Covid lockdown relief for rural Kenya community
On Sunday, as I (Andy) was reflecting on George Floyd and the African American community and praying for a way to be involved, I received a WhatsApp from Kenya reminding me that we are already closely knit to a marginalized community there. While this doesn't excuse us from domestic racial reconciliation, I do believe God was using that (rare) moment of me wanting to serve others more than myself to be able to help a community desperate for intervention right now.
Many of you know our story, that we lived in Kenya for 7 years as missionaries and had a particularly close relationship with a small, very very rural Maasai community in southern Kenya. About a 6 hour drive from our home, half of that without real roads. Over the years we've brought many students, family members, and friends from the US as we sought to build relationships with the church elders in this community. Through the course of those relationships we were blessed to come alongside the elders as they strove to meet practical needs in their community, including a small dispensary for emergency medical needs, a vehicle for emergency transport, Maasai bibles, nutrition and health training, and a water catchment and filtration system.
While it has been 6 years since we've returned to the US, we've kept in touch with this community through the pastor. We've watched as his small church has planted other churches throughout the community, turned witchcraft into faith in Christ, and sought to meet the very real needs of the community through the church. It has been difficult for us to watch from afar and not be involved much anymore, but God has opened the door again.
Here is the message I received from the pastor on Sunday:
"Hi Andy & Lesa. I greet you in Jesus holy name our beloved savior. I trust the Lord that you and your family are doing well. We are also doing well here in Kenya together with our families despite of covid 19. The entire country of Kenya is now almost affected by the disease. But we are all safe and thank God.
Now we have a very big challenge which is really affecting the whole community and the whole church and all of our families as well. The challenge is that the whole country is under lockdown and nobody is allowed to travel to anywhere or run any kind of business. And, as you know, our people depend on what we call hand to mouth. So currently we have no food for our families. Our people are not able to have money to buy soap or facemasks either.
Some families already have children who have fainted and fallen down because of lack of something to eat. Everyone is required to stay at home in order to keep social distancing to other people.
My request for you and your family is that we really need your prayer support as well as financial assistance so that we can be able to have something to provide this people in order to save many lives. In our church have 100 families and we would like to give each 3000/- for food, plus a facemask, hand sanitizer and soaps, for a total of 3500/-.
If we can get this amount this will be a great help to our people. But we can also appreciate what God will provide.
Ashe oleng, meisisi yesu."
So, here we are, trying for the first time to crowdsource the funding for $3500, which will provide immediate nutritional relief and basic sanitation to this community. Many of you have been connected to this community and its beautiful, caring, generous people. Will you join us in praying for them and contributing to help our brothers and sisters?
3500 Kenyan shillings is approximately $35 per family. So we hope to raise $3,500 for the 100 families there that the pastor identified. He will administer this project and will provide us updates, with photos. Thank you for considering joining us.
I've removed photos from the earlier post and some details about the name of the community and the pastor. I hadn't realized the risk we could place them in by advertising publicly their location. There are many communities like this in Kenya who are struggling with the same needs. We are just trying to do our part with the ones that God has knit us together with.
Ashe oleng,
Olodupa (Andy) and Naromat (Lesa) and David and Sarah Parker
Many of you know our story, that we lived in Kenya for 7 years as missionaries and had a particularly close relationship with a small, very very rural Maasai community in southern Kenya. About a 6 hour drive from our home, half of that without real roads. Over the years we've brought many students, family members, and friends from the US as we sought to build relationships with the church elders in this community. Through the course of those relationships we were blessed to come alongside the elders as they strove to meet practical needs in their community, including a small dispensary for emergency medical needs, a vehicle for emergency transport, Maasai bibles, nutrition and health training, and a water catchment and filtration system.
While it has been 6 years since we've returned to the US, we've kept in touch with this community through the pastor. We've watched as his small church has planted other churches throughout the community, turned witchcraft into faith in Christ, and sought to meet the very real needs of the community through the church. It has been difficult for us to watch from afar and not be involved much anymore, but God has opened the door again.
Here is the message I received from the pastor on Sunday:
"Hi Andy & Lesa. I greet you in Jesus holy name our beloved savior. I trust the Lord that you and your family are doing well. We are also doing well here in Kenya together with our families despite of covid 19. The entire country of Kenya is now almost affected by the disease. But we are all safe and thank God.
Now we have a very big challenge which is really affecting the whole community and the whole church and all of our families as well. The challenge is that the whole country is under lockdown and nobody is allowed to travel to anywhere or run any kind of business. And, as you know, our people depend on what we call hand to mouth. So currently we have no food for our families. Our people are not able to have money to buy soap or facemasks either.
Some families already have children who have fainted and fallen down because of lack of something to eat. Everyone is required to stay at home in order to keep social distancing to other people.
My request for you and your family is that we really need your prayer support as well as financial assistance so that we can be able to have something to provide this people in order to save many lives. In our church have 100 families and we would like to give each 3000/- for food, plus a facemask, hand sanitizer and soaps, for a total of 3500/-.
If we can get this amount this will be a great help to our people. But we can also appreciate what God will provide.
Ashe oleng, meisisi yesu."
So, here we are, trying for the first time to crowdsource the funding for $3500, which will provide immediate nutritional relief and basic sanitation to this community. Many of you have been connected to this community and its beautiful, caring, generous people. Will you join us in praying for them and contributing to help our brothers and sisters?
3500 Kenyan shillings is approximately $35 per family. So we hope to raise $3,500 for the 100 families there that the pastor identified. He will administer this project and will provide us updates, with photos. Thank you for considering joining us.
I've removed photos from the earlier post and some details about the name of the community and the pastor. I hadn't realized the risk we could place them in by advertising publicly their location. There are many communities like this in Kenya who are struggling with the same needs. We are just trying to do our part with the ones that God has knit us together with.
Ashe oleng,
Olodupa (Andy) and Naromat (Lesa) and David and Sarah Parker
Co-organizers2
Andy Brown
Organizer
Colorado Springs, CO
David B. Parker
Co-organizer