Shadowed by the capital city of Nairobi, Ongata Rongai, Kenya is a blossoming city in terms of residents, infrastructure and potential. Much of this recent growth-explosion can be attributed to a number of Kenyans flocking here in order to find work in and around the City (In Kenya, when one refers to ‘the City’, it invariably means Nairobi). Therefore, the result is a hodgepodge inclusion of different tribes, cultures, religions, income and educational levels. It is within this urban medley that Potter’s Field Kenya was planted in the year 2011, and where it has exploded in size and scope since then.
Originally consisting of only a single kids program, the ministry in Kenya has now come to also include opportunities to teaching the Bible in multiple public and private schools, serving at a children’s home, and offering free academic tutoring programs twice a week. At the beginning of 2014 we have had the honor to be able to start our very own school, called Potter’s Field Christian Academy. Currently, we have about 60 children enrolled and offer preschool, 1st and 2nd grade classes, with the hope of adding a 3rd grade class for the 2016 school year starting in January! Our staff and interns work closely alongside the teachers to provide an extremely affordable high-level education for children who might otherwise not be able to afford to go to school. Every day when these children come to school, they learn about their Creator who loved and sacrificed everything that they might know life and freedom.
Most, if not all of these students are also frequent attendees at our most bountiful harvest, our weekly Saturday Kid’s Club. Each week, we have an average of about 340 children ranging from two years old all the way up to nineteen who come to the church property (which is barely large enough to squeeze them all in) in order to learn more about Jesus. Every week, the children and teenagers join us in times of worship, teaching and fellowshipping over chai (tea, milk and sugar) and a meal of rice, beans and cabbage. All 340 children are taught lessons from the Scriptures and are encouraged into personal relationships with Jesus. It is because of God working through the Kid’s Club program, combined with many of our other ministry opportunities, that families have been restored, students have been given an education, young adults have been freed from addictions. Children have been fed and individual lives have been forever changed by the name and power of Jesus Christ.
Isaiah 58 gives a glimpse into the heart of God and what He desires from His saints, namely that chains and bonds of injustice and need would be broken so that the freedom of God might reign in every life, everywhere, to the ultimate glory of God. The children and teenagers that are being reached today will become the pastors, missionaries and evangelists of tomorrow, changing the face of Kenya and of the world forever, until the whole world hears.
