Three days in Kenya = 14 miracles!
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Visitor uses social media to promote sponsorship
A trip to Africa to meet her family’s sponsored child was number one on Kelli Trowbridge’s bucket list, and it came true in January! That’s when she accompanied her husband Shane, a multi-media specialist at CMF, on a trip to Nairobi, Kenya, to film interviews at Missions of Hope International (MOHI).
She met Lincoln, their sponsored child, on the first day they were there. But as they walked to his house, her whole world shifted.
“I had never seen such poverty,” she said. “The more we saw, the more passionate I became. I was sick to my stomach at his living conditions.” |
Kelli and Shane Trowbridge met their sponsored child Lincoln when they visited MOHI. |
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Sharing the need
Kelli couldn’t sleep that night so she posted about her experiences on Facebook, asking her friends and family to consider sponsoring a child.
“If you want to sponsor a child,” she wrote, “we will be able to meet him or her and take a video. Let us know asap; we are only in this village for two more days.”
By the end of the night Kelli’s friends had sponsored eight children. Shane and Kelli decided to sponsor another little girl as well. By the end of the trip, their friends and family had sponsored 14 kids in Mathare!
Kelli and Shane Trowbridge began sponsoring Peace when they met her in Nairobi. |
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Before the Trowbridges left Africa, Mary Kamau, Executive Director of MOHI, told Kelli that the MOHI staff had been fasting and praying for sponsors in December.
“She told me that getting one child sponsored is a miracle, and that I gave them 14 miracles during my three days in Kenya!” said Kelli.
“Her statement humbled me,” she added. “All I did was ask. God did the work. He opened the hearts of my friends and family.” Kelli shares more of the story of her trip to Nairobi, Kenya, and the big differences she saw in the lives of sponsored children in the video below.
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Parents help build Turkana schools
The parents of children in the CMF child sponsorship program in Turkana, Kenya, help build new classrooms and bathrooms every year, says CMF missionary Lynn Pottenger. The parents collect gravel in buckets and wheelbarrows and haul it to the site, and then pay for cement blocks to be made. Currently 90 families contribute to the construction. |
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| “When the program began, we all signed a memorandum in which the parents agreed to be involved in any school construction so they would have a sense of ownership and partnership with the program,” said Lynn. “CMF provides the rest of the supplies and technical labor. We have built a classroom together each of the three years of the program!” |
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First trip to Kenya!
Three first-timers share their reflections
Going on a mission trip was the last thing on Tamara Carpenter’s mind when she happened to glance at the short-term trip display between services at Traders Point Christian Church (TPCC), Whitestown, IN.
“I was serving on the worship team and killing time in-between services,” she said. “But as I read the descriptions of the trips, looked at the pictures and talked to the volunteers, I felt the urging of the Holy Spirit.”
So Tamara signed on with a group of eight others – mostly first-timers – for a trip led by businessman Eric Stellmack to visit Missions of Hope in Nairobi, Kenya, in late June. This was Eric’s sixth visit to MOHI, and the second trip he has led for Traders Point.
“TPCC sends three teams to MOHI each year,” said Eric. “Typically two are medical teams and the third is one that generally works with teachers and kids at the Bondeni school.” |
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First impressions
When she arrived in Nairobi, Tamara expected to see “a desolate area with people sitting on the ground, too hungry to move.”
“I didn’t expect to see cars and businesses,” she said. “People were living in extreme poverty, but they weren’t waiting for a handout. There were working, struggling to live and survive.”
Teacher Sarah Scott, another first-timer, agrees. “I saw poverty like never before, but I felt hope. I saw people buying and selling goods and trying to make a living.”
“I couldn’t feel pity for the people of Mathare,” added Tamara. “Yes, it broke my heart to see so many living in poverty, but their dignity and will to survive made me admire them.” |
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Meeting their kids
Meeting their sponsored children was a priority for Tamara, Sarah and another first-time visitor, Cindy LaGrange.
“I sponsor six-year-old Lilian,” said Cindy. “She was so shy, but after we shared lunch she showed me her spunky side, posing for pictures and jumping rope with the other kids.” |
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 Cindy LaGrange met Lilian, her sponsored child at MOHI. |
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When Sarah got to meet her child, Mary, “it was like Christmas morning,” she said. “As Mary sorted through the gifts I brought, her smile kept getting bigger and bigger.”
Tamara sponsors five-year-old Ida. “She loved the baseball hat I brought for her, but I truly won her heart when I let her look through the pictures on my phone!” she said. “Soon she was sitting on my lap and wrapping my arms around her for a hug. Wow! What an afternoon!” |
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Sarah Scott brought gifts to Mary, her sponsored child. |
Tamara Carpenter spent an afternoon with Ida, her sponsored child. |
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Holistic ministry
All three women were impressed by the dedication of the teachers and staff to the children in the MOHI schools, and loved the fact that they are Kenyans helping Kenyans.
“The teachers are smart, clever and passionate about what they do,” said Sarah.
“They are giving the kids a great education and showing them the love of Jesus every day,” agreed Cindy. “And the farming skills taught to the girls at Joska made a huge impression on me.”
Tamara was especially impressed by the holistic approach she witnessed at MOHI.
“Their concept of reaching the community through its children has been very effective,” she said. “By combining Christ-centered education with social workers, Community Health Evangelism workers, adult skills classes, and a microfinance program, they are providing a hand-up rather than a hand-out to the people of the Mathare Valley.”
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Tamara Carpenter and new friends at MOHI. |
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Money well spent
MOHI’s ability to stretch a dollar amazed the Traders Point group.
“I believed before I went that the money donated by sponsors was being put to good use by MOHI,” said Sarah, “but it was affirmed after my trip.”
“I was so impressed that I’m encouraging my friends and family to visit and see for themselves,” added Cindy.
“They do so much with so little,” said Tamara. “Here in the States, some school systems spend $17,000 per child and still have miserable outcomes. I send only $38 a month for Ida to go to school, have two solid meals a day and get the love and learning she needs to build a brighter future for herself and her community.”
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