“It started in my wife’s heart,” said Robert Mponye about the ministry to vulnerable children that he and his wife, Esther, began several years ago in their home country of Uganda. “She was an orphan herself.”
When Esther was thirteen, her father passed away. Her mother and her extended family couldn’t care for her, so they discarded her. “They threw her away,” Robert said, recalling his wife’s tragic story. “And so she lived with this sense of rejection.”
Two years later, at the age of fifteen, Esther met Jesus and her life was transformed. She was immediately given a heart to serve others, especially children who had been rejected.
When Robert and Esther met and got married in 2000, they had a dream together of caring for orphaned children. “We knew we wanted to take them into our arms and love them,” said Robert, “but we didn’t know where to begin.”
Then God sent Grace into their lives.
Grace was a baby who was born to a mother who didn’t want her. On the day of her birth, Grace was wrapped in a plastic bag and thrown into a public toilet.
On the day of her birth, Grace was wrapped in a plastic bag and thrown into a public toilet.
Fortunately, the bag ripped as it tumbled into the toilet and Grace was able to keep breathing. The next morning, at 5:30 AM, a woman came to use the toilet and heard a baby crying. She called for help and people came running. Together they rescued Grace and brought her to the local hospital where doctors immediately went to work on her, to remove the filth from her eyes and mouth, and to give her the medication she needed to survive. But once the doctors saw that Grace would live, they didn’t know what to do with her next.
At that point, one of Robert and Esther’s children heard about the incident and came home to tell their mother about the baby who had no one to take care of her.
“At the time, I was on a ministry trip in another part of the country,” said Robert, “Esther called and said, ‘There is a baby in the hospital who I feel the Lord is asking me to bring into our house.’ I responded, ‘If the Lord is speaking, then let’s obey.’”
For Robert and Esther, that was the beginning. They took Grace into their small house and cared for her like she was one of their own. When Grace was five years old, the couple started King’s Kid Home School. Now, more than twenty years later, Robert and Esther are involved in caring for hundreds of children. Today, 359 children attend daily classes at the school and 107 are full-time residents in the home. “It started with Grace. She was our first King’s kid!” said Robert. “But God sent many more Graces to us.”
Over the years, this ministry to orphaned children has developed into a broad ministry that now includes a network of church plants, a Bible School, a vocational school, a children’s choir, a medical clinic, evangelistic outreaches, farming and much more.
“God sees the lonely and vulnerable and he invites them into his family.”
As for Grace, according to her proud parents, she has become a great blessing to many. “Through her life and her transformation by Jesus, many children and many communities have been impacted, ” Robert said. “She’s such a great girl and her future is for the nations!”
Now seventeen years old, Grace is living a joyful life. She’s currently doing a hair dressing course, which follows in Esther’s footsteps. Grace loves to make the hair of women, both young and old, look beautiful! She has a dream of becoming one of the best beauticians of her generation! Grace is also gifted in music and enjoys leading her church family into God’s presence through praise and worship. “When she leads,” Robert said, “people are always blessed.”
“God sees the lonely and vulnerable and he invites them into his family,” said Robert. “He rescued Grace seventeen years ago and brought her into our family. He’s still doing that today across Uganda and around the world.”
PRAY/GIVE
Please pray for Grace as she continues to grow and mature as a young woman of God. Pray also for Robert and Esther as they lead this vital ministry to vulnerable children in Uganda.
Multiply has been partnering with this ministry since 2018. To contribute financially to the ongoing operating costs of the King’s Kid Home School in Uganda, go to multiply.net/uganda
