Elite Leadership 2:#LettersToMyFellowLeaders - Excerpts From What I Learnt As Leader - Always Build a Bridge (Connect With the Younger Generation)

# "A Great Leader will maintain a good connection with the younger generation" - Arthur Kmo

Hi Beloved Team

You are surely beloved and the best any one would ever want to continue walking with - You guys make things happen, you don't just sit back, your intentional on your blessing, development and love for God and for one another. May God bless and Increase you guys in every facet of your life and I strongly feel like prophesying that may poverty never smell your door or follow your footsteps because the Lord himself is your reward.

I write this piece with joy in my heart because I am probably apart of the generation with the Malinga Arthur, Daniel Malinga, Edward Hire, Eddie Kiyegga, Isiagi Moses, Fabian Odong, Andrew Odoch that have been a bridge to where many of you guys. "Our lives were greatly watched by you guys, we reached out to many of you and gave ourselves the best way we could even with our shortcomings you still upheld us as your leaders and you still listened to us, we could have disappointed in some areas but because we knew we had a responsibility to build as many of you up we lived with caution and purpose. I feel so privileged to have been apart of your lives with my good friends up to this time and i know we will go further and continue to grow together." Many of you who will be taking over are a little younger and this is your time and beyond a doubt we are very sure we have done well in discipling you guys and we shall continue to do so as the Lord permits.

The purpose of writing this is to remind you that in Leadership you always have to build people up and build bridges that they will walk on and this helps connect with the younger generation, as we were intentional, you also have to be intentional and start now whether you are in position or not because many of us who came to you never had positions but we influenced you with our lives as you observed us.

To show you what one of the responsibilities a leader should have look at this. In his book Spiritual Leadership by J Oswald Sanders he says this:-

"The leader must either initiate plans for progress or recognize the worthy plans of others. He must remain in front, giving guidance and direction to those behind. He does not wait for things to happen, but makes them happen. He is a Self-starter, always on the lookout for improved methods, eager to test new ideas"

So even while we were still Imp-actors "we kept on dreaming and planning ways in which we could Influence, and some times I get tears in my eyes even now, because our resolve was tested, It is still a tough journey but we never backed down, even when at times as friends we stepped on each others toes, we considered the ministry bigger than us and we always thought about you guys, It is an honor to serve you guys and to be respected by you guys, you have been our reason for excellent Leadership", as we write down the pages of Kingdom History, we have done something, the little God enabled us to do has been by his grace and lots of sacrifice.

When we finished campus and we were not in any kind of leadership, we created a prayer retreat, we had our small team of leaders, Malinga Arthur led us, I was the prayer driver, Eddie was the Welfare man, and when you see some of us do well in certain areas, we nurtured them in those hard times, at this same time Many of us had handed over David's leadership, Daniel Malinga and Isiagi were our scholars, Fabian Odong was our Adviser, Uncle Hire was a financier and partner as well with Daniel Luwum. Many of these guys formed the Bible Study Share Group and it is because of the desire to study the word that we crafted it so well that it fit very well in the DYF fellowship plan but also this wasn't as easy as you think because we were on the firing squad but all things work out for good, we could have been disobedient and at the end of it all while we took leadership we asked for forgiveness from our past leaders, we also publicly went before the church and asked the leadership to forgive us, we have done some crazy things but God built us up all through this.

Sometimes I thought my background and how I grew up would make me falter, I thought not having had a father for my later years as a young man would hamper my progress but instead of reminiscing and drowning in the past, I found purpose with a young team of Imp-actors back in 2004 and 2005, I have seen us grow and even get married and surely we are a testimony of God's grace.

In regards to dreaming and planning even without in Leadership, almost all we ever desired we have seen it happen,we could make statements like if we got into leadership then we would do this and this, we were visionary, we were determined and this came at a cost, but this is what the scripture says 

May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed. Psalms 20:4 | NIV, you could also read Jer 29:11, Prov 16:9, Isaiah 55:8 etc

I don't know if all the plans we had have succeeded but am sure 90% of what we dream-t of and so has been done and the 10% will be for even greater mentoring till our Father in Heaven calls us to glory. While putting my pieces of the things I have learnt I came up with this statement

"#Without Plans a Leader cannot establish structures and systems that will enable him or her fulfill the vision, this is paramount in setting a foundation that can last and be improved upon.If you get on board and find out there are systems, study them, if something isn't working in relation to what you want to see done, Introduce what will work, teach those you work with to see the benefit of what is coming on board and how best it can enable them achieve success in that particular area. Case Study Google Groups for communication." - Arthur Kmo

Because we knew the Importance of Intentional Discipleship, from our days of working in teams to do this and that, we kept on seeing potential in many and we would tell each other work with this person let him or her be under your guidance and that's how we managed to capture the Likes of Antonio in prayer, Benjamin in discipleship, Racheal in Davids, Marvin in Drama etc and such a thing should continue... these guys have grown and they have become mature and continue to mature..

This is what I had to say because it is a principle that has worked all through for us 

"#Establish Smaller Teams (Best point to disciple many) - Just like the Ants work in few numbers so does the model help give a team confidence to think for themselves with a clear know of the vision and values and objectives. When teams are established they shouldn't be sabotaged, the leader should be encouraged to believe in his creativity from God - All that has to be done by the Leader they account to and is to monitor, evaluate, coordinate and advise in relation to the guiding theme and vision. this brings the best out of teams because Individual strengths are shared and put to form a team force. it is smarter and stronger to move in groups, none can feel the pain or stress alone, you have more victories and successes in teams and groups." - Arthur Kmo

So My encouragement to you guys is that all you learn from here will play a good part of forming and transforming you into a better leader, and it will show when your out there, you will always be the best because of the training you get from DYF. I mentioned something a lot that has helped us as a team and that is that we have been not just leaders but we have also been friends who have loved and hurt one another, but vision and purpose have made us come this far by the grace of God, endeavor to be friends and cultivate friendship as you walk together. And we challenged ourselves to read and study back then big time, this is what Muriel Ormrod had to say about a leader"A Leader should neither be content with easy books nor satisfied with reading only in his specialty", we had to become diverse as much as we knew our strengths and what we were passionate about and Indeed as God says in 

Psalm 32:8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.

One day Daniel Malinga and I were walking behind Antonio and Marvin and we had them talk and they mentioned something and If i can paraphrase it, they said they wanted to be like us and that challenged Daniel and I to live and lead by example so this makes me conclude with this statement

"#As a Leader you must have a dream to leave a legacy and make disciples and produce many like you" - Arthur Kmo

Benjamin Tumukuned my Good friend shared a revelation he got and he said there can be no SUCCESS without SUCCESSION. It is so true, whoever succeeds you must come and do better and in such a way you as a leader will have done well in building up those who will succeed you because it actually means they go far and above...

Don't for get to build a bridge in your time lest some one else comes and does your work Without it many might take years to cross over and yet we have to move forward

TIP: Always lead from within not the stands (From a Rugby Game Scenario)---- #Leading from Within - Talk about Influence, it is best and better done from within, you can’t only lead from the outside, you have to lead the pack from within. Imagine your Captain being in the stands, it is more fruitful to have him in the rack because that’s when you can hear his heartbeat and advise more clearly.

Elite Leadership 1:#LettersToMyFellowLeaders - Excerpts From What I Learnt As Leader #Realize Potential and Build Others Up

Help Others Realize their Potential and Grow [BUILD] to use it for God's glory 

1 Thessalonians 5:11 "Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing."

Today I am going to focus on a key attribute in leadership which is about helping others realize their potential and also grow in whatever God has called them to do for his glory. 

I have strongly come to believe that hadn't someone seen potential in me, and hadn't they seen that I had the ability to lead, then they wouldn't have recommended the seminars, conferences, books to read etc. I am where I am today just because someone believed in the God who raised me up, someone believed that I had some worth in me and I want to urge us as leaders that this is something that should never leave us, it plays a part in building an army of leaders when you are gone, It plays a part in raising a generation that will in turn raise generations, that creates a multiplier effect which will never end.

We shouldn't rob the future of many that look at us as leaders, we should help them, we should build them up, we should help them realize that they have so much within them that can change their situation, change the world around them and change the course of their future because they will have tapped into a well of untapped potentials, resources, wisdom etc 

Dr Myles Munroe once said “You must decide if you are going to rob the world or bless it with the rich, valuable, potent, untapped resources locked away within you.” 

Sometimes as leaders or people of influence we are preoccupied by the making of ourselves and our names (such ambition is detrimental to the church or any other organisation and in the long run it kills). There can never be any joy when some of the testimonies given of leaders is all about what they did and building & nurturing of people to lead is something not mentioned. Such a scene is a bad script for any movie making, Jesus took time to build and harness the potential of the 12 disciples, a point came in the training school when he told Peter that he was the rock he would build the church, remember Peter was the same person who denied him 3 times but Jesus love for him was not reduced either by the denial or whatever else Peter did. As leaders the greatest thing you can ever build is people not structures because people will sustain even the structures that are to be put in place. 

I remember vividly that the first person/people who saw potential in me was/were my close friends Malinga Arthur, Daniel Malinga, Isiagi Moses, Kenneth Ayebazibwe, Fabian Odong, Andrew Odoch, Wamono Moses, Eddie Kiyegga, Nancy Amito, Prosper Ahabwe, Peter Kamese, Patricia Achipa and many others. But one of the greatest things I have come to realize in life is that if we all knew the potential that is within us given by God, for others to help us out it would be even much easier. 

This is what the bible says in 2 Corinthians 4:7 NLT "We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves." other versions call the Light Shining 'Treasure'. So before others can see potential in you, see the potential first within you. 

God uses what he has placed on the inside of us to do way beyond what we are physically limited with. Ephesians 3:20 clearly says "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us," 

What kind of leader are you or what kind of leader do you desire to be, I always wanted to make things happen, create new ways of doing certain things, myself and the team in our earlier years of working together told ourselves we have so much potential, we chose to study, work hard and read books, we chose to pray and seek the face of God hoping that in the near future what we envisioned would come to pass, and this was as a result of us realizing what God had placed within us. 

I want to tell you as leaders that we did not compete but instead we complemented each other, where one was weak, we stood in strong, where one was strong, we stood in stronger. This is the key lesson i learnt and continue to learn - when you build yourself up, it becomes easier for you to build others, God built us so that we could build others, we were and are still blessed to be a blessing. 

I love this quote from Dr Myles Munroe "People generally fall into one of three groups: the few who make things happen, the many who watch things happen, and the overwhelming majority who have no notion of what happens. Every person is either a creator of fact or a creature of circumstance. He either puts color into his environment, or, like a chameleon, takes color from his environment" 

Zig Ziglar also says that when "When you catch a glimpse of your potential, that's when passion is born."

John C. Maxwell crowns it for me by saying "A word of encouragement from a teacher to a child can change a life. A word of encouragement from a spouse can save a marriage. A word of encouragement from a leader can inspire a person to reach her potential."

A few things a leader can embody

#A leader should build confidence even in the weakest member of the team - The best advise any other struggling leader can get is a vote of confidence. This is done by reminding them of the vision you all share and what you want to achieve and also reminding them of their roles and how important it is in achieving this, they lose more if they don’t do what they are called to do, so someone else takes the blessing when they don’t do their work because it’s be done by another person. In saying so they need to be encouraged and prayed for and loved since one of the virtues of the one who is strong is to help lift up the one who is weak. it is a privilege to serve and an honor to be chosen by God. 2 Chronicles 9:8

#As a leader it is better to work with a more motivated and encouraged person than one who knows he can do it but is complaining and sulking all through. You also need the strength of the motivated person. However you stand in the place of encouraging and building confidence and in the place of rebuking to correct the wrong ones and lead them in the right way if they are willing to be helped.

#A Leader  is as good as he listens - Learn to Listen to those you serve with, they hear what you haven’t heard and they see what you haven’t seen, they have touched what you haven’t touched and smelt what you haven’t smelt, these can help propel the Service to one another and the greater good to greater heights. - James 1:19

God bless you so much

Why Being Goal Oriented Is Still Important

Thinking through this, I thought I could pen down a few thoughts in regards to WHY GOALS ARE STILL IMPORTANT TO LIVE FOR.

2015 came and went, and for some you could have met your goals or for some you did not even have one goal at all. I have strongly come to realize that 

"Goal Oriented People Are People Who Live A Life Of Purpose". 

When you wake up every morning and you surely have nothing to do, then you are surely not worth living as well.

God created us to desire to  "WILL" and "DO" something that can bring his name glory, that can change a life however little it is. 

While Paul was writing to the people of Philippine, he told them 

"I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." 

The MARK here is a GOAL and his highest mark was the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. We have all gone through school or some kind of education and the system of grading is used to see if you have passed or failed. 

Whenever someone doesn't have a mark they are working at, this means that they can fall for any mark. God built us to desire the best, to be excellent in many ways, His word teaches us and says that we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

If you don't have any goals in life, it is high time you start thinking of some and start living by them, you will live a life of purpose and bring fulfillment not only to yourself but also to those around you. Some of the worst people to work with or employ are those who aren't goal oriented, we need  a mindset shift and this should start with our eternal beliefs because the greatest change you can ever make in life is changing "YOU"

In our first year of Marriage, My beautiful wife Martha and I trusted God for a number of things and one of them was that we should be able to build our family home (this hasn't come to pass). One of my dreams before I got married was that I should own a plot of land but this wasn't possible. Before we could even embark on the quest of building a home, there are things that had to come first like securing the plot of land in a place that we would both love to be in. 

We then set out a goal to save for the plot of land. We did not and do not have a lot of resources in terms of money but the question of how we used the little money we had came into play, by putting a side a certain portion slowly we started to realize that it was possible, we then became more frugal and focused our energies on putting a side what we called "Development Money" every month (We still do this until now). This was also made possible by reading up a few books like "Make Sense Of Your Money", "Richest Man In Babylon" and online articles and blogs that guided our financial discipline.

To God Be The Glory, Before we made a year in marriage, God led as to a very good property dealer whom we hadn't come across while we kept on praying and searching in the news papers and online. We had earlier on visited some places and did not like it but it just took God one day to take us to a place that our hearts agreed on and we were at peace with it. We entered into an agreement with the owner of the land and we paid a certain portion and cleared the rest in installments and this was made possible by God in many ways. (I can recommend you to a few good people I know about).

Now we are trusting God because next thing was getting an architect, and because we believe in putting everything before the hands of God, we trusted that he would lead us to the right person and more so godly person. this did not take long as in 2015 towards the end of the year God brought us that person and our plans are almost finalized, with being visionary and having goals set in mind, I strongly believe God honors and will see to it that the dream of a home is realized, 

Godly people are visionary, purposeful, goal oriented, committed, focused etc

Start planning today (it affects every part of your life), don't wait for tomorrow, when you have a vision, God gives the provision in terms of people and many resources you wouldn't even imagine of

Click link for part 2

Scripture Ref: Phil 3:14 (KJV), Eph 2:10 (KJV)

#Impact #Empower #Transform

My Prayer on WORLD AIDS DAY

I just want to MAKE THIS BOLD STATEMENT on WORLD AIDS day,‪#‎JesusHeals‬.. 

I wasn't paying much attention to the importance of this day and I am not sure how it started but one thing I know is that AIDS has affected all of us, directly or indirectly, and this is my prayer this day, that the healing hands of God will touch as many and redeem and restore their bodies, my prayer as well is that many will heed the warning about sexual immorality and stop indulging in acts that are not pleasing before God, 

My prayer is that God will reign in Uganda and more so in our hospitals and touch the medical doctors and physicians and that there will be no malice from those who practice who test in labs and declare wrong results instead of the true ones because they have been bribed to hide one's status, 

My prayer is that as doctors draw blood and inject mothers or anyone that they will need inject blood that is infected out of negligence but that they will have sober minds as they work.. 

My prayer is that stigma will be no more towards those suffering with AIDS and accept them as normal people who breathe the same air we breathe and eat the same food we eat, 

My final prayer is that God will eradicate all kinds of disease out there because he sent his word and healed all our diseases and that we as his people will not be ignorant of things, for people perish because of lack of knowledge‪#‎MakeThisDayMemorableByPrayingForSomebodyWhoIsSick‬

..Until I Was Taught...

While Growing Up, I did not know much about Race Until I was taught,

I had friends who came from different parts of Uganda and the so called thing of tribe did not bother us until we were taught how not to like a certain tribe or hate them for this or that.

We never looked at our skin color and judged one another until we were taught, that black is bad and brown is good, we were given false identities compared to what God gave us.

Even though some of us came from poor back grounds, we shared the same play ground or desk with those who were more privileged and our status never bothered us until we were taught not to associate with those who dressed badly or were poor or ......

School united us instead of dividing us, the play grounds united us because we had to play with one another, the classrooms united us because we were taught by the same teachers, the exams united us because we had to discuss and learn from one another, but until we were taught certain things like hatred, tribalism, sectarianism, we remained innocent people.

Why can't we invoke the innocence we once exhibited, Why can't we love as God purposed us to love, Why do we have to be picky yet we can choose to be a blessing to all, Why do we have to say my tribe or color is more superior yet we are all equal in God's eyes, we have been shaped by the wickedness in this world and the trend seems to continue down to the children that are born today...

I can come from Gulu and still be your friend even though you come from Kisoro, Butaleja, Buganda, Kabale, koboko etc

I am glad to be in a family that has intermarried from many parts of Uganda and I believe such marriages have broken the tribal divide, have broken the hatred divide, It gives no room to hate some other tribe or person and you start loving them because you have relatives all over, it is a testament that God can unite people who once did not like one another, it still shows that certain cultural norms that were once taught by our fore fathers and were putting many in bondage has been loosed and broken, it is testament that I can choose to learn and speak another language just like English and not be labelled a traitor.. The Children born today and after might stop saying am from here or there and start saying we are Ugandan, we are all children of God.

Having grown up and having studied the bible for sometime in few years of living, I am convinced that Jesus did not come to preach about or bring a new religion, He came to introduce as to the one and true Government, the kingdom of God, Religions is surely man made and yet the kingdom of God is about God reaching out to us, We cannot kill one another and say God told us to do so, as a matter of fact his word teachers that whoever hates a brother, he has already committed murder. I don't have to hate you because you believe in something else, I have to love you like Jesus and point you to what he teaches and what is true, I have no opinion and my opinion can't hold any water but  I stand on God and on his word that unites us all and holds this universe together, the greatest teacher on love is Christ himself,

As I conclude we need to watch out what we teach people and more the children of this generation and the ones to come, when we teach them in the way of God, we will have all won and we will have rescued a generation and generations.

While you have your dinner at home, let it be a time to remind and teach your family the foundation in Gods word. While you have breakfast or take your children to school, point them back to God's word, let the family time and home be a bedrock of God's very word and let truth be learnt from Father's and Mother's, you will have shaped the many leaders that will emerge tomorrow.

God bless you as you reflect through this little write up.

Lessons From Magufuli Point To Great Personal Financial Literacy

Lessons From Magufuli Point To Great Personal Financial Literacy

I don't think Magufuli, the Current President of Tanzania just started cutting costs out of the blue, I believe so much it has been a journey of self governance and living by example.. whatever he is doing is not far fetched it is real, he is living by principles that work and have been shunned by many who choose to work for their own interests and deny many the benefit of the very common good.. There is something we can all learn... 

People's minds are getting to ask the question, What Would Magufuli Do? And I believe that we should personalize it and also ask ourselves the same question, What Would We Do?... 

Personal finance when done well it will affect the general outlook of your life, when you embody values that not only benefit you but many, you will have influenced many lives by the great decisions you make.. let this be a personal challenge to check through and examine our lives most especially in line with God's word.

Why We Shouldn't Be Lazy - See The Cost Of Laziness

We have all been lazy at one point in our lives, and we all know that is when we were very unproductive, and because of un-productiveness, there is no fruit to show for it. The bible even mentions that a lazy person can take food in his hand but fail to put it in his mouth, now if that statement is loaded like that, it should sound a warning to us. Here a few snippets in scripture to show us the cost of laziness, may be this can help someone in all their spheres of life.

Hebrews 6:12
so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. 1 ‪#‎Lazy‬ - Sluggish Don't Inherit God's Promises

Proverbs 22:13
The sluggard says, "There is a lion outside; I will be killed in the streets!"
2 #Lazy - Sluggish won't risk or go out and work because of fear

Proverbs 13:4

The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, But the soul of the diligent is made fat. 3 #Lazy - Sluggard get nothing even when they crave for it

Proverbs 20:4
The sluggard does not plow after the autumn, So he begs during the harvest and has nothing. 4 #Lazy - Sluggard won't plow, so he turns into a BEGGAR (this isn't our portion as Christians - we need to plow (work))

2 Thessalonians 3:10
For even when we were with you, we used to give you this order: if anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat, either. 5 #Lazy - Not willing to work, WON'T EAT

Matthew 25:26-30
"But his master answered and said to him, 'You wicked, lazy slave, you knew that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I scattered no seed.
6 #Lazy - if you sow laziness, you will reap nothing

There are many more scriptures on this, but this should be an eye opener, It is mentioned in Proverbs 6:6-8
Go to the ant, O sluggard, Observe her ways and be wise,

The only way to help your self is by Going to See how those who work do it (Ants Have No Leaders But They Work), for in it you can be inspired and motivated to come out of your own slump.

‪#‎DontBeLazy‬ - it is very expensive to maintain such a life style