Our Story
The idea for the 314 Community was born from a simple but loving question about the future of secondary students in Uganda:
“What will happen to the students when they graduate?”
Our founder, Kelly Miller, who was the Dean of Student Life a school in Jinja, Uganda, was the recipient of that question. From that moment, Kelly was challenged to make sure there would be an acceptable answer.
That school, like other boarding schools in Uganda, is mostly populated with students from humble communities who are supported by sponsorship organizations. Unfortunately, but understandably, these organizations often lack the resources necessary to continue the support for their students beyond high school.
Once exposed to the reality of the challenges facing the sponsorship organizations who were sending students to secondary school, a small group of staff began to brainstorm about what an “alongside” program would look like to make sure every student had a real path to post-graduate education/ training and most importantly, the opportunity to transform their communities by living a visible, abundant, God-glorifying life.
The result of those conversations was an idea for an organization which would directly and indirectly provide resources, funding, and discipleship for secondary school graduates.
The name for the organization comes from 3 John 1:4
“I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.”
In this verse, “walking in the truth” means to organize one’s life around the teachings of Jesus... even when it goes completely against the culture of the world. For the founder of the 314 Community, the staff, and board members, we know of no joy greater than to watch students walk in faith which challenges the culture around them.