But he is also more than a conqueror and is dedicating his life to helping the lost children of Kampala.
Often, Christians will cry out to hear the voice of God, to hear a calling in their lives. But are they all willing to accept the hardships that calling can bring?
Kityo is.
It may not be a path he intended to walk, but it is a path he is willing to take to honour the Lord Jesus Christ and to answer that call on his life.
Kityo, 24, has been a orphan since he was 10 years old. His parents both died of AIDS, a disease that is ravaging his homeland of Uganda.
“I came to confess Christ as my Lord and saviour because I found that now I had nothing left in this world except the Lord who created me,” he said of his rebirth at age 15.
Kityo and his two brothers were taken in and cared for by a friend of his mothers, a lady from their church, but she too passed in 2010.
The loss was devastating and the young man found himself alone once again, with two brothers to look after.
But God had mighty plans for Kityo, plans to prosper him and to use him to care for and bless many others.
Kityo's mother and the woman who stepped in to be his surrogate mother shared a vision and a desire to help the orphans of their area. They laboured together to feed, clothe and care for the lost children of Kampala, the capital of Uganda and home to more than 1.5 million people.
Even before Kityo was born, his mother had a vision and a desire to help children. Since she was an HIV victim, her vision was mainly based in reaching out to young children and orphans who were also AIDS/HIV victims. She started out alone in her own home where she would bring in the lost and needy children of the area.
Kityo grew up with the these children, but when the ravaging disease of AIDS claimed his mother and her friend, the children dispersed into the city.
Kityo decided he would move on and try to build a life with his two brothers.
But the call of God grew stronger.
"Now, I was some how a man at least, I made twenty years of age, but most of the other children we had grown with had now scattered to different places. I was now left with my two brothers only. My calling started here. At first when the children scattered, I tried to forget the past, I wanted to start new life with my brothers because they were the only ones at that time who were my family now. I made myself busy now trying to forget everything and the journey we had left behind.," he said.
But God had other plans for the humble young man.
"You can never have peace until you have done what God purposed you," he said. "For sure I lost peace, my heart wasn’t settled, I was always thinking of the other children. Guilt was all over my heart. Whenever I would close my eyes to rest, nightmares were the order of the day. I used to see people chasing me, children crying at me, clothed in rags stretching their hands towards me as if they wanted some help."
Kityo tried to ignore the tugging at his heart for two months, but he knew something was amiss in his life. He wanted to keep his mother's dream alive, but he was scared of the responsibility such an undertaking involved.
Then, he one night as he slept a fitful sleep, he had a different dream. Not of one of desperate children, but a visit from a single man.
"This is real, I always testify about it wherever I go. That night when I went into my bed, I got a dream and I remember this person asking me two questions "Do you want what your mother desired most to just go away like that? Do you want to help people?" First I kept quiet because I had never seen this man’s face before, it was really shining. Secondly I thought helping meant to first have money. I was really troubled. I responded back to him 'I am an orphan with nothing and poor physically.' He answered me, “Who is the owner of this world and all its fulfillments?” I answered back that it is the Lord and this person told me to go and do "my will." After giving me the instructions, this person disappeared, I never saw where he passed," said Kityo of a night that changed his destiny forever.
Kityo knew the man in his dream was God.
"God always speaks, but some times people don’t get to understand His voice."
Kityo knew what he must do, he just did not know how to do it. He prayed God would strengthen him and renew his mother's dream in his heart and that the children who had once lived with her would return. But God put a different message in his mind: a reminder his mother always saw new generations of children coming to her home for help.
"I started again to build the vision right away from the few people I had. These are my brothers who were now with me. I didn’t mind how hard work was going to be for me, for I believe In God who had started now this work in me."
Kityo little about evangalism, but he did know God was using him to reach the lost children and gave himself wholly to the will of God.
"I learned that for God to use you, He doesn’t need you to first get prepared. He can use you in what ever situation He finds you as long as you are in the right place at the right time His will to be done."
With confidence given by the Lord, Kityo began his ministry. He started with a gospel-based outreach into the community.
There he saw the challenges the orphans were facing, something that became his biggest inspiration and motivated him to carry on even in the face of daunting challenges.
"HIV/AIDS, poverty and poor/inadequate health facilities had left many innocent children orphans and hopeless with nothing or nobody to look up to for support," he said. "They are traumatized with no proper education, many are homeless with no psycho-social support yet this was the major target group and vision for my late mother. My mother was poor physically, but she had a strong belief and a rich heart. I started visiting some of the neediest families who were not only lacking but even victims of AIDS/HIV most especially young sick children."
But Kityo had no money to care for these children, so he started with the one thing he did have: love.
He used the gifts God had given him to bless the children. He taught them how to sing and discovered other talents they had been given. He also taught the children how to behave in public and how to do work around the community, such as cleaning people's homes.
" So far the number of children we have is 30. Most of them are staying with their guardians, others in Samaritans for shelter while a few are with me at the moment," he said.
The reason the children are not together is Kityo has no where to house them and he is praying God will find them a home.
But there are other, smaller but still urgent needs that also need to be addressed.
"We need a computer or laptop and some cameras. Sometimes we need to put posts and new updates but we can not but if only we can get access to these machines, our communication will be solved,
"Food and clothing are also serious problems. We need food and clothes. Some well wishers give them clothes for the children and we thank God for this at the moment because it shows that they feel the agony.
"Over the months, we have solely relied on gifts and contributions from well wishers. Though the small amount realized wasn’t enough to accomplish our programs, the little available funds were used responsibly and effectively. I thank God very much for the little provision He has forwarded to us to help the children."
Some of the children are not able to attend school - the students have to pay to attend school and must provide their own supplies - so Kityo tries to keep them learning through song, dance, drumming and reading Christian material.
"The daily life we are living is not a bit bad, but we always expect life to be like a game. Today you win, tomorrow you lose. Life is not always expected to be fair, even our Lord and savior taught us that. He said that He never promised us we will not meet problems in life. He said problems will come our way, but we should rejoice that even though they will come, He will always be there with us until slowly by slowly the problem will depart. So, what we got to know about life is that life is like a weighing scale, it has to balance and in fact this is normal. No life is great without challenges, we always know that life turns to be good after passing through a lot of challenges."
There are many challenges facing Just For All Orphans and Widows Ministry, but Kityo is determined to see God's will be done.
"This ministry is a non-profit Christian faith based organization and it’s major aim is to build an academically sound, healthy, morally upright and self-sustaining community geared towards triumphantly facing the challenges of poverty, illiteracy and unemployment. Our vision statement is 'social services for all the un-reached.' Our mission statement is to 'promote education, healthy living, equality, alleviation of poverty through collaborative planning, community initiative, sensitization and policy advocacy.'
For more details, contact Kityo at justorphansandwidowsministry@
