Kenya — Called to Make a Change

Over the years, we’ve all seen many heart-wrenching photos of starving children and staggering statistics of poverty from around the world. Sadly, many of us have come to believe it is all an unfortunate, irreversible reality.

Often I have heard discouraged believers say, “Well, Jesus did say the poor we would always have with us.” Of course, that is true. Yet, let me ask you: if this were your child in the photo — if she was poor, hungry and thirsty, sick with no medicine — would you resign yourself and say to her, “Sorry, Jesus said the poor will always be with us”? Of course you wouldn’t! You would do everything within your power to change her situation. We can’t change the condition of the whole world, but we can make a change.

These children may not be our sons, daughters or grandchildren, but they do belong to Jesus. They live in place like Nairobi, Kenya, where our ministry team met one such girl last month. She wasn’t just a photo or a statistic when we met her; she is a living, breathing, laughing, crying, hoping, real little girl whom Jesus loves with all his heart. He isn’t resigned to simply accepting her condition as unfortunate and irreversible. He is telling us to get involved and to make her situation reversible. He is calling us to make a change.

As a result of our recent pastors’ conference in Nairobi, we have found favor among ministers there, and they are pleading for help from their brothers and sisters in the West. Our team will be returning soon, and we are developing plans to take food, medicine and supplies — and beyond that, to send people.

Local churches in Nairobi are already extending themselves to care for “the least of these,” yet they need the type of resources that we in the West can help provide. We are currently talking with a team of nurses and missionaries who are willing to move to this area and partner with the local churches to work among the hundreds of thousands living in Nairobi’s worst slums.

We’re grateful that, through your involvement, we can launch out in Jesus’ name to meet the need of the girl in this picture, and many more just like her — real people, with real needs, deeply loved by Jesus.

How can you help?
Prayer support is vital to the success of any missions endeavor. We are in need of people who are committed to pray for us and the Kenyan people as we seek to minister in this area.

If you or your church are interested in learning more about this mission and opportunities to get involved, or if you would like to contribute financially, please call the World Challenge Missions office at (719) 487-7888.