Planting Seeds for Growth: How a Village in Uganda was Transformed

In Uganda, there’s a village called Muyembe that has been slowly transformed over the past 30 years.

In the early 1990s, missionaries from Mission: Moving Mountains (M:MM), now called Navigators Discipling for Development (D4D), started meeting with leaders in Muyembe’s community to teach them how to practice whole-life discipleship, address poverty alleviation, and help families experience God’s restoration in all areas of life.

At the time, faith was very minimal in the village’s day-to-day life. Though they knew they could go to church for prayer, many didn’t know anything about salvation. However, when D4D came to train the local church, the spiritual climate began to shift. Through short dramas, reading Scripture verses, and asking people questions from the Bible, the community started to accept Jesus into their lives.

“Before D4D, the only Christian was the leader in the church,” Aidah, an older woman in Muyembe’s community, remembers. “We thank the Lord that, through this ministry, we now have more than 100 people in the community who are saved.”

As more and more people came to Christ, the need for more churches grew. “When we got saved, we had to travel five miles to go to a church, so we decided to start a new church,” Nathan, a member of the community, says. “Now about 11 churches have been built because of the efforts of D4D.”

On the first Friday of every month, these churches all meet for communal prayer, with as many as 300 people attending.

Building a Thriving Community, Right Where They Are

The spiritual revival in Muyembe has not only shaped individuals’ hearts for the Lord, but it has also transformed their hearts for their families. Back when D4D first came to Muyembe, there was a lot of confusion — fighting between husbands and wives and stealing between members in the community. Now, Aidah says there is no fighting in families, and the amount of theft has reduced significantly.

“We worship God in a holistic way,” she says. “We thank D4D for this holistic gospel that has brought us to this level. We now go to other communities and spread the news so that Jesus will be accepted there, as well.”

Beyond family impact, D4D has also set up groups in the community addressing topics such as financial saving, agriculture, youth, health, and more.

For example, when D4D saw that mothers in the community were having problems giving birth, they started to refer mothers to a health center for prenatal care, teaching them how to eat balanced diets while pregnant and how to deliver a baby if a mother couldn’t get to the hospital in time.

“Death was reduced,” Aidah says. “After giving birth, the women were taught to take the babies in for immunization, and they learned how to be ready to be pregnant and where to go for their health. Now, some of these women are working in the health centers.”

Similarly, when it came to agriculture, the D4D missionaries talked about how the Bible and agriculture can go hand in hand. Where they used to grow only maize, now farmers in Muyembe grow coffee, tomatoes, and bananas. These crops help their community to earn money and provide for their families. Though the surrounding area is bare for miles, this small community now houses a tree nursery, which attracts customers from across Africa who are looking to buy seeds.

Recently, Navigator Scott Purser visited Muyembe on his trip to Kenya and Uganda. As he was sitting in a circle with community leaders, they felt a strong wind approach from the horizon. They began to wonder if they should move into a local church or home for coverage, but they noticed how the trees planted around the community dispersed the wind and provided coverage for their meeting.

“See all these trees?” one of the leaders asked. “D4D taught us these things, and they work! That wind came, and we saw how these trees withstood and protected us. What a wonderful God!”

Pray for D4D Around the World!

The village of Muyembe is just one of the many communities that have been radically impacted by D4D’s teaching of the gospel and holistic health and development. From small-scale farmers using “Farming God’s Way” methods to improve their small crops to families preserving precious rainwater to use in creative ways throughout the year, the Lord is using D4D to help villages build sustainable and thriving communities, centered around the gospel.

Join us in praying over these communities around the world, as the light of the Lord spreads from village to village and heart to heart.

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor” Luke 4:18 (NIV).

Discipleship Tip:

Through the community in Muyembe, the gospel has spread from church to church, village to village. Sometimes, all it takes to have great impact is being willing to pass on the Good News to those around you. Who is around you that you can share Christ with? What are areas in your community where you could spread the gospel?