Kenya Part II: Africa Hope Center

Besides making a friendship with Joseph, the best thing about our time in Kenya was participating in the Africa Hope Center.

One of the beautiful things about the ministry of Africa Hope Center is that it is a grassroots response to a crisis in their own community. They are taking great risks and making really serious sacrifices to not only meet the needs of these kids and provide a family of hope for them, but develop their gifts and create opportunities for the future. These kids are incredibly creative, bright, and resilient. I had so much fun seeing their family of 80 laughing, dancing, learning, growing, and playing together. I want to advocate for them in the best I can because of what they are doing, not because they have it all together (kind of like us).



They are taking care of 80 kids in home that have lost both their parents to AIDS, and ten other kids who have AIDS in partnership with their host family since they currently don't have the facility to take care of them there. The workers in the home are my new heroes. Right now, only five full-time workers care for 80 kids. That is not a great ratio, and I was very inspired to see them selflessly pouring their lives out to serve and love and bring hope to the kids there. And the thing is, they don't see it as sacrifice. It is normal. They are just obeying God through their lives. I think they help us think about obedience different than how we think about it in our culture when it is convenient for us. Where service is extra credit for us, service is life for them.













I will never forget learning the stories of the kids in the center, seeing their creativity expressed through dance, story, drama, and poems. They spoke from the soul and touched mine. We also had some really good ice cream together and they played balloon volleyball like I've never seen.


For those of you who are interested in their needs, there are multiple ways to get involved financially, investing in prayer, or preparing to go spend time with them in the future:

• we found someone to do the website: thank you Amy Williams!

• they need more sponsorship money for all of the kids- right now, they are about half-sponsored a piece, so they need 100 people to donate between 25 and 50 dollars a month.

• they need to hire more full-time workers- I'd like to see 10 hired. Their monthly salary is $250

• they are just starting the initial stages of planning the development of the care center (they are currently renting one in Kayole), and need about 20,000 more dollars to buy the land

• we need a team of people to help care for kids and workers, provide teacher/child care worker training, brainstorm with micro-finance options, people who want to build/clean/dig stuff, job training and e-commerce, leadership/development, counseling care

One of the beautiful things about having such a good relationship with Joseph is that we get to help meet needs together as a global family in Christ. I was changed as much as I touched anyone's life there. For one, I have friends on the other side of the world that motivate me to live for Christ. My family got a lot bigger. For two, I am motivated to live more simply, obediently, and sacrificially. For three, I had a lot of fun joking with Joseph and learning from the way they carry out their ministries. For four, I will never forget the sights, smells, stories, and kids I encountered there.

I'd love to talk more with anyone who is interested