We spent today meeting with the six men we call "Orphanage Workers". This term is a little confusing so I'll explain. Remember that the orphanages grew out of a different work here in Kenya called World Bible School. The premise is this: People around the world can take a correspondence course to learn how to become a christian. The World Bible School organization partners with GCR and other churches to grade these tests, and carry on a student-teacher relationship with interested people around the world, via the mails.
GCR has been assigned Kenya as it's area of operation. Over 10 years ago, John DeFore, our GCR ministry head for WBS, decided that the course was great but that when a student sought baptism, it was difficult to get him in touch with the right people in Kenya. So he began hiring Kenyan preachers to become follow-up workers. These workers would meet with the student, answer any questions, baptism them and get the connected with a church in their area. If there was no church, they planted one. This has been wildly successful. There are now 22 WBS workers in Kenya. Every year over 1,000 students are baptized and dozens of new churches are started.
A few years ago, some of these new churches began to realize that the AIDS epidemic was leaving thousands of orphans to be cared for. Every family had some, and few could adequately care for them. They told their WBS workers, who told John, who told anyone who would listen, and money to care for orphans began to flow. The Holy Spirit is alive and well!
Now there are eight orphanages within the area of responsibility of six WBS workers. These are the men that John and I, and Cherie Creech, and John Cherry (all members of the board of directors for the GCR WBS Orphanage Ministry) met with today. Each of these men is a strong christian, a gifted teacher, and good administrators. There plates are very full. Our time was spent going over changes in structure related to all the growth that we have been having, as well as brainstorminig new ideas, and general encouragement. I'll skip the details; if you are interested, ask me or any of us when we get home.
I've posted pictures of these men on the picassa page, follow the link at the right.
After the meeting we made a leisurely drive to Kericho, once again to lay our heads at the Tea Hotel. Tomorrow we will see our last orphanage, Londiani, and begin the journey to Nairobi. Thanks for listening.
4 comments:
How neat to see how God has worked through all of this, starting with WBS and then on to the orphanages. It is wonderful see such dedicated men and women willing to do such a great work. I know God will continue to bless the unbelievable ministry! Lisa
Thanks for the reminder that God is working. So easy to lose sight of that in Midland, America!
So cool! I want to hear about the meeting, so I will be asking questions upon ya'll's return. Please tell mom that she better be ready to talk when she gets back!
Kinda reminds me of the impact of Paul on the world of his time. Oh that we could understand how powerful the Holy Spirit can be when we are yielded to Him.
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