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This page is a mirror of the donations information page from Shammah's Christian History for Everyman website
What We're Doing
Here's the skinny on what we're doing in Africa. There's a lot more on the blogs of our team in Africa right now. I'll give you those links after these bullet points, which will be quick and easy for you to read.
The aid we provide in Nakuru is holistic. We are in conversation and cooperation with other ministries, ensuring that the help we provide is self-sustaining. These projects are capable of growing from African to African, thus relieving hunger and sickness on a large and growing scale, despite our small resources.
How This Ministry Started
Children outside George's house in Nakuru before we went in for the evening.
We didn't start a church in Nakuru, Kenya. Here's what happened:
- We met an African driver (George) on a mission trip. He told us of his vision to see African Christians really coming together as family, sharing resources, and taking care of one another.
- We encouraged him.
- Three months later, he emailed us to tell us he had over 60 people meeting together in a soccer field, preaching the Gospel door to door, and taking care of the poor.
- We went to visit him, and we saw the incredible need of the slum in Nakuru.
- Orphans roam the streets, begging for food, often with open sores. In the slums there's not much to beg from.
- AIDS is rampant in Kenya. There are 1.2 million people with AIDS (about 1 in every 30 persons). AIDS widows and their children can die of starvation or sickness in the slums.
- Mosquitoes carry Malaria and Typhoid. In the slums, people rarely have beds, much less mosquito nets to protect them at night.
- Sanitation is awful, as you might imagine.
- We began looking for ways to help them.
Things We've Done Already
Again, we are focused, with the help of other ministries, on providing help that is self-sustaining. You know the saying: "Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach him to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime."
Noah Taylor delivering rice and beans as part of the food bank program.
These people are stunned that muzungus (white people) will visit them in their houses.
Starting businesses, small as those might be, is an important way to help. The unemployment rate in Kenya is around 60%. Yes, 60%! We can't just send them out to find jobs.
- We've provided money for widows to open their own small grocery shops (something just larger than a cart, really), a brother to buy a "boda boda" (a bicycle with a padded back seat used as a taxi). This sort of help only needs to be given once, making them self-sufficient and restoring their dignity.
- We regularly provide medical expenses. Typhoid and malaria are rampant, and in the slums treatment is simply unaffordable. We've also provided mosquito nets to help prevent these diseases.
- We've paid for children to go to school. School costs money in Kenya, and those who can't purchase the uniforms and books can't send their children to school.
- We've provided a new water pump for a well, and numerous other similar needs.
- We bought an electric piano that is used for giving music and voice lessons, another source of income for our brothers and sisters there.
- We purchased a van that is being used for giving tours.
- We have a food bank that delivers rice and beans to the most poverty-stricken people we've met. We spend about $250/month on that right now to provide beans and rice to 55 people.
- We're supporting a total of about 76 orphans in Myanmar and India through other Christian ministries. (It's about 76 because there is one small orphanage and 5 homes that can vary in the number of children slightly.)
Needed Areas of Expansion
The need is incredible. You can't go to a place like the slums of Nakuru without being wanting to do something.
The building in the background is their rented church building. Some of the children in the picture are homeless, some aren't.
We paid to register their church with the Kenyan government, which allows us to do more major projects under their ownership and our supervision. Accountability is important.
- One of our nurses is starting a health clinic. We've raised some funds already with a walk-a-thon here in Tennessee.
- We'd like to buy the land the church now rents to meet. It would come with the undersized church building they use (1 electric light bulb, no running water, and an outhouse out back). It would also come with about 5 houses that we would upgrade and use to start businesses for church members there.
- We need to rent or buy homes there where carefully-selected Christian couples will take in orphans to be raised as their own children, supported by the ministry.
(This is patterned on an incredibly effective ministry in India. They are helping us set this up. The witness to the community when these "Mercy Homes" are set up is powerful. Sometimes it has turned persecutors into supporters.) - We are partnering with a ministry that provides animals for milk and work (cattle, sheep, goats). Our role will be to buy the animals, then train the recipients.
Further Information
Our team in Kenya for this trip is 3 people. Each of them are blogging almost daily so we can know what's going on:
I was actually trying to snap a picture of the child in the background, but one of the street kids jumped into it. Note the condition of his teeth and sweater. The street kids get their clothes from the dump, so they're sized wrong and often torn.
We are a recognized 501(c)3 organization, and all contributions are tax-deductible. Under $250, your PayPal receipt will suffice as proof of donation. However, we will automatically send you a tax-deductible receipt for any donation over $100. You may also request a receipt even for donation under $100. (You can tell us that on the PayPal payment page.)
If you would rather send in your donation by mail, please make checks payable to Rose Creek Village Ministries, and mail to P.O. Box 307, Selmer, TN 38375. If you have further questions, please contact us. Thanks for your support!
