There is a small church in northern Uganda that almost never got a pastor.
For two years, the congregation met under an acacia tree, led by a farmer who could barely read the Scriptures he loved. He wasn't unwilling to lead. He was unequipped. And an unequipped shepherd can only take a flock so far.
Then, one Saturday, that farmer sat in a training room for the first time in his life. He learned how to prepare a sermon. He learned how to counsel a grieving widow. He learned how to lead elders instead of simply outlasting them. Six months later, that congregation had its first roof. A year after that, it had its first baptism class of thirty.
I am Pastor Geoffrey Briscoe Ocan, and I've spent more than thirty years watching stories like this one begin. As the Country Director of Common Ground African Leadership Uganda, and through my years leading LDI, COME, Bridge Builders' Christian City Church, and the Gulu Church Elders and Pastors Fellowship, I've learned something that no seminary taught me: vision doesn't die from lack of faith. It dies from lack of funding.
What One Trained Leader Sets in Motion
That farmer under the acacia tree is one pastor. But leadership multiplies; that's the whole point of it. A trained pastor disciples an elder board. An elder board strengthens a congregation. A congregation becomes the safety net for the widows, the addicts, the unemployed young men in that community who have nowhere else to turn.
One training. Three levels of impact. That is the rock landing in the pond, and the ripple never stops at the place where it lands.
Across Uganda right now, we know exactly where the next ripple should start. We have the curriculum. We have trainers who have given a decade of their lives to this work for little more than bus fare and conviction. We have churches — dozens of them — that have already asked us to come.
What we don't know yet is the story's ending.
The Chapter Still Being Written
I won't pretend this year has been easy. Our trainers have had to say no to congregations that begged them to come. Our vehicle, once able to reach the farthest districts, now struggles with the roads it used to conquer without complaint. Some of the most gifted teachers I have ever worked with have had to step back — not because their calling faded, but because calling doesn't pay school fees.
But I did not sit down to write you a list of problems. I sat down to tell you where this story is going.
Because here is what I know to be true: every pastor we train doesn't just receive knowledge; he becomes a source of it for everyone he leads. Every reliable vehicle isn't just transportation; it's a hundred more villages that stop waiting. Every trainer we can fully support isn't an expense; they're a multiplier we can't afford to lose.
$111,100 makes this next chapter possible. Today, we're carrying it on $33,840. The distance between those two numbers isn't a deficit to feel bad about — it's simply the size of the door that partners like you can open.
Write the Next Page With Us
I don't know yet how this story ends in the fully-resourced version of it, where every trainer stays, every vehicle runs, every waiting church gets its answer. That part depends on who reads this and decides to step in.
What I do know is this: the farmer under the acacia tree is still preaching. His congregation is still growing. And somewhere right now, there's another leader just like him, waiting for someone to notice.
Thank you for reading this far. That's the first gift, and I don't take it lightly. If this story is one you want to help finish, I'd love to talk with you about what your partnership could set in motion.