Two days before my 30th birthday, I finally quit running and surrendered my life to Jesus. Not one moment have I ever regretted that decision! God placed an ever-increasing love for Himself and nations deep within my soul. After being equipped at Christ for the Nations Institute and serving in many different nations, I moved to Uganda, Africa in 2014 and found home. It is my greatest joy to love and serve the beautiful people of Uganda - walking alongside them in everyday life. Jesus spent most of His days among the people, me too.

I am passionate about helping others cultivate their own intimate relationship with Jesus and growing to maturity in their faith. Whether it be a formal Bible study setting or sitting on a papyrus mat outside a home deep in the village, I love pointing others to Jesus. I take great pleasure in seeing others deepen their faith, love, and obedience to God. I enjoy doing life alongside the beautiful people of Uganda and growing together in the Lord through Bible study, prayer, fellowship, worship, outreach, etc.

The God-given vision for First Love – Love First Ministries was clear, and the ministry was established in 2023. Our motivation is raising a generation that knows God and loves Him so passionately that their answer will always be YES! No matter what He asks of them. We are well on our way …. to Him be the glory!

Elston and Renee Bingham lived for years in North Georgia before answering the call of God to move to the Navajo Nation in Gallup, New Mexico in 2009. They founded and led Answer God’s Call Ministries for 11 years. They encouraged not only those they ministered to, but also grew and encouraged a huge team of volunteers to serve their community together. Elston and Renee now reside in Calhoun, Georgia.

The Bingham’s have hearts of gold and share unconditional love with the downtrodden, homeless, and hopeless. They have an unwavering love for Jesus and certainly have His heart of compassion. Their years on the mission field gave them great experience and wisdom in serving and working as a team to reach the lost in any nation.

They have traveled to Uganda several times and share our passion for this nation! They come to encourage our team, walk alongside others, impart wisdom, train, and raise up young men and women in the Lord. They also play a key role in the United States by bringing awareness about God’s work in Uganda through First Love – Love First Ministries. We are blessed to have them on our Board of Directors!

God intertwined our contrasty, disparate stories when we met in 2015 in Uganda. Being introduced to each other as a full-time missionary (Anna) and a Physical Therapist at that time (Grant), it didn’t take us long to realize that we are better together for the Kingdom of God than we are apart. That’s when our own plans, dreams and ideas of God sled into a massive melting pot, only to be refined and reshaped.

Anna: I fell in love, and crossed the ocean, leaving behind my coveted dream of being a life-long missionary to the poor until one day I’d get buried into that red African clay. I came to the country I said I never would, the United States, and that’s when the Lord began to strip off all the false identities, I tried to put on myself. After a low, yet critical moment, when I was rocking on the floor of our rental home, struggling to answer a simple question: “If I am not a missionary, then who am I?” There was a new dawn for my life. Jesus was inviting me to fall in love with Him. And this time, for real. Now, the Holy Spirit has called me to do the same, simple thing for others: to see the chains that bind, speak truth and life, encourage, and inspire children of God to shine in their true, God-given identity.

Grant: After marrying my wife, we had 2 children back-to-back, only to have the Lord speak to me to go to medical school. In this process, we had yet another child. That’s when I started to really yield to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit met me in our home in Florida, and I got intensely wrecked. The Holy Spirit has started the process of building me back up, brick by brick, for the glory of the Lord. I thoroughly enjoy the presence of God. There is nothing else like meeting with our God. I now desire to see every person, Christian or not yet a Christian, yield their lives to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and this is now my life’s mission.

We have been married for 41 years and have 6 children and 18 grandchildren. Raising our children to love the Lord has been the great joy of our lives. Seeing them raise their children in a relationship with Christ has just been the icing on the cake. Frank has the gift of discipling and teaching, but also has a strong desire to connect with people in a very personal and real way. Lorna’s gifts of encouragement and giving keep her focused on relationships and missions outside of her comfort zone. Together they try to live the motivating verses of Matthew 22:37-40—Love God and Love people.

Frank is an Engineer by education and served as a pilot in the United States Airforce, but in 1992 God called him to full time pastoral ministry. Lorna has had a passion for ministry and missions since her college days, so together they served several congregations. Our goal was always to lead people to a deeper relationship with Christ through discipleship and relationships.

In 2011 we started contributing financially to ministry in Uganda Africa, and in 2016 Lorna went to Uganda for the first time. It was pretty much love at first sight. Seeing missionaries in the country build relationships and live in community with those who need to know about Christ was life changing. It was there she learned more about how to truly engage deeply with people and live out her faith. Since 2016 Lorna has been back to Uganda multiple times utilizing her spiritual gifts and her education as a nurse and continues to have a passion to minister to the Ugandan people.

We are so excited and honored to be part of First Love-Love First ministries. Our commitment to Robin and the team is to pray, support, walk along side and encourage the ministry as it spreads the gospel in Uganda.

Steve and Laura Shaffer make their home in White Sulphur Springs, Montana. They have 6 children and 16 grandchildren. Steve is a retired school teacher and carpenter. Laura continues to work as a Registered Nurse. For the past 30 years they have ministered in the local communities where they lived (FL, NC, TN, NM, MT) as well as missions in other areas of the country and Mexico. Steve has served as a pastor and music minister. Both he and Laura have worked in children and youth ministries as well as adult missions. Laura has also spent time in medical missions. For the past several years, their focus has been on ministering to the ministers. God has blessed them with many opportunities over the years to serve Him through serving others. They are honored and blessed to be a part of this new ministry.

Hello, my name is Bobi Kulevski. I am 25 years of age, my nationality is Macedonian, but I was born and raised in Sydney, Australia.

I am the first from my whole family to become a born-again Christian. I came from living a life of partying and all the filth that comes along with it, until September 3rd, 2020, when I laid my life down to my Savior, Jesus Christ. It all changed from there, “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” Matthew 16:25.

Fast forward to 4 ½ years of salvation. The Lord has brought me to the beautiful country of Uganda to serve full-time. I came here for 3 weeks in June of 2024. In those 3 weeks, God very evidently called me to serve Him full-time in Uganda. So here we are. January 8th, I left it all behind in the home country of Australia – friends, family, comfort, luxury, a business, etc.

I have been a plumber for 10 years and was in my second year of running my own business before God captured my heart, and I realized that He has so much more for me then the life I have been living. All it took for me to do was obey and surrender.

WHAT A LIFE
God Bless you.