09/15/2026
WHERE ARE WE HEADING?
I find myself asking that question more often these days.
Not simply, Where is America heading? Or Where is Africa heading? But where are we, as humanity, heading—and what kind of world are we preparing to hand to our children and grandchildren?
Personally, I have no doubt we are living through one of the most consequential periods in human history… and that what we do today matters.
Artificial intelligence is advancing at breathtaking speed. Used wisely, AI may help us cure diseases, improve education, increase food production, accelerate scientific discovery, and solve problems once considered impossible.
But powerful technology has never possessed a conscience of its own.
The same artificial intelligence capable of tremendous good can also be weaponized and criminalized. Imagine checking your bank balance to find that all your money has been withdrawn. It can be used by extremists, rogue nations, or governments willing to use technology for surveillance, deception, cyberwarfare, autonomous weapons with no hesitation to kill, and unchecked control.
So responsible nations must continue developing prudent defensive capabilities. But technology alone will never hold itself accountable or ensure our safety.
We need something even more important: wise, courageous, morally grounded leaders.
That is one reason I am so passionate about developing young leaders through our Little Lights program at One City Ministries.
When I look into the faces of these children in Uganda, I don’t simply see children living in poverty. I see future teachers, entrepreneurs, doctors, engineers, pastors, scientists, mothers, fathers, community leaders—and perhaps even national leaders.
We tell them To Believe!
We tell them to Dream Big... Aim High... Go Far!
At One City, we are passionate about preparing them for a better tomorrow; this preparation runs deep and requires much more than simply providing them with an education.
We must teach them how to think, not merely what to think.
They will need discernment to distinguish truth from manipulation. Courage to stand when everyone around them bows. Character strong enough to resist corruption. Wisdom to use technologies that earlier generations could scarcely imagine. And compassion to remember that human beings—not money, power, technology, or political parties—must remain at the center of our decisions.
WE ALSO HAVE A PLANET TO STEWARD.
Whatever disagreements remain over particular policies, responsible stewardship of the earth should not belong exclusively to the political left or right.
Clean water matters.
Clean air matters.
Healthy soil matters.
Forests matter.
Responsible agriculture matters.
Reducing unnecessary pollution matters.
Leaving a habitable and productive planet to our grandchildren matters.
At Light Village, we see environmental stewardship and human development as solidly connected. Clean cooking, better agricultural practices, soil-rejuvenating biochar, water conservation, and sustainable technologies aren’t abstract environmental theories. They affect the health, livelihoods, and futures of real families.
Stewardship means leaving something better than we found it.
THEN THERE IS THIS GROWING DIVIDE BETWEEN US.
Perhaps one of the greatest threats we face isn’t technological or environmental.
It is our increasing inability to talk to one another.
Social media algorithms have become extraordinarily effective at surrounding us with people and information that reinforce what we already believe.
We retreat into ideological silos.
We stop listening.
We begin assuming that people who disagree with us are not simply mistaken; they must be stupid, corrupt, hateful, evil, or dangerous.
And once we stop seeing our opponents as fellow human beings, civil disagreement becomes contempt.
Contempt becomes hatred. And hatred can eventually justify almost anything.
Whether in Uganda, America, or elsewhere in the world, I have seen what tribal thinking can do. Different names, different circumstances… but remarkably similar consequences.
A nation cannot remain healthy when winning becomes more important than truth, and defeating the other side becomes more important than preserving the whole.
So where are we heading?
Perhaps the better question is:
WHERE ARE WE LEADING?
Because the future isn’t simply something happening to us.
We are building it right now.
Every time we teach a child to think critically instead of blindly following the crowd, we are building the future.
Every time we choose truth over political convenience, we are building the future.
Every time we refuse corruption, even when it would benefit us personally, we are building the future.
Every time we protect the environment while still recognizing the legitimate needs of people trying to escape poverty, we are building the future.
Every time we use technology to empower rather than manipulate, we are building the future.
Every time we listen respectfully to someone with whom we disagree, we are building the future.
And every time we teach a young person that character matters more than popularity, truth matters more than tribal loyalty, and serving others matters more than personal power, we are building the future.
Maybe our greatest responsibility isn’t to give the next generation a world without problems...That has never happened.
Perhaps our responsibility is to give them the character, knowledge, faith, courage, wisdom, and tools to confront problems we cannot yet imagine.
That is why investing in children cannot be secondary.
They are not merely inheriting our world.
Soon, they will be leading it.
And someday, our children and grandchildren may look back on this extraordinary moment in history and ask what we, you and I, did when we saw these challenges coming.
I hope our answer will be:
We didn’t surrender to fear. We didn’t retreat into our tribes. We didn’t merely complain about the world’s direction. We raised leaders. We pursued truth. We protected what God entrusted to us. We served our neighbors. And we did everything within our power to leave them a better world.
Dream Big. Aim High. Go Far.
The future is already sitting in our classrooms, playing in our homes, and watching how we live.
Let’s prepare them well.
