When Pastor Justine, a former schoolteacher, arrived in Kindulwe Village to plant Zion Victory Church, her heart broke for the children she saw wandering the village’s dirt streets. In Uganda (as in most African countries), even public schools must charge school fees that put education out of reach for poor and vulnerable children. Some of the children had parents, others did not. She met a boy who often slept “in the bush” with his grandmother, a girl who had lost an eye, another little girl living with HIV. She met mothers who had been abandoned by their husbands and their husbands’ families. She gathered the children together and began to teach them what she could without any supplies or even food to feed them at lunchtime. More children showed up, some going home with her every night because they had nowhere else to go. She rented a space for the school (seen in photos and videos below). She found ways to buy the first few children uniforms so they would not feel less than all the other children they see who can afford school fees at the public schools. “I started Hope of Peace,” Pastor Justine says, “because of the pain I had for these children who were not able to go to school. We had no materials but we started with faith and waited for God’s help.”

At last count, Hope of Peace had 36 students from toddlers to young teenagers. 12 of those children spend at least some nights at Pastor Justine’s house each week. The children who do have parents come from impoverished homes that cannot pay any school fees. A fellow Ugandan pastor says of Pastor Justine, whom he has since 1997 says of her, “I was her pastor before God called her to start her church and school [in Kindulwe]. She is a teacher by profession and is using her talent to serve God and help children. The village where she moved is very poor. They dig using hand tools to grow meager amounts of food. She is called by God and has paid a high price for her ministry.”

By the Holy Spirit’s work through Pastor Justine, the children of Hope of Peace Christian School receive love, education, instruction in the Christian faith, and a full belly every day. They have the hope of a future they never could have imagined before God led Pastor Justine to their village.