Uganda Kids Project was birthed out of a passion to help the spiritually and physically impoverished people of Uganda. When Bill James, President of AFC and founder of UKP, and his wife Danyal were serving at a children's village in Central Uganda, they saw a disparity between the children cared for inside the village walls and the children and families in the community outside. There were countless lives in the community suffering spiritually because they had no hope or peace in Christ; they also suffered physically, because they lacked shelter, food, medical care, and much more. There were many abandoned children living on the streets orphaned by death, poverty or some other tragedy. This great need they experience gripped their hearts to leave the walls of the village to reach the greater community at large. Uganda Kids Project was birthed at that time, with 20 families in the program.
As Bill and Danyal continued to pray for a greater reach into the lives of the poorest of the poor in Uganda, God provided just that. A good friend of Bill's was retiring from his work as security guard at the children's village. He invited Bill to his home village of Ishunga, a remote village in Western Uganda. As he took Bill up on the hillside below his home, he told Bill that he had prayed for 25 years for a missionary to come to his village and open a mission center to help his people; he desired to sell the land to be used for God's work. That year was 2014, and Bill answered the Lord's call to step out in faith; the Lord provided the funds and the ministry purchased this land.
With no water, no electricity, nothing but hope and faith in the Lord's leading, Bill James and his family moved from the children's village and pitched their tents on that remote hillside in Ishunga. Miracle after miracle God provided. From the breaking of the ground for the first building, to the amazing testimony of what stands today as Ishunga Mission Outreach Center (IMOC), God provided.
The first outreach in the community was a children's VBS. The shocking arrival of 900 kids that morning was a breathtaking moment and God has not stopped taking our breath away since that day. He continues to grow the ministry and provide for greater opportunities to reach the lost. Our prayer is that God would continue to use the ministry of UKP to see families brought out of spiritual and physical poverty and be rescued, restored and regenerated in the abundant life that is offered through Jesus Christ.
Today that remote hillside is home to UKP's Ishunga Mission Outreat Center, UKP Academy, and the newest addition of a medical clinic.
