A Dangerous Prayer

Hello Friends

I am now sitting at Dulles Airport in DC getting ready to take off for our flight to Nairobi, Kenya to spend time with leaders of an orphan ministry to kids who have lost both their parents to AIDS. This trip is the climax of a long journey for me.

Let me share how I ended up at this point briefly.

Last summer, I became bombarded by the AIDS crisis in Africa, and felt like this is something that the church in the US has to find ways to partner with churches in Africa to do something about it. I also felt like we as individualistic Americans have a lot to learn from the African church as they start from a much more communal perspective on the world. As a leader in seminary, I prayed to God that if he could use me to do anything about the situation, that I needed to find people that I could trust to learn more about the culture and learn how to partner in a way that is healthy. I also know there are a ton of great organizations working to care for orphans in Africa, but my intuition told me that there have to be grassroots church ministries that could be multiplied if only we identify trustworthy leaders to partner with. I prayed for a friend and ministry partner, and God led me to Joseph.

Over the next few weeks, I started talking with my friend Kinoti Meme from our Fuller housing community who worked for World Vision in Kenya for three years before coming to Fuller to get his advice about these ideas. He led me to Joseph, a great friend of his and proven leader, who started taking in orphans who lost both their parents to AIDS a few years ago. Currently, they are caring for just over 90 orphans through their church, and are working to develop a holistic care sanctuary. Over the last year, Joseph and I have built a great friendship and we planned this trip to come to Kenya to see how God would lead us partner together in the future.

I also called my friend Jason, one of the pastors at our new church community, Visio Dei, and invited him to come along. We planned our trip for August 1-14.

Over that time, I felt like I didn't know enough about Kenyan culture so I started studying it with through my degree in Cross-Cultural Studies and learning about various models of orphan ministry.

During one of my classes, I contacted Dough Milham (who founded a non-profit called Discover the World to bridge gaps between resources in the west and the needs of orphans in Kenya), he has about thirty years on me and vast ministry experience including world vision in kenya.

Anyway, great guy, gives good hugs too.

We started meeting so I could learn about what he does and he asked me when I was planning to go to Kenya, and it turns out he had already planned a trip for Nairobi (the same place Joseph works) for the exact same dates we were planning to go. He helped us buy our tickets at a missionary discount and has been very helpful in preparing for the trip.

He is also coming to Joseph's ministry as a potential partnership for the future as well.

It is really crazy sometimes how God works, and I'm excited to be apart of this story and see how He leads us.

My prayer is that our relationship with rooted in Him, overflowing with love and depth of insight, and His passion for God's children that are in need of family and hope.

Please pray for us during our time there. Hopefully, I'll be able to post pictures on the blog and keep you updated.

Much Love

CP