About
Word inDeed Ministries (“WID”) was born through the love and vision of Stephen DeMoss. Steve was introduced to Uganda in the late 1970’s through a fellow church member, Kefa Sempangi, who fled Uganda for the United States during the rule of Idi Amin. Kefa settled at New Life Church in Glenside, Pennsylvania, where Steve was actively involved as a youth just out of high school. Kefa Sempangi invited a team of young men from New Life to travel back to Uganda to help rebuild his home community, which was devastated by the Amin regime. In 1980, under the leadership of pastor Jack Miller, Steve, who was 19 years old, and four other young men boarded a plane to Uganda for a six-week trip to minister to the Ugandan people.
When reaching Kampala, the group was greeted by gunfire and mass chaos, which included five-foot walls of trash on the streets. They embarked on a unique mission to rid the streets of trash, while ministering to the people who lived amongst it. At night, young boys would follow them home, seeking shelter from the guns and violence on the streets. Steve’s home in Busega became a haven for street children, where he showed them the love of Christ through food and shelter, and introduced them to the God in heaven who loves and cares for them. He also passed on the one practical life skill he knew–painting. As a result of Steve’s ministry through word and in deed, these boys kept themselves off the streets when Steve returned to the United States, three and a half years after first leaving for Uganda on an intended six-week mission.
The initial church outreach, now known as the First Presbyterian Church of Kampala, has grown to include fifty-seven churches in and around the Kampala area. Steve has continued his holistic outreach not only in Uganda, but in Senegal, Kenya and the Sudan as well by establishing schools, farms, local businesses and medical clinics in needy communities. Word inDeed ministries was officially recognized as a non-profit organization on February 11, 2008, the same day Steve was rushed to the hospital and given only about a 2% chance of recovering from an aortic dissection. Steve has fully recovered and continues to travel to Africa. He also hopes to raise up and equip new people in his circle of relationships to carry on his life work.
You can watch this story about Steve that was televised on the Christian Broadcasting Network