Where do children suffer more than any place on the Earth? 

According to the Reverend Carlos Rodriguez, executive secretary of the Justice and Peace Commission, an international body, it’s Northern Uganda. Today over three million children, about ten percent of the country’s population are orphans. 

Over the past two decades, Northern Uganda has been ravaged by brutal conflict between the governments of the Sudan and Uganda, and various rebel groups. The war has wreaked havoc on the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. Sadly, many of those victims are untold numbers of children and adolescents. 

The children are victims of a rebellion waged by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a religious rebel group bent on overthrowing the government in Northern Uganda. Since the group assembled in the 1980’s, it is estimated that 20,000 or more children have been abducted, 200,000 people have died as a result of the war and the appalling sanitation and health conditions. About 1.5 million more have been displaced in one of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Reports say that there are still more than 5,000 children missing. 

The rebel movement is responsible for the kidnapping of children and using them as soldiers, shields, porters, and sex slaves or objects. Many children are forced to take part in acts of violence and atrocity, or made to face these things themselves. Children witness brutal killings, sometimes of a close relative, like a mother, father, brother, or sister, or they themselves have been raped, tortured, brutalized, maimed, deprived of food or water, or even forced to kill. 

In our own travels to Uganda, we see children with visible bullet and machete wounds, missing fingers and limbs, and very young pregnant girls. However, many of the wounds are the unseen ones, those caused by abuse, and by witnessing the cruelty and violence of a brutal civil war.

While Uganda’s capital lures tourists as a peaceful, lush, place, the northern part of the country is a desolate, disconcerting region filled with congested camps of displaced refugees—men, women, and thousands of children living in conditions unfit for any type of life. They survive only on food aid, and barely survive at that.

Many children are “night commuters.” Terrified of being captured by the rebel army, exploited, or killed, each day they walk on foot, sometimes for miles, to the relative safety of larger towns, with nothing more than a sleeping mat tucked under their arm. Each evening at dusk, hundreds of children can be found huddled and sleeping together in areas where rebels are less likely to attack. All that these precious children want is to stay alive to see morning.

However, children in Uganda are not only victims of the rebel movement’s civil war, they have also become innocent victims of the AIDS crises. Hundreds of thousands of children have seen both parents die from the AIDS epidemic which, according to the government, brings the total number of orphaned children in Uganda to about three million.


FRESH FIRE's MISSION TO RESCUE CHILDREN Fresh Fire Ministries is committed to rescuing the children of Northern Uganda, and to loving them into the Kingdom by providing for their primary and immediate needs. The most pressing need is their safety from exploitation through shelter, and then food, clothing, medical care, and schooling.

Fresh Fire Ministries, with your help, and the help of others, are building a “Jesus Village” in Kampala, Uganda, consisting of about 50 homes housing about 10 children each, a private school, a medical clinic, and recreational facilities. This project will house 500 of Uganda’s estimated three million orphans, and will provide education to an additional 300 boarding students.

We anticipate that these children’s village facilities will become a template for many more Fresh Fire Ministries children’s villages and homes that we hope to build in Africa. The cost of these children’s homes is about $1.5 million USD, of which we have already raised $250,000. As we build more homes, thousands of children will be rescued from the streets and provided for. Above all else, they’ll be loved.

FFM recently sent out its first missionaries to Uganda: Luke and Suzanne Jones and their four boys, as well as Andrew Dekezel. These mercy missionaries will help oversee the Jesus Village project, including the building of homes and care of the children. 

In May, 2006, FFM purchased two children’s houses close to the FFM church and our offices in Kampala. The renovation of these houses is already underway; the first house will be completed July 2006. Recently an FFM team traveled to northern Uganda and brought back 20 children orphaned by the genocide. We have the promised support of the Ugandan government to help protect us as we continue to make ongoing trips to rescue these children. We will bring more children back to the safety and security of Jesus Village homes as we raise the funds necessary to build more houses. 


PROPOSED PROJECT LOCATION: Kampala, Uganda

PROJECT: At the recommendation of our African coordinator, Pastor Gerald Mwebe, we will not be housing the 500 children in dormitories on one big compound. By placing children in homes in villages (areas of the city of about 100 thousand people) in Kampala, and hiring a house mom from Northern Uganda, the children will be better cared for. 

Each child will be integrated into the community and culture, educated in a Christian school system, and fathered by a house dad. Working with “The Father’s Heart” program of Fresh Fire’s home-based church in Kampala, men from the community will volunteer to become house dad’s to assist the house mom in caring for the emotional needs of the children.  Our plan is to build homes in Ugandan villages that will, over the decades, save thousands of orphans from the streets and death, training them up to become the leaders of their country. This project will become a model we will replicate throughout Africa.

CHILDREN's HOMES: 50 homes to house 500 children at a cost of approximately $1.5 million USD.

MISSIONARY FACILITIES: Presently we are housing our missionaries on a compound with three homes. One of those homes will be available for guests from around the world who will be invited to spend their vacation on a “Champion Holiday,” helping our building team and volunteering at children’s homes.

LAND: We currently own 2.5 acres of land with two brick buildings where Fresh Fire plans to build a private school and recreational facilities, including sports fields and a play ground for the children.

SCHOOLS: Primary and secondary education will be provided to all 500 resident children. Staff will be hired to run the school and children will be bussed to the school. Presently Fresh Fire is helping fund the education of 140 local orphans that our local church in Uganda, Streams of Life, has been working with.

VEHICLES: We have purchased two vehicles, including a bus, for the transportation of our staff and children.

MEDICAL CLINIC: The medical clinic will not only serve the children and the staff, but will also be available for the community (on a pay-as-you-can basis)

FACULTY HOUSING: Will be constructed for the private school faculty and their families.

VOCATIONAL TRAINING: When children reach the higher grades (10-12), FFM plans to give them vocational training, by providing valuable skills in areas like bricklaying, construction, and computer. Not only will our children receive training at no cost, but paying students from the community will be trained too. The funds generated will help finance the on-going expenses.

ADMINISTRATION OFFICES: We presently have an administrative office in Uganda, with 14 staff, including an administration staff, a crusade road team, and worship/prayer staff.

CHILD SPONSORSHIP & OPERATING COSTS: FFM is implementing a monthly child sponsorship program to care for orphans. The program will provide good housing, a quality Christian-based education, and regular wholesome meals. If you are interested in becoming a monthly sponsor for one of the Jesus Village children for $33 U.S. per month, please contact us at the contact info listed below. With your help, children won’t have to flee for their lives anymore. They won’t have to seek a safe place to sleep at night. They won’t be terrorized or exploited. They’ll know another way of life—what it feels like to be a child; loved, valued, and cared for. 

Thank you for supporting Fresh Fire Ministries and our orphans.


HOW CAN YOU GET INVOLVED? Thank you for supporting Fresh Fire Ministries and our orphans. 


For more information, or to find out how you can help the children, please contact:

Greg Castro at 604-853-9041 ext. 243, e-mail: gcastro@freshfire.ca 
Bob Maryniuk at 604-853-9041 ext. 236, e-mail: bmaryniuk@freshfire.ca