For those of you who are new to this blog and our trip/mission, I need to give a little background. We are a group of volunteers who have been going to Kenya each summer since 2013 to work with a ministry called SWOK (Start With One Kenya). The team members vary, with some of us having gone all six years and a few newcomers each year. Team size also varies. We have had as many as 31 and as few as 14. This year we are a team of 16. Team members are:
Tom Wolff - co-leader
Cindy Wolff
George Stewart - co-leader
John Heemer
Jane Heemer
Laura Heemer
Janice Butterworth
Dale Plummer
Christine Specht
Mark Specht
Lars Specht
Oksana Specht
Steve Trandahl
Leslie Hinderliter
Andi Hall
Jim Hall
And I get the opportunity to be the self-appointed team scribe each year. It's not an elected position, it doesn't pay, but I get well-rewarded nonetheless. I need to clarify one thing: although I write for the team, I don't mean to speak for everyone. These are my thoughts and opinions, and I'm certain that not everyone agrees with everything I say. So if I say something in one of these blogs that you take exception to, blame me, not the team. It's not my goal to preach to you or get over-religious in this blog. But I also don't want to hide the truth or our purpose either. We are all Christians who are going on this trip. We are going to do what we can to help and "to be the hands and feet of Jesus". Sure, there are non-Christian groups that do similar humanitarian work for other reasons, and I applaud them for their work - don't stop! But we do what we do because we are Christians and we believe we have a moral obligation to help our brothers and sisters wherever they are. Some who have been on our team in prior years are going to Houston (who thought that would be a good idea in July??) next week to do relief work from the hurricane last year, and won't be able to join us. But wherever the Lord calls us to help, we should be ready and willing to do so.
I've been lots of places over the years to do missions work, primarily construction. I've done working trips to Dominican Republic, Peru, Poland, Holland and lots of stateside trips for volunteer repair work in Maryland, Mississippi and Louisiana. The first year when this trip to Kenya was discussed, I was not on board and had no interest, and I really don't know why. I said I'd go, but I thought I had my trump card and wouldn't have to go: the trip was going to cost $105,000 to send a team of 35, and I thought there was no way we could raise that amount of money and the trip would be cancelled. But when the Lord's hand is in it, a little thing like money is never a problem. That year and every year since, we have been overwhelmed with support, and money has never been an issue. Many of you reading this blog are among our financial (and prayer) supporters, and we could not do this without you. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU! We count it as a sacred charge to use your donations wisely and prudently. We always have more funds than we need, and we believe the Lord wants us to use the funds for Kenya in the year received and not to hold them on account for the next years' trip. We have always prayed about how the Lord wants us to use the excess funds. The needs of a ministry like SWOK are varied and sometimes overwhelming, and Bill and Chat are great about seeking the Lord's will and direction for where to help and what to stay away from. When we are there, we meet nightly to "download" our thoughts as a team about what we have experienced that day and where we have seen the Lord working. We function as a church body, unencumbered by process and protocol and able to act where we see the Lord directing. We talk about needs we have seen and how we might help. We have had the opportunity in prior years to use resources to help urgent medical needs, send teachers to college with a commitment to come back and serve in the Gituamba community school, send pastors for training, provide a daily lunch feeding program to keep kids in school, hire Kenyans to work construction with us and help support their families, purchase electric ovens for the school kitchen we built, etc. Having the flexibility to pinpoint needs and direct resources to them is a real blessing.
We are blessed to be able to work through and for SWOK, which is run by Bill and Chat Coble and supported by a team of fantastic Kenyans. They have become dear friends, and we look forward to seeing and working with them each year. When you get a chance, take a look at the SWOK website. (http://startwithonekenya.org/) Their mission is difficult, but their philosophy is simple: Start With One. If you look around in Kenya, the possibilities are limitless but complex. Everywhere you look, there are problems and issues, and it would be easy to become overwhelmed with the magnitude of the work that needs to be accomplished to improve the lives of the people. But you're not going to get anywhere if you don't get started somewhere.
So you Start With One.
One problem.
One individual.
One school.
One church.
One community.
And you know what? Positive change happens, and the ball gets moved forward toward the goal. I've personally witnessed it. In the last five years of going to Kenya, I have seen positive progress every single year, and when I look back on the same issues and places, the improvement is phenomenal. Start With One Kenya has a multi-faceted mission, including clean water, education, improved health care and access to economic opportunities. They have brought access to clean water with family filtration units to over 21000 families in the last two years in the Lanet district and islands in Lake Victoria, and our team has had an active role in that. This year, they are well into a campaign to provide water filters to 15000 families in the Rongai District, and again, we will be involved in training and distribution in that campaign. Clean water is such a vital part of health, and it's a blessing for us to be able to be a part of this program.
Education is another critical aspect of helping a society move forward, and we have had several opportunities on that front over the years. We have done field days with students at several schools and were able to provide textbooks for a school of 1200 one year out of our surplus funds. We have worked each year on construction at the Gituamba IDP settlement, and much of this work has revolved around a large old stone barn. The Lord gave Bill Coble the vision that this building that most would have knocked down could be a thriving school for nearly 500 kids. Over the last five years it has been transformed through SWOK efforts into classrooms and the addition of a dining hall, kitchen and additional classroom buildings. It is a real testimony to what can be accomplished when you let the Lord direct the vision, and our teams have had the opportunity to see this transformation first hand.
I look forward to keeping you up to date on our daily activities and challenges. The next two days are filled with lots of travel and long hours. We arrive in Nairobi late on Monday night local time, and we'll be dead tired and ready to crash in bed after our team meeting. I'll try to get a short post up during the flights but the first real post will probably not be until sometime late Tuesday, so check in for an update. Thanks again for reading and for your prayer support!
Prayers as well as our hearts are with you! Be safe. Be true. Be a blessing to everyone you encounter. Godspeed my friends!
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