Coming of age ceremonies remain integral to life in East Africa, marking a crucial milestone in people’s lives. They invariably include time away and tests of endurance, creating a new sense of identity. With BUILD coming of age, 2025 ended with a retreat in Uganda, where we tested our mission by interacting with an external evaluation and developed a new sense of purpose as a regional organisation.

BUILD (Biblical Understanding for In-service Leadership Development) is a church-based leadership training initiative with its roots in the Church of Uganda. It is now about to turn 21, a significant milestone.

BUILD’s steady growth over the years has been organic. It was never the plan to go beyond Uganda, but from the start BUILD brought together individuals not only from across Uganda, but also from within the refugee community. Studying the Scriptures together created an inter-cultural flavour and impetus, and from 2011 trainers started travelling to Rwanda, Tanzania, Burundi, Kenya and DR Congo in response to invitations to develop BUILD in those countries. Trainee-trainers also came to Uganda from South Sudan, sharing the work back home and in the refugee settlements. Recently, BUILD has seen training rolling out in Ethiopia and Chad and there is interest from further afield: capacity is the limiting factor.

As a result, BUILD has created an informal network of individuals from across the region, with Ugandans, Tanzanians, Rwandans, and Congolese serving alongside one another. Our meeting formalised this in the form of the BUILD Training Network, which represents a natural progression towards more structured coordination, collaboration and accountability.

While BUILD was originally designed for multi-congregation parishes in areas of dense church presence, it has been embraced by those leading churches who are particularly neglected and suffer from limited access to training, including those on the margins and the displaced. As one BUILD trainee interviewed for the evaluation said, ‘Over 70% of pastors in South Sudan, where most of the refugees come from, do not get formal theological training. BUILD gave us the opportunity: five of us were trained and now four are actively impacting the settlement and one has returned to South Sudan.’

From others, it was encouraging to hear about the direct impact. A Tanzanian bishop spoke of how he had seen ‘visible growth in the soundness and doctrinal clarity of sermons.’ And as one respondent summarised, ‘The programme has helped change the way ministry is done, it has made the word clearer, teaching stronger, and churches more united.’

How encouraging to be a little more grown up and to be entering a new stage of life. Please pray for us in all the challenges that lie ahead.

Photo: BUILD leaders gathering in Entebbe, Uganda, including Michael Durant, a new Crosslinks partner