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Send56 began with two families who had never met but were listening to the same God. Both the Digges and the Shehee families moved to Uganda in 2008, driven by a rare but specific vision: to establish a center for night and day prayer and a discipleship school with the ultimate goal of sending native African missionaries to unreached tribes. In February 2009, Jesse and Rachelle Digges launched the first school in eastern Uganda and led the students on a mission trip to northern Uganda. While spending the night in Gulu, they unexpectedly met Will and Etta Shehee, who were serving there. As they shared their experiences, they discovered that God had been giving the same vision to both families, filling them with a sense of awe and wonder.
Both families continued their ministry work separately over the next four years, while keeping tabs on one another from a distance. Then in February of 2013, God did something unusual. Jesse went on a scouting trip to Kenya, and the Lord began to speak about it being the location for the next mission base. While there, he shared with Rachelle that the Lord put it on his heart to reach out to Will and Etta, to see if they would be willing to join ministries and move to eastern Uganda and lead the mission base, so that Jesse and Rachelle could pioneer in Kenya. However, before Jesse was able to reach out, he received an email out of the blue from Will with the subject line “A Proposal To Join Ministries”. The sense of awe and wonder deepened as God quickly gave several unusual confirmations, and a partnership was born.
Within a short period of time, Will and Etta had moved to Tororo to lead the mission base, the Digges had moved to Kenya to plant a new base, and in September, 2014 the ministry Send56 was formed. The headquarters was established in Lawrenceville, Georgia by Gabe and Evie Palmer.
But Send56 has never been about a few families or individuals; it has always been about serving the African missions movement in Africa. Since its launch, the Uganda and Kenya mission bases which were established are growing and maturing in the hands of capable leaders. Since the first graduation in 2010, dozens of native African missionaries have been sent to unreached tribes and peoples. These are the greatest heroes of the Send56 story. They go with their families to live in the most difficult places imaginable for the sake of the gospel. The rest of the story is yet to be written by the many more missionaries yet to come as we believe God for the fulfillment of the Great Commission in Africa.
