Serving Up Blessings and Purpose to Orphans from Uganda and Rwanda

Two hours north of Uganda’s capital, Kampala, runs a long, nondescript dirt road that ends at a makeshift gate. Just beyond the gate, ready to greet all visitors, are nearly 180 precious, wide-eyed children. These are the residents of the orphanage known to locals as “the Children’s Village.”

Run by Pastor Josh, a Ugandan, the Children’s Village has a big heart for youngsters without parents. Pastor Josh himself was disowned by his Muslim father when he found Christ as a teenager. Today the orphanage he oversees shelters children from many regions throughout both Uganda and Rwanda.

A missionary, Pastor Mike, has visited the Children’s Village and says, “Once the shock of the jarring poverty wears off, you come to know that these kids are like any other: with hopes, dreams, curiosity and questions.” The children’s stories are as diverse as they are heart-wrenching: Some lost their parents to AIDS. Others were abandoned due to poverty. Still others were orphaned by a bloody civil war. No matter their story, every child at the Children’s Village is taught that he or she is special in God’s eyes.

“Before Please Pass the Bread began to help with basic food for daily meals, these children would sometimes go a whole day without eating,” Pastor Mike says. “Now they can go to sleep at night knowing there will be something to eat at mealtime the next day.”

World Challenge first learned of the orphanage in 2006, when we helped provide much – needed furniture for its on — site school. Soon afterward Please Pass the Bread stepped in to supply meals to the children, in keeping with the vision of its founder, David Wilkerson, to feed the poorest of the poor.

With Uganda’s unstable economy, its outdated infrastructure and the ravages of a conflict led by warlord Joseph Kony, 10 million Ugandans now live below the national poverty line. More recently, due to political and trade policies, Uganda’s food supply has become even more scarce, leaving outreaches like the Children’s Village struggling. Yet Please Pass the Bread continues to provide orphans at the Children’s Village with one meal a day.

“My recent visit to the Children’s Village was like seeing the hand of God in action,” says Pastor Mike. “As the children line up with their buckets, bowls and plates for their afternoon dinner, I was in awe of the special love God has for the marginalized children of the world. After they were all fed, one young boy told me, ‘I know I am blessed.’ When I asked him how he knew this, he grabbed my hand, placed it on his stomach and said, ‘Feel this? It’s full!’”

Thank you for your prayers and support in this effort to fulfill Jesus’ words, “Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.” With your help, God’s love is reaching “the least of these” at the end of a long dirt road in Uganda — and it is making a difference.