Mpagaja Newsletter (Fall 2025)

Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ! We pray that you had a wonderful summer. We were incredibly blessed this summer with all God did in us and through us during our 7-week summer program with Teen Missions.

UGANDA TEAM UPDATE

First and foremost, thank you for your prayers for us as we took a team of teenagers from all over the US to serve in Uganda this summer. If only it were possible to share each and every detail of how God answered prayer, met our needs, and filled our cup to overflowing during this trip, you would feel just as blessed as we do! 

THE LORD’S BOOT CAMP

Our team comprised five leaders, 15 team members, and two leader kids–Jedidiah and Lazarus, of course! Before flying to Uganda, our team endured intensive training at “The Lord’s Boot Camp” to prepare us for what we would do there. We had special medical classes for our team to learn how to perform eye tests to fit people with eyeglasses, and what to do to provide basic medical care. The training also included different evangelistic classes such as music, drama, puppets, and evangelism. The team slept in tents, woke up to run an obstacle course every morning, sat under the teaching of God's Word, learned how to bathe and do laundry in a bucket, learned to depend on each other as a team, and depended on the Lord during physically, emotionally, and spiritually challenging circumstances. During this training period, Jahswel slept in a tent at our team’s tent site, and I came home every night with our boys, then I would meet up with him and the team at 8 o’clock every morning. 

ALL BAGS LOST

By the end of those two weeks, we felt like family as we flew to Uganda filled with excitement to serve the Lord. After departing on June 30th, we arrived around midnight on July 1st, only to find out that all 43 of our bags were lost! We certainly felt like this gave us a slow start to our project, but we knew the Lord was not surprised. Every day, Jahswel was calling the airport to track down our bags. We finally heard that they were left in Washington, D.C. They were put on a plane, and finally arrived in Entebbe three days later. Jahswel and a few Ugandan staff guys made the 4-hour journey to the Entebbe Airport, and after a very long day, arrived back at the Teen Missions’ base in Jinja with our bags in tow at 11 o’clock at night. The team cheered! For many of them, this meant they could finally brush their teeth, put on deodorant, and sleep on a mat instead of the hard ground under their tents. Needless to say, they were all overjoyed to be reunited with their things. And that also meant we could start our team project! And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28

PROJECT IN UGANDA

Monday through Friday we worked on building the brick security wall around the property alongside the Teen Missions staff and Bible school students in Uganda. On the weekends, we hosted the medical/eyeglass clinics; the team traveled to different villages where Teen Missions staff in Uganda go for children's ministry every week, and we hosted five clinics in schools and churches. It was always crowded with people, and our team set up different stations to run the clinic smoothly, and each station had a translator. It touched our hearts as leaders to walk around and see each of our team members eager to serve the Ugandan people coming through the clinic, giving eye tests, pricking fingers for malaria and typhoid testing, and treating wounds. Each person got registered, shared their symptoms, was treated, and every single person who came through our clinics was prayed for. People were already sharing their physical problems with us, which made it easy to talk about spiritual issues as well. In this way, God created divine opportunities to share the gospel, and we saw 29 people give their lives to Jesus! GLORY TO GOD! In total, we were able to help 223 people through the clinics, and 157 of those people received eyeglasses. God is so good. 

OUR ROLES

Jahswel's role was to organize public transportation to get the team from point A to point B, teach Bible study to the team, organize the schedule and transportation, keep track of the finances and passports, and bring everyone home alive! He says being in Uganda made him feel like he was back home after missing Africa for the past two and a half years! 

My role was to cook for the team, teach the girls Bible study, and care for Jedidiah and Lazarus. I had two lovely lady leaders in the kitchen with me, along with two team members on KP each day. It was a learning curve for me to figure out how to run the kitchen smoothly by keeping the meals going, delegating tasks, balancing the food budget, and figuring out portion sizes! I was very thankful to know my way around Jinja town from when we lived in Uganda in 2022! All in all, cooking for a group for four weeks was tiresome, but such a fun challenge! I enjoyed it and I learned a lot. 

And as head leaders of our team, we also witnessed God giving us His wisdom in decision-making throughout the summer as we solved problems and discipled our team members. These teens come with their own sets of issues, as we all do! It was our joy and our passion to minister to them, and walk with them through these holy moments of wrestling with God at this time in their lives; learning what it means to die to themselves, and fully surrender to the Lord. We are so proud of each of them, and can truly say they all went home CHANGED by God’s grace! For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10

It was a miracle that no one on our team got malaria! We certainly had our fair share of upset stomachs and more, but we praise God that it was never any worse than that. All in all, we give glory to God for all that He did in and through our team. Thank you for praying for us!

VISIT TO YORK, PA

After finishing our team, we made the trek up the coast to visit my parents in York, PA for 10 days. It was so much fun meeting up with a few of our team members along the way after we had just said goodbye as a team a week prior! What a blessing! 

In PA we stayed with my parents in their new house, which they just bought. They had just moved in, so we were able to help them settle in a bit, and give the boys some time with their aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents! Family is such a precious gift!

PLEASE PRAY 

We are so thankful for what God has provided for our family through YOU as we serve the Lord with Teen Missions. We want to share where we are financially so that you can help us pray for the Lord to provide our full monthly budget. We currently receive 70% of our monthly budget through committed donors. Please pray with us for God to raise up more partners to provide the remaining 30% ($1,000) to reach our full budget. 

Thank you for walking with us and holding the rope for us on this journey! May the Lord bless you and keep you as you continue to serve Him with all your heart. 

Blessings, 

The Mpagajas