We just finished up our month in Kenya and we have been working at a small church in a small area outside of Nakuru, Kenya. The church was called Deliverance Church – Pipeline. Pipeline was the area we were in.
Each day we would go out for four hours or so and tell people about Christ. This was a new experience for me and I found it challenging, but good to talk to people with the intent of telling them about Jesus, but still being genuinely interested in them as people.
This was 3 out of the 4 weeks of my month. One week was spent in a town call Kitale where we worked at a place called Challenge Farm. This is a children’s home specifically for children who have been rescued from the streets. Most of these children have had problems with sniffing glue, abandonment, and many have been abused. The Challenge Farm has a great stuff. They not only meet the physical needs of the students, they also meet their mental, emotional, and spiritual needs. This is not a home that just provides food, they have social workers, counselors, and chaplains for the young people. They analyze each child individually and decide the best way to meet their needs and how to get them back to being a productive member of society.
I remember one specific child they called Pastor. He had not been to school before the Challenge Farm and he was 15 years old. They made a special accelerated school program to teach him basic life skills in reading and math. After learning a short amount of time, Pastor began learning different works skills like farming and construction.
Other students that got to the Challenge Farm earlier in life attended school. Three or four young men and women who started at Challenge Farm now attend university and many more are attending trade schools to learn a profession.
This place really touched me in that the people at Challenge Farm are into the long-term development of students. They don’t just feed the students until they are 18. They continue to help the students until they are successful and can be productive members of society.
One moment that stuck out in my mind from the other 3 weeks of ministry was a family of four with the mother’s name being Ann. Erin and I were with one of the ministry contacts walking down the street on a normal ministry evangelism day. We came upon this family. The mother looked very sad and depressed. She did not look like she wanted to talk with us, but with some persuasion from our contact agreed to let us talk to them. Erin shared about having a relationship with Jesus and how He can be your friend and can give purpose to your life.
We spent a fair amount of time at the house talking with her about who Jesus was and what He had done in both Erin and my life.
She asked Jesus into her heart that day and we prayed with her. We invited her to church and three days later she came. After the service, she told us her full story. She told us how she had used her last 250 schillings to purchase poison in order to kill her 3 children and herself. She was planning to do it the day we came to visit her. She was crying and was so grateful that we had shared Jesus with her. It showed up how on a day when we weren’t sure how much we were accomplishing or whether decisions about receiving Christ were actually real or just an obligation due to having Mzungus (white people) sharing with her. This really clarified we were there for a reason and that meeting people in these situations was just a fluke or luck.
The following Sundays she attended church and was a different lady. Erin purchased a Bible for her which she held dearly and she also started to come with us when we went out to do evangelism. She has a desire now to reach people who lack hope like she did with the hope of Jesus Christ.
As we got to know her more, her full story began to come out. During our final Sunday in church, she shared how her father was killed during an uprising in 1992. Her husband was killed in the 2008 uprising following the contested presidential elections. She was an internally displaced person (had to move because of violence where she was from) to the Pipeline area. She started a business using 200 schillings. It grew to over 18,000 before some people took advantage of her and stole everything she had. All she had left was the 250 schillings she had used to buy the poison to kill she and her family. God intervened and now she is back starting a new business and looking forward to what God has for her in the future. I am so thankful to have had the opportunity to share about Jesus with Ann and to see her life and her family’s life changed in one month.
I could tell many other stories from this month and from my first 4 months on the race. God has done amazing things in people’s lives and in my own. I am privileged to be here and am approaching another financial support deadline. I need to raise $3500 in the next few weeks in order to continue The World Race. Would you prayerfully consider giving in order to help me reach people like Ann around the world?
If you have questions, please comment. You can also give directly on my blog website on the left column where it says Support Me! If you receive this via email, you can get to my World Race website by going to www.codyodonnell.theworldrace.org
Thank you and God bless.
Cody O.
