Kenya

God has placed another amazing opportunity before me. This time it is a bit different. I am traveling with a group of 20 from Park Community Church in Chicago through March 20th. Now you might be wondering why Kenya, that is one of the wealthier countries in Africa as well as one of the most reached by the gospel. I wondered that myself. Park Community has partnered with a local church in the capital, Nairobi Baptist Church. The churches are quite similar; both located in an urban setting and financially well-off with a congregation comprised of young professionals. Neither church "needs" the other. Both have a vision to spread the gospel to unreached areas on the continent of Africa. God in a unique way has brought the two together with a vision of partnership and a future of moving into a neighboring country such as Somalia or the Sudan that is less reached.

This partnership is less than a year old and this trip is a first. So this trip is mainly a relationship building trip. There will though be good work to be done while there. The team will be split into two once we arrive, half staying to work within the city and half traveling to a coastal rural village. Nairobi has a well established medical clinic within the Kibera slum in the city. This slum is the second largest in Africa with possibly a million people living within its boarders. The clinic operates full time and those of us who stay in Nairobi which includes myslef will be helping supplement those who work in the clinic. The other group will be traveling to a coastal village named Kwale. Nairobi Baptist has been taking a team here yearly for the past 10 years, and this year they have been given some land on which to set up a medical clinic / pharmacy. We will be helping establish this clinic and possibly aiding in a medical clinic for the school children in the area. Both Kwale and the area of the Kibera slums we will be working in are primarily Muslim and this is the reason that Nairobi Baptist has chosen to focus on these areas.

God has brought together a great bunch of people and I am excited to see what He has in store for this upcoming week.