Road To Redemption
Road To Redemption
Mark Mbayo – From a Fishing Village in Uganda to Faith, Business, and Redemptive Purpose
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Sometimes following God means saying yes before you understand where He is leading.
In this inspiring conversation on Road to Redemption, John Martin sits down with Mark Mbayo, a Ugandan entrepreneur, ministry leader, and co-founder of Bold Creators, to share a story of faith, obedience, surrender, and purpose.
Mark grew up in a small fishing village in Kampala, Uganda. Through a sponsorship program, he was able to attend school from kindergarten through medical school, eventually earning a degree in medical laboratory technology.
As Mark began working in healthcare, he saw firsthand how difficult it was for people in rural communities to access quality medical care. Combining his medical background with a lifelong passion for business, he helped establish clinics that could sustainably serve people with very limited incomes.
His diligence eventually took him from working as a lab assistant to becoming an assistant to the medical director.
Then God asked him to surrender it.
At the height of his career, Mark felt God calling him to resign from his job—even though it was his primary source of income and he was preparing to get married.
It didn't make sense.
But Mark chose obedience.
Then came an even harder surrender. Mark believed God was asking him to give up his financial interest in the clinics he had helped establish.
Again, he said yes.
Those seasons taught Mark an important lesson:
Sometimes God asks us to release what He has given us so we can discover what He ultimately created us to do.
That journey eventually connected Mark with Ben Clark and helped lead to the creation of Bold Creators, a community focused on helping Christian entrepreneurs grow in faith, business, family, and community.
Through mentorship and biblical principles for business, Bold Creators connects American and Ugandan entrepreneurs and encourages business owners to think beyond personal profit.
The goal is redemptive entrepreneurship—building businesses that create jobs, strengthen families, support ministries, and transform communities.
Mark shares that the program has already worked with 127 people and helped create more than 100 jobs through its network.
But underneath everything Mark has accomplished is a much simpler message:
Don't leave God when life gets difficult.
Hard seasons don't necessarily mean God has forgotten you.
Sometimes they are preparing you for what comes next.
Mark encourages listeners to:
- Stay anchored in God when circumstances don't make sense.
- Be willing to surrender what God asks you to release.
- Trust that no situation is too difficult for Him.
- Build businesses and careers that serve others.
- Use your gifts to strengthen your community.
- And remember that your past does not put you beyond God's love or forgiveness.
You may not understand what God is asking you to surrender today.
But your obedience could be preparing the way for a purpose greater than anything you originally planned.
What might God be asking you to trust Him with today?
Connect with Mark Mbayo & Bold Creators:
🌐 boldcreators.org
📧 markmbayo@boldcreators.org
For more information contact us at
rtrdestiny@gmail.com
Welcome And Name Pronunciation
SPEAKER_00Oh hey friends, it's John. We're back on Road to Redemption today. So excited to be here with my friend Mark. Mabayo? Mbayo? My friend Felix told me how to say it, and I knew I would I would butcher it. But Mark, good to be here, man. Good to meet you, Joe's again. Oh man, so good. Good to have you on. And uh I know we met a few few months back with our friend Ben and said we gotta get you in here, man. Gotta gotta hear what you're up to
Growing Up In Uganda With Sponsorship
SPEAKER_00and your story. So just just give us a little brief background on you.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Um I'll I'll take up on correct the name. It's uh my name is Mark Mbayo. We don't we the M is silent, so Mbayo, and uh I come from Uganda, uh which is well known as the Palop Africa. I grew up from a small fishing village in Kampala, which is a capital city, and this fishing village is called Gaba. That's where I grew up from. And uh my father was a civil servant, he was working at uh a water production unit, and um he took care of us, me and my sister, and uh um because dad wasn't really making that enough money from the uh the job that he was having, I I was picked up by a sponsorship program. So the sponsorship program really took me through school from kindergarten up to um medical school. I got out of medical school with uh uh degree in medical laboratory technology and uh practiced uh that and um and after practicing I would say I'm married. That's the most important one. Yeah, sorry if my if my wife will be watching this, uh yeah, let her not think that I've forgotten her. But I'm married to a beautiful girl. Uh she's called Tady, and we have one son. He's uh he's just making 60 parts, and I can't wait going back to really uh meet him and see him. Yeah. So I um I I started practicing uh the with the medical field really from uh a third world country like Uganda, uh whereby resources are really minimal and and all these other factors that we get to really fight against to make really ends meet. And uh the word was persistence. Persistence. And um when I was still practicing in the medical, I since childhood I really loved business. Business was one of the things that I used to do flexorally, so I remember of this very one scenario in uh in my grade three, I was actually selling toy guns, the plastic toy guns, and uh I was I was making a guys making something, a profit of them right in grade three. Used to get them somewhere, uh some friend of mine that was selling them at a wholesale, and I used to sell them at a retail price, and I was getting a cut off that, and uh that that that really grew. The business in me already it was there, and uh um during medical, I really noticed that uh um the people in rural areas uh actually didn't have access to medical care, quality medical care. Then um I used the business setting that had grown over time to establish clinics in rural areas and help them run sustainably in order to be able to survive in in rural areas. Most of the people were actually treating in the rural areas uh were only could earn less than three dollars or one dollar a day. And and that's that's another they were making, and that's it. And most of these were actually farmers, subsistence farmers, and so um what we had to do was to wait, treat them on credit, and wait for them to pay uh when the season really comes back. Uh but um God has kept uh uh working through me. Um
Diligence In Medicine And Rising Fast
SPEAKER_01I'm a work in progress and he has kept asking me to say yes to tough decisions in life. Um as I was working in the medical because uh God put a favor on me because I was uh I had to be diligent with the work I was doing. I loved what I was doing. I gave up myself to do extra. I wasn't looking at the paycheck, I wasn't looking at how much I'm getting, but I just wanted to sound like how the scripture says, uh do all this with your heart, as if you're doing it for God, not for man. And that really helped me to raise in ranks in the medical field that I was also in the hospital that I was working at. And uh I started from a minimal uh level as a lab assistant. All I could do was to draw blood, lebotomy, is that is that said right? Yeah, and uh and I rose within a period of seven years to being uh an assistant to the medical director, which makes no sense, yeah, yeah, be the uh it was good, but just because I was diligent with that, and as I had reached the peak of my career in medical, uh God told me to resign.
Hearing God Say Resign
SPEAKER_01Wow. Yes. So imagine a country like Uganda, uh everything it's hard to make your way out, yeah. Uh, and God is like, hey, I think your only source of income, I want it. So I I debated that a lot with myself, and I'm like, God, I think there should be a better way in really doing this. I don't think I'm resigning right now. There's a new contract coming. I think I'll do very good in that contract. There's all this, maybe I'll be the next medical director. And God is like, oh, that's that's not what I really want you to do. So cut the story short, I go to my fiance by then, who was uh who is currently my wife, and I'm like, hey, I think I'm quitting. And she's like, no way. So and uh she's like, there's no way you're quitting, we are getting married very soon, and uh you can't tell me that you're leaving your job. How shall we survive? How shall we really live when you don't have a job? And after all, I don't see myself getting married to a guy who is not working because as a man, you're the breadwinner, you have to provide. Uh so um I go back, I still pray, and thought maybe God would uh change his mind. Uh the prayers you make and a god, you better change your mind. Yeah, and uh I didn't hear anything, so I come back. So what this really put me across line was to either believe in the person I really loved, and we come through such scenarios oftentimes. Are you going to listen to the voice of God or you're going to listen to uh uh the person you really love? So I I came back to her and told her that you know what, I'm not going to I'm going to resign. I'm not going to change my mind. And uh, if you really want to get married with to me and walk this journey with me, uh you have two months to make up your mind. Oh, so I still feel a conviction strong. Uh she didn't spend two months. She called me after two days. I said, Like, I think uh I think God also talked to me about that. Okay. So long story short, I quit the job and uh I didn't really have uh a source of income. And the clinics I told you about that I had established were being actually sustained by this um job that I was having. So the salaries getting off here could help me easily manage these clinics. So there were uh aside um something I'm doing on the side as something you're passionate about. So when I quit my uh current job, I started now getting money out of the clinics. I'm like, hey, so I think now the clinics need to take care of me.
Surrendering Clinics And Income
SPEAKER_01Long story short, God also tells me you need to leave the clinics because I didn't give them to you to be your source of income. And it was harder. So uh I had to let go, I had to uh surrender my shares to the people that I was working with in leadership at these clinics, and like, hey guys, I think you need to take over the clinics, and still God didn't come through immediately, like you know what? But I think all that he was trying to teach me uh uh how willing am I to let go of the things that he has given me, and um and but one thing I was really passionate about was uh I always learned uh helping people out to uh navigate life uh and business most most especially business guys. Uh um I used to help very many of my friends about business, no language, because so many just stories came naturally, and advice just came naturally. So after uh a while, uh as I was working with the men's ministry at church, um we I was asked to to organize uh a breakfast meeting for men, just for men to get to meet and uh talk about the challenges they're not for business. So
The Mentorship Gap Sparks A Mission
SPEAKER_01Ben Clark, uh who's uh a co-founder with me on bold creators, uh was one of the speakers that was coming to speak. So um I I met him before uh the whole event, and I'm like, hey, could could I just have a look at what you're really uh going to speak? We had never met, and uh he first gave me his uh presentation and and and they just encouraged him. I'm like, you know what, just be vulnerable, just tell us the struggles uh you have gone through to grow your business up to where it is right now. We need to know that because many of the businesses back home barely make it past two years, they don't, yeah. And uh we back home uh 70% of our population is made of people below the age of 30. So it's a very young country. Uh all this energy and uh all they lack is really mentorship and people that can walk alongside and to show them how things are really done. So we um Ben came and spoke. He spoke to a group of uh guys that we had over. And um and he what was supposed to be a one hour session, it lasted through up to lunch. So guys were inquisitive, uh they wanted to know, and uh and before I know it I knew it, uh I think God was preparing me for that, uh that mission to really help uh men and uh entrepreneurs back home to grow their businesses in return to see uh sustainable living in our country. Uh
Bold Creators And Redemptive Profit
SPEAKER_01for the past decades uh my country has greatly relied on aid uh from the western uh you know from Europe uh largely uh but I mean it's not sustainable enough once the check uh stops coming in, the programs die. Yeah. So like so the only solution to that uh is entrepreneurship. How do we get guys to really grow businesses that are really going to take care of livelihoods, of families, of of uh the ministries that of the churches where they come from through the tithe, through the offerings? Of course, if it's a congregation of poor people, don't expect also to get enough money to run a ministry. So, but how about elevate the community, the church members, so that uh in return they're giving more uh to the missions God has put on people's hearts. So that's how we started bold creators, and we say that uh we will um look out for uh committed guys that really are hungry to grow their businesses and walk alongside them and help them build businesses. And uh it's three years now we've been in that, we have had all 127 people go through the program, or at least created uh through the network over a hundred jobs, and the beauty about it is that uh we're teaching them to be redemptive, also, we're teaching our entrepreneurs to be redemptive. But uh, if you're making a profit, uh you're not only using it for buying yourself the next latest car uh or buying the next thing that it's just for you, but we are teaching them how to be redemptive. How do I use my profit to benefit the community that I come from? And we've seen them step up and helping facilities, it goes back again, it's it's a circle, it goes back now to where I started from in clinics. Uh now we're seeing entrepreneurs back home stepping up and helping ministries from the extra profits that they are getting. So it's um it has been a great journey with ups and downs, and um God has really been uh at the center, I would say, of all this.
SPEAKER_00But you're you're really in marketplace ministry now. You live from being in medical to business to ministry, God called you in the marketplace ministry, and what I'm hearing really to your story is is uh obedience and surrender. You know, that's what you really had to do, was God called you to do this, it didn't make any sense. Um so you had to be obedient, and you know, you're still on your journey. It's is y'all already doing so such great things, you know, with all these jobs, and so um wow. Well, is is there anything um you want to say, you know, our our our show is about really bringing people in close relationship to Jesus and giving them hope? Is there anything you want to say for folks out there that are that maybe struggling through their own issues right now of like they feel like they're hearing God's voice, but maybe they're not sure, they they need a little bit of encouragement. How how how did you do it?
Don’t Leave God In Hard Seasons
SPEAKER_01Um thank you, John. Um the best way could really encourage anyone that uh could be really going through a situation like that, a situation that I went through is uh however hard the situation is, don't leave God. That's the anchor. So don't don't think that he's not listening, or don't think that he's uh uh he has forgotten you. All he needs to see is your heart. And if really your heart is in the right place, he surely comes through some of the hard things we go through in life, they're actually teaching us and preparing us to be better. If I started really uh saying all sorts of bad things about God when I lost all my jobs and all my sources of income, I wouldn't be here. Less than 1% of people from my country actually make it to the states. So it's it's really God uh that has I always we use a phrase that uh it's from grass to grass. I've seen really God walk through me from grass from a small fishing village, and uh being able to also speak into your lines on this podcast today, it has been God, it's not my power. So, whatever situation it is, no situation is too hard for God.
SPEAKER_00That's so true. And um we give out our three key pillars on road to redemption every time we we come on the show.
Three Practices For Real Growth
SPEAKER_00And the first is to get into the word of God, into this Bible, and read it. Just spend some time with God every morning in the Bible, or you may use your your Bible out. I think it's a little better to actually get the Bible, the hardback Bible out because your phone is distracting. But if you will just spend some time every day in the scriptures, God will speak to you through his word. That's right. And to get into a Christ-centered Bible-believing church, yes, and just go. Just go. You're you're never gonna find the perfect church that are run by fallen people. So just go, go to a Christ-centered church and and get involved. You know, serve in your church, get involved in a small group, a group of people you can make yourself vulnerable, um, be accountable to. And we we promise if you take those steps, God will transform your life. You'll start to see doors opening and more peace, uh, more peace and joy coming into your life.
SPEAKER_01And
Forgiveness And The Empty Money Myth
SPEAKER_01and um and um for those that uh could be thinking that maybe uh uh you have sinned and you really feel uh so less of yourself, you think that uh God cannot really forgive you. Uh our God is a loving God, and He really does love you. He He doesn't care, he doesn't it doesn't matter what whatever thing that happened or whatever past that you have had to go through in your life, He He loves you, and uh all He wants you is to surrender, like I said Surrender and um and there are people out there, the communities out there uh in my ministry in the marketplace, um we we're getting into entrepreneurs that uh have no really connection with God because all they think it's it's uh the money that I've made on our time that uh gives them meaning. But uh you still feel empty with all the money and each and everything, you still feel empty. But with God and having a relationship with God, God feels you. So God is the only person that can run to and we've all sinned and there's no sin that God's not gonna forgive you, you know.
SPEAKER_00Don't a lot of people I feel like they feel like they sin so much that they're not worthy. And if you just come to Jesus and ask for forgiveness and turn away from your sins and give your life to him, he will forgive you, and he will all of that will be in your past. It's there's no no condemnation. Um and he's he's here, he's here for you, and he wants to set all of this free. That's right. Through a personal relationship with him.
How Bold Creators Works And How To Join
SPEAKER_00Um so Mark, before we go, just is could you just give us a a quick anybody about about bold creators and how people can find out more about what y'all are doing?
SPEAKER_01So uh bold creators is uh growing community of uh Christian entrepreneurs who are committed in growing in faith, business, families, and communities in a way that transforms uh lives. So at bold commun creators we always um uh have Americans working alongside Ugandan entrepreneurs helping the Ugandan entrepreneurs to uh to elevate in business. Um we usually have an online study that basically teaches the biblical way of really doing business and uh the ethical bit of it of also being retentive in their businesses. And uh after the online study, uh the Americans get to come over to Uganda to experience uh firsthand the struggles the Ugandans go through to make business work, so that in return they can also when they're giving uh adivise, they give it in an informed way. But one of the things that we have really noticed is that uh when the Americans actually come over to Uganda, uh our country is rooted in fate, they actually come back better. Many will give you testimony like, hey Mark, I thought I was going to give, but I think I've received more than what I could give. So um it's it's two way. It's bilateral, we make sure that both parties get to benefit from this, and um and we're transforming uh communities in one or another. Uh, for those that would really want to learn more about world creators, you can visit our website at www.boldcreators.org and on all our socials, it's boldcreators.org. And um you could either participate and be a mentor. We're really looking for mentors, people that want to parent and mentor young entrepreneurs, and you could also be an entrepreneur and uh you're looking for community that uh you can relate with. It's not the community doesn't only stop in Uganda, but also in Florida, we have uh bold creators that are meeting regularly in Arkansas. We have bold creators that are really meeting, so you could join the community of bold creators, or you could give to the ministry and see that uh God helps us to uh take this work forward.
Final Encouragement And Closing
SPEAKER_00Wow, what an awesome, awesome testimony and an awesome organization that y'all have because I can just see how uh business people that go over there, you know, uh yes, they'll be a blessing to the the entrepreneurs, but really how blessed they're gonna be, yeah, you know, through through Jesus um and just increasing their faith through the you know the relationships with the you know folks over there. So I'm I look forward to going sometime. You should.
SPEAKER_01You should. We'll do a podcast once you come.
SPEAKER_00Okay. Hey, Mark, thanks so much, Mark. It's been great. Thank you.