Masindi to the neighboring villages.
Pastor Robert became a Christian in 1991 at an evangelical crusade in Uganda. Since then, he has spent years preaching the gospel, planting churches, discipling pastors and organizing crusades. Friendly and approachable, you can always pick out Robert Kaahwa in a crowd by his bright smile and distinctive, lilting laughter.
His relationships and connections reach all across Uganda, and even around the world to the United States, Great Britain and Australia. This made him an invaluable resource in the early days of Disciples' Promise. While the personal experiences of Chris and Erin helped the Board gain a basic understanding of the culture and infrastructure in Uganda, having a connection like Pastor Robert gave them confidence in the operations. Ultimately, he helped the organization to grow more efficiently and effectively.
Pastor Robert Kaahwa's church in Masindi was the first Disciples' Promise partnership. With his help, the Board was able to create a standard procedure for sending funds to a partner, requesting receipts, tracking Bible purchases, and sharing stories from distributions - a process that takes several weeks of work across many thousands of miles.
Pastor Robert, his wife Doreen, and his two sons continue to live and work in Masindi to spread the gospel and expand the kingdom. He has dedicated his life to following Jesus' call to make disciples. We're honored to partner with him in bringing God's Word to those who may not otherwise have access to it.
Joseph and Annunciata (Mbale, Uganda)
The community of churches in Mbale, Uganda is the newest partnership for Disciples' Promise. An old friend from graduate school reached out to Erin in 2018 with a need. He knew a Ugandan couple at his church who were originally from Mbale. They had a burden for the community there - they were hungry for the Word of God but like many communities around the world, they had very few Bibles to share amongst themselves.
Disciples' Promise set up a call with a local pastor on the ground and talked through the needs and logistics of getting Bibles. Chris and Erin also met Joseph and Annunciata, the couple originally from Mbale, and talked about their dreams for their home town. Out of that initial meeting,169 Bibles have been provided for Mbale so far, with more on the way in 2019.
Disciples' Promise is blessed to be able to serve the churches in Mbale and expand the distributions into a new region of Uganda. The initial connection was providential and we expect Providence to do even more in the coming months!