2025 Impact Report
Connect a small church pastor in the United States who received a difficult diagnosis to another ministry worker who has the same diagnosis so they can support and encourage one another.
Provide friendship and connection to a small church pastor in the United States facing a difficult time personally and professionally.
Personally visit several small church pastors in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Washington.
Connect approximately 45 small church pastors in Africa to one another and to a small church pastor in India and an Indian missionary living in the United Arab Emirates.
Unite small church pastors around the world in prayer.
Provide capital for a small church pastor in Uganda to start a print shop to provide income for his family and to enable him to train youth in job skills.
Provide capital for a small church pastor in Kenya to start a small general store, which he named Stillwater Shop in honor of the donors in Stillwater, Oklahoma who made it possible.
Assist a small church pastor in Kenya with medical bills and personal needs after he suffered a traumatic accident.
Enable a small church pastor/schoolteacher in Uganda to transform Hope of Peace Christian School through providing funds for food, uniforms, HIV, typhoid, and m-pox medications, a 5,000-liter rainwater catchment tank, a graduation celebration, and to hire a teacher’s aide (doubling her income).
Provide soccer balls for a youth Sunday School program in Kenya.
Assist a small church pastor in eastern Kenya to get electricity in his house.
Provide small church pastors in Africa with access to resources such as Right Now Media and introduce them to The Bible Project.
Collect culturally specific feedback for YouVersion about the Bible App from small church pastors in Africa.
Purchase a portable public address system for a small church pastor in Kenya who has a youth outreach ministry in schools.
Partner with three small churches in a Ndhiwa, Kenya to launch the Inua Jamii (Lift the Community) Initiative, which has already provided startup or expansion small business capital to 16 church members to assist them in lifting themselves out of poverty. They have started savings accounts and given tithes and offerings to their churches.
In 2025, God used Fellowship of Lone Shepherds and our generous donors to…
“God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us” (Ephesians 3:20, The Message).
We thought Fellowship of Lone Shepherds would be a ministry for small church pastors in the United States. In 2025, God very clearly said, “I want to use you in Africa first.” When God calls, the only right option is to go. Just ask the prophet Jonah!
Small church pastors and church members in developing countries are incredibly intelligent, creative, faithful, hardworking, patient, and hopeful. They don’t need us to tell them what to do or how to do it. They just need our help to get the resources they need to do what God has put on their hearts in the way that is best in their local contexts.
Items should never be sent to pastors from outside their home country. All purchases should benefit that country’s economy. Even better than that is to support that local community’s economy.
Sending money directly to small church pastors in Africa through Mobile Wallet is the quickest and cheapest way for FLS to get them the funds. We can trust them to spend it the way they said they would.
Even those small church pastors who don’t communicate with each other through Fellowship of Lone Shepherds on a regular basis are encouraged by knowing we are there when they need us.
The Body of Christ is big and very, very diverse. While there are definitely doctrinal and behavioral “dealbreakers” that exist, most denominational differences are just preferences that should not prevent fellowship between believers.
While it can be helpful to provide startup capital to small church pastors in developing countries, this tactic can also have negative outcomes. Once the pastor is income-stable, the pastor’s impoverished church members come to the pastor for assistance. If the pastor does provide it, the pastor is no longer income-stable. If the pastor does not provide it, the church members are hurt and may leave the fellowship. As one Kenyan pastor told us, “If you help me to become prosperous, I still have to stand up and preach to a congregation full of hungry people every Sunday.” The best strategy is to help the congregation members to become income-stable first, not the pastors. The members will then support the pastor through tithes and offerings and, if the pastor then also starts a business to supplement their income, the church members will not need to ask the pastor for assistance.
Fellowship of Lone Shepherds learned the following lessons in 2025:
In 2026, we pray that God will use Fellowship of Lone Shepherds to do the following and much, much more.
Strengthen the bond between the small church pastors already involved in Fellowship of Lone Shepherds while growing our impact and reach.
Provide startup or expansion capital for at least 12 more church members in Ndhiwa, Kenya as a part of the Inua Jamii Initiative.
Continue to support Hope of Peace Christian School in Uganda as it grows.
Enable Hope of Peace Christian School to begin moving toward long-term sustainability through providing capital for income generating initiatives.
Empower additional FLS small church pastors in developing countries. There is a long line of pastors and their congregations who need access to the resources many of us have to share.
Possibly enable FLS founder and director, Everett Miller, to travel to Kenya and Uganda to visit Fellowship of Lone Shepherds pastors in person. This is a dream. We understand that a trip of this size may be a bit aspirational.
