We did it– not only did we raise all the funding needed for our next food distribution event, but we surpassed it by $125. Way to go! I can't wait to provide updates on this event when it happens. This event will touch a lot of people. I’m talking over two thousand. We don’t simply feed people— we share a message of hope and truth and then they go home with a gift that will provide for another day. These people, our people, live day-to-day during these cyclic times of struggle. To add to the struggle they’ve also been experiencing massive amounts of rain, flooding and crazy fuel prices along with civil protests. Those blessed enough to own a vehicle are paying nearly $6 per gallon. Stark contrast to our elevated pump prices right now. Check out this video of a wild protest turned relay race that just happened near Bishop’s home. Creative, fun, and peaceful. That leads to another need; Bishop drives over two hours per day largely along rocky African dirt roads. It takes a lot of fuel between managing the orphanage, school, churches, and everything else he does for the greater community. Get this, Kenya Now doesn’t pay him or his wife. We have two people who help with basic car maintenance but it’s minimal and not nearly enough. But where does my donation go? Straight to where it is allocated; education, food, distributions... You can help Bishop by scheduling a recurring gift and know that this blessing would be a huge relief. The kids at the school have been competing in sports this week. They’ve all done great and they’re having a blast! Sponsorships help us educate these kids, house our orphans, and do fun activities just like this! Please consider sponsoring a child today. We have a very large list of unsponsored children. The impact is much larger than you might imagine. Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!
My wife, Kara, recently found this shirt, and I think it’s hilarious. But it also stirs up a bit of discord in my soul—a somber reminder of how I first reacted when God started writing this new chapter in our lives. In the beginning, leading a mission in Kenya, let alone a mission in Africa, was never a dream of mine. It wasn’t even a passing thought. When I felt God’s mighty grip pulling us in, my initial instinct was to run. I was on course to pull a full "Jonah" (although I could totally do without the whale). To be clear: I wasn't running because I thought the women and children in Kenya weren't worthy of help. I was running because I was terrified of my own inadequacy. I didn’t have the "know-how." I’ve always been a big dreamer, but a sloppy executor—the kind of guy with a yard full of half-finished projects. Mind you, our actual yard is pretty tidy. I'm sure you get the idea. The sheer thought of failing, of potentially putting dozens of orphans back on the street, was too much to bear. So, instead of saying "yes" to God’s will, I decided to go on my own little march. I cold-called twenty different organizations around the world with a desperate plea: "Please, take this project off our hands." The answer was almost always some version of: "We’ve got our own problems. You need to deal with yours." That was the "smack in the face" realization. When God tells you to do something, "no," or even "maybe," isn’t actually an option. "Get in, loser. We’re doing God’s will." There may not be a truer quip than that. And there, all along, stood my wife, waiting for me to hop aboard. Welp, now that we’ve got that out of the way, we have some work to do! What is God doing this month? We have a big gap to fill as we aim to raise $5,000 this month of May to feed thousands of people by early June. $2,000 raised so far! We could really use your help! Learn more and give here Bishop reported that they planted a new church in Kenya! The plot of land fell into place. The excited congregation started pulling together supplies from their own homes to build an incomplete, makeshift church structure. They have the drive and will to say "yes" to God's calling. Can we help them finish their church building so they can worship out of the rain? This project is $3,000. Donate below and put "church" in the note. I'll take it from there. Our board of directors has a vision for this year to expand the Rebirth Academy School and Children's Home compound. There are two plots of land that have been offered to us (without us even inquiring!). Both properties—a one-acre and a half-acre—align right next to our compound. To acquire both these properties will take some serious cash to the tune of around $20,000. God has opened the window to see what lies ahead, but He has yet to open the door. If you want to give toward this goal, simply donate and put "property" in the note section. There is no official fundraiser for this dream; it is that new! Yes, we have some ambitious goals directly in view. But like I mentioned, when God says "go," inaction simply isn't an option. Please be prayer warriors for our mission and projects. We are confident God will provide on His own time. I pray you have a restful weekend.
Today I have a project update as well as an urgent call for help. Our water runoff project has been in progress—building retaining walls, digging water retention tanks, and planting grass for water absorption (and esthetics, too!). We had a couple of generous donors who made this expensive project happen, and we want you to know how appreciative we are for those selfless gifts. This need wouldn’t have been filled without you. You can view videos of the project progress below. While that work continues, our most urgent need right now is for our next food distribution event happening in just a few weeks! We always aim to raise $5,000 in hopes to feed over 2,500 people during these hard times of food insecurity between harvests, when jobs are far and few between. Every donation is a blessing that goes well beyond nutrients and hits deep to the core of hope. These events not only feed people with food, but provide us the opportunity to feed people the truth of the gospel to thousands at a time. Please help us reach our goal. With current bulk food prices, $100 can feed around 50 people. Would you be willing to sponsor this event? Learn more and donate here Thank you for your support and for partnering with us in this mission of hope!
I wanted to share Jackson’s story this week because it fits so perfectly with what we’re fundraising for this May to get food to those who need it most by June. I literally just asked him to record a quick thought on what impacts him, and this is what he sent over. Jackson has witnessed the struggles of the people we serve over the past few years and his time with our Kenyan cohorts really sparked a wildfire in his heart to serve. Take a second to listen to him. Join the movement. What’s your story? URGENT: This May we are fundraising for June’s large food distribution event. We don't have long and we have a lot to raise— $5,000 by May 20th! ➡️ Give towards our June Food Distribution Event today. Every $50 feeds 25 people! Praise report: All three orphaned brothers (Ben, Joel, and John) have been fully sponsored! Nothing gives us more joy than seeing that confirmation notification. The impact is more than you can fathom. There is still great need! Find more sponsorship opportunities here.
Do you remember Ben and Joel, the two young and orphaned brothers we welcomed a few weeks ago? Through further investigation, we located their 11-year-old brother, John. Unfortunately, John was also living in very poor conditions. For his safety and the long-term well-being of all three boys, we have decided to bring John into our care as well. By keeping them together as a single family unit, we are giving them the best chance at healing. We feel truly blessed to be able to provide a safe haven for such vulnerable children and to keep this family whole. We need to get John sponsored. Here is his profile page. Our Healthy Child Fund has been working overtime lately. Between Ben, Joel, and John settling in and keeping the rest of our students in tip-top shape, the fund is sitting critically low. It needs a serious recharge. If you’ve got a passion for health, these kids depend on us to cover everything from basic check-ups to the advanced stuff. You can jump in and help HERE. Speaking of health—you know the saying that behind every great man is a great woman? For Bishop, that woman is his wife Ruth. She is as humble as they come, but she’s also a powerhouse who simply gets things done. This week, she had to undergo an urgent hysterectomy. We’d appreciate your prayers for her recovery, and if you’d like to help cover her hospital bill, you can donate below—just put "Ruth" in the donation note. Make an impact without spending an extra dime. We have a cool new tool called Double the Donation. You just type in your company’s name to see if they’ll match your current or even past donations from this year. It’s an incredibly easy way to do more for the women and children in Kenya. Check if your company offers this HERE. Finally: We have way too many shirts. We’ve got a mountain of event shirts from last year that look awesome and fit great, but they gotta go! If you buy one for $1 from our online store, I will ship you as many more as you want for no extra charge. Do you attend Awaken Great Bay church? We can bring them to you on a Sunday! Seriously. Take them. While you’re there, check out our other merch so you can rock some swag and spread the word about Kenya Now. Shop the $1 Shirt Deal & More Swag Have a great weekend!
My wife Kara and I received an update earlier this week with this photo attached from a kindergarten class at American Christian School in New Jersey. Since the start of the school year, this small group of children has been working tirelessly to help us build our school clinic. To date, they have raised nearly $7,500. You might wonder how such a small group achieves such a big goal. The answer is simple: they're sharing their stories. This past February, we hand-delivered unique, handmade bracelets to the children at Rebirth Academy in Kenya. Each one was hand crafted by a student at ACS. In return, the children in Kenya created their own bracelets as gifts for their friends in New Jersey. There is no better way to feel connected to a cause than to look down at your wrist and realize, "I have a friend across the world who cares about me." Storytelling is a powerful tool. It takes a cause that feels "far away" and brings it right to your doorstep. It turns a request for financial support into an invitation to join an international family. At Kenya Now, we don’t see "strangers in need." We see brothers and sisters working together to change a community. We aren't just an organization; we are a bridge that holds that bond together. What’s your story? How you can get involved: Robin Mcewen is raising money to put Stella through university and help her brother finish secondary school. Read Robin's story... Robin is also accepting household items (the heavier the better) to be donated to Savers. Savers will weigh the donations and provide Kenya Now with a cut of the profits. All of these profits will be going straight to Stella's fundraiser. What else are you planning to do with your unused items? Arrange a rendezvous with Robin via email. ACS and Sigma Beta Zeta at-Large Chapter are raising money to build a school clinic and pay for a fulltime school nurse. See their progress... Spark conversation by wearing our merchandise or drink coffee from our branded mugs at work (that's my trick). Support Kenya Now by shopping Have a great weekend!
The compound has been a beehive of activity and this pup has been watching it all. Workers have been finishing the cabinetry for our kitchen and temporary clinic as well as the wood stove expansion for the Nutrition Program. While we are excited about this progress, we are also dealing with an unexpected outbreak of bedbugs, brought in by students from the surrounding community. We are moving quickly to treat the facility, and our children are being temporarily housed in the school classrooms while the mitigation process is underway. If you would like to help us offset the costs of this treatment and the ongoing work, please consider making a general donation below. We are also holding a clearance sale on our remaining walkathon shirts from last year at 90% off. Use the code SWAG90 at checkout to grab yours today. Shop our swag. We have a supporter named Robin who is fundraising to put one of our students through university. Help her make that possible here. We appreciate your continued support and for standing with our ministry. Have a wonderful weekend!
This week has settled down a bit on our end, though our Kenyan ministry partners, Bishop and Ruth, have been dealing with a lot. They’ve been busy with multiple funerals for church members, including a tragic situation where a three-year-old was struck by a vehicle last week. To top it off, Bishop’s vehicle was impounded because the tires were completely worn out—the roads in Kenya are incredibly rough, far beyond any off-road logging path you've ever traversed. Please continue your prayers for Abundant Mercy of Jesus Ministries (AMJM). While Kenya Now is committed to our joint mission of education, nutrition, and widow empowerment, AMJM does so much more. They are the powerhouse of God’s movement in the region, and we are blessed to work alongside them. Their church system is always in need of financial support for crusades, leadership seminars, and more. You can donate directly to their evangelistic mission through our Spiritual Awakening Program. I encourage you to explore how you can be a part of their overall ministry. Supporter Initiated Fundraiser One of our volunteers, Robin, has started her own fundraiser for a university student named Stella. She is accepting monetary gifts at the link I just listed and in-kind donations for a Savers FunDrive. Spring cleaning season is here, and if you're like us, clearing out the clutter is probably imminent. If you have items to spare, consider donating them to Robin. Savers weighs all the donations and gifts a portion of the proceeds directly to her Kenya Now fundraiser. It’s a simple way to clear your space while fueling the mission. Email Robin to coordinate a drop-off today. You can also create your own online fundraiser directly from our website. Start here. A Shoutout to the Team Kara and I want to give a massive shoutout to Sara Tremblay, our sponsorship coordinator, and her dedicated team of volunteers. This past month, Sara has worked tirelessly to update every single child's profile with new pictures and information, ensuring our sponsors stay informed. These kids grow so much year after year, and right now, nearly 100 children are still waiting for a sponsor. You might ask, "What does a monthly sponsorship actually do?" Here is the deal: We have a large catalog of students ranging from Pre-K to University. People often get stuck trying to decide who needs it most. The good news is that every child benefits from every sponsorship gift—it’s what powers our entire school and orphanage. So why sponsor a specific child? Because we want you to see the real faces, names, and dreams that your gift impacts. We want you to pray for your specific child (and all of them) so that God shines His favor over them. I am confident we are raising future doctors, nurses, scientists, teachers, and great leaders of East Africa. Your investment goes significantly further than any of us can imagine. I still can’t believe God called my family into this wild mission. Thank you for joining us—and please consider sponsoring a child today. It truly means the world. Have a blessed weekend.
Do you remember Benjamin and Joel? They are the two young brothers we found living in horrific conditions with their elderly grandmother. When we reached them, all three were malnourished and in a state of medical crisis. My brother, Bishop, was an orphan himself and lived through similar conditions. He called me nearly in tears when he saw them. He knows exactly what those boys are feeling. Kenya Now and Abundant Mercy of Jesus moved immediately. we provided food, mattresses, and built them a new shelter because their old one was so infested with parasites it was unlivable. I am relieved to report they are doing better, but the road back is difficult. People often ask why we don't just bring them into the children's home immediately. The reality is that we have to protect the other children first. Both boys have severe skin infections caused by chiggers—a parasite that burrows into the skin to lay eggs. Bishop hired a local specialist to treat them. It is a grueling process. They have to soak their feet in a tarry solution to suffocate the larvae, and then the dead tissue is physically removed with a knife. I am sharing these details because this is the reality for a 3-year-old and a 5-year-old right now. We cannot gloss over how serious this is. Once they are cleared medically, we will welcome them into the Rebirth Children's Home. This brings our total to 29 children. They also need to start at Rebirth Academy to make up for the school they've missed. We need to get these brothers sponsored immediately. Your monthly gift pays for the caregivers, the teachers, and the medical care required to give these boys a real life. Please prayerfully consider picking up a sponsorship share today. Our supporters are the only reason we can step in for children like Benjamin and Joel. Read their profiles below. Pray for them, and please, sponsor them. View Their Sponsorship Profiles
So much happened this week that it honestly feels impossible to fit it into one short update... but here we go. Starting with the most serious situation: Bishop was called to the home of a widow after concerns were raised that her failing health was putting her two young orphaned grandchildren at risk (Joel and Benjamin). When he arrived, the conditions were even worse than expected. The mud hut was collapsing, the three of them were sleeping on a rug soaked with urine and feces, and all of them had severe chigger infestations from sleeping on the dirt floor and walking barefoot. For those unfamiliar, chiggers are tiny fleas from contaminated soil that burrow larvae into the skin, especially the feet and fingers. It is painful, dangerous, and heartbreaking to see. Bishop immediately went into action. We had two leftover mattresses, blankets, and pillows ready to give, along with food and urgent medical attention. But the response did not stop there... we also funded an entirely new small home for them. Shoutout to the professional builders that did the work pro bono! The existing structure was declared completely uninhabitable, and the rugs were burned that same day. Bishop and his team are still carefully assessing what long-term support will be best for the widow and the children, and I will absolutely keep you updated as we learn more. How you can help:We had to reallocate funding from another project to cover this $700 emergency grant, so if you would like to help us replenish that, you can donate below. On another major concern (and also praise), our children at the orphanage began falling sick one after another this past week. Our Healthy Child Fund was running low, and naturally, questions were piling up. Thankfully, Bethany (Bishop’s daughter and a trained nurse) stepped in quickly. She went to the school, examined the children, and discovered that most had contracted the flu. She also found that a worker had accidentally added too much chlorine to the drinking water tank, which likely contributed to some of the symptoms. Bethany has committed to staying at the school this week to monitor and treat the children. This has pushed forward an initiative that had only been in the early planning stages, but now has suddenly become urgent: hiring a full-time school nurse to care not only for our orphanage children, but for the entire school community. That is exactly why our joint medical clinic fundraiser (in partnership with Sigma Beta Theta at-Large Chapter in Western Massachusetts and American Christian School in New Jersey) matters so much right now. This fundraiser is listed on our Fundraiser page. We do not only need to build a clinic, we need to hire the staff to make it function well. This week made the need impossible to ignore. Now for a major praise report: We have been praying for funding to complete our water runoff management project and cover the remaining cost of expanding our wood stove... and an anonymous supporter gave the exact amount needed in cash. Not close. Not partial. The exact amount. Those projects are now moving forward, and I will have more to report soon. One last thing: the shoe fundraiser is officially in motion. Feet have been measured, orders are being placed, and over 160 children will soon receive brand new, high-quality leather school shoes. God is good. God is moving. And at this pace, we may all need stronger running shoes ourselves. 🙌
It has been a week of challenges and victories here, and we are so grateful to share the journey with you. Health & Healing We want to start with an update on our Healthy Child Program. Recently, Ian, one of the boys in our children’s home, fell ill with malaria and pneumonia. After two days in the hospital, we are thrilled to share that he is back home, back in school, and feeling much better! Our Healthy Child fund acts as a vital "insurance policy," ensuring every child in our sponsorship program receives immediate care when they need it most. • How you can help: We are looking for monthly donors to help us fortify this fund. BECOME A MONTHLY DONOR HERE Clean Water & Infrastructure Our deepest water well—and our most essential—has been struggling lately. This week, the mechanic traced the issue to the electrical inverter. We are happy to report the well is back in full working order, providing clean water for our kitchen and the entire compound. Expanding the Kitchen Speaking of the kitchen, we’ve officially outgrown our wood-burning stove. We built this kitchen years ago when our program was much smaller; today, we have 170 mouths to feed, 365 days a year. To keep up with the demand, the stove needs to be modified and expanded. We have most of the funding ready, but we are $400 short of our goal. • How you can help: If you’d like to help us close this gap, please make a contribution below and write “Stove” in the comments. Storm Water Solutions Finally, we are looking for partners to help us tackle a major storm water runoff issue. This is a "big ticket" project, estimated at $3,000, but it is a necessary permanent solution to protect our grounds. • How you can help: Does this project resonate with you? If you’d like to learn more about the details or how to contribute, please reach out to me directly (dan@kenynow.org) Through all these logistical needs, we never lose focus on the smiles that fuel our hearts. God has big plans for these children, and we are truly blessed to be part of His action plan. God is good—all the time!
Our team of 16 is officially back from Kenya! We touched down this past Friday, and man, was it a journey. Part of our group dealt with some major travel headaches including delays and cancellations due to the conflict in Iran, but I’m very happy to report that everyone is finally home safe and sound. Reflecting on this trip, I feel incredibly blessed. We had such a solid, cohesive team, and getting to witness the amazing work God is doing in Kenya together was something special. Highlights from the Field: - Homegrown VBS: Kara took the lead on a VBS program that was a total hit. It’s definitely going to leave a lasting mark on those kids. - The Mural Project: Robin and Jane headed up a brand-new mural. Students of all ages jumped in to help, and the final piece perfectly captures the vibrant personalities of the kids at Rebirth Academy and Children’s Home. Thank you Robin for making this possible! - Sponsorship Growth: Our coordinator, Sara, was busy capturing updated photos and dialing in everything we need for our sponsorship program to really flourish. Real Needs on the Ground I spent some time walking the compound with the Bishop (the director of our partner ministry) to identify where we can step up. While the growth is a blessing, it brings some "good problems" to solve: - Kitchen Overhaul: Our wood-burning stove needs a major upgrade to keep up with feeding more children. The total cost is $1,000, and we’re currently $400 shy of that goal. (Video attached below) - Storage: The kitchen also needs a new cabinet to keep snacks and food supplies organized throughout the day. This will cost $600. - Water Pump: Our deep-water well has been acting up, and the mechanic’s verdict is in: it needs a total replacement. That’s a $300 fix. (Video attached below) - Drainage & Runoff: We have some significant water runoff issues that require complex repairs. This project will run a few thousand dollars. If you want more details on this, feel free to email me directly at dan@kenyanow.org. Even with a long "to-do" list, we’re focusing on our blessings of the smiles on those kids' faces. That is all the motivation we need. How You Can Help If you feel led to give toward any of these specific needs, just click the Donate button below and mention the project in the notes section. We truly appreciate your ongoing prayers, encouragement, and support! There is no update video this week (late work nights and MORE snow!) Instead I want to direct you to our Trip VLOGs that capture unforgettable moments from the beginning to the end of the trip. It’s totally worth binge watching! Pst… I’m pushing our YouTube channel. Check out Day 1 below and be sure to subscribe.
