kenya
Read about the Samaritan Strategy Africa initiative to mobilize and equip the church in Africa.
Country Facts: Kenya
Population: 31.6 million
Area: 582,650 sq km
Religious affiliation: 45% Protestant, 33% Roman Catholic, 12% Indigenous/animist, 8% Muslim, 2% Other
Languages: Kiswahili (Swahili), English, other indigenous languages
Literacy: 85.1%
Average annual income: $271
Population below poverty line:
50%
Labor force: 80% Agriculture
Unemployment: 40%
Economic issues: The country is a regional hub for trade and finance in East Africa. However, the economy has been hampered by corruption and reliance on several primary goods whose prices remain low. Periodic drought has created additional difficulties.
HIV/AIDS adult prevalence: 15%
Description of Ministry in Kenya
Dennis
Tongoi, who leads Harvest’s work in Kenya, was introduced to the Samaritan
Strategy at a Vision Conference in Kenya in 1998, and then helped to lead
two subsequent conferences in the country. In 2001, he became a Harvest
associate for Kenya. Recently, God has provided a unique platform for the
ministry, as Dennis joined the staff of the Church Mission Society (CMS) with
responsibility for advocacy of social transformation in the CMS churches of
Kenya, Uganda, Sudan, Tanzania, Nigeria, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of
Congo, Burundi, and Sierra Leone. He also has been given the liberty to minister in
these countries beyond the CMS churches, and is now working to promote the
Samaritan Strategy vision of biblical worldview and wholistic ministry among
local churches of these eight countries.
In addition to this work, Dennis serves as leader of the Africa Working Group, an association of African church leaders. Together, these leaders are strategizing to bring the messages of biblical worldview and wholistic ministry to the entire African continent.
Kenya Case Stories
School Blesses Slum Community
After attending a Vision Conference, a young member of a small church in Kagishu (the knife), a slum community, challenged the pastor to implement biblically wholistic ministry in their area. After talking and praying about it, the church leaders made a plan to teach children in their community who could not afford to go to school. With no trained teachers in their fellowship, the pastor, his wife, and the young man decided to teach without pay. They opened a school in the small 10-foot by 10-foot room where the church met for worship.
Thirty children came the first day the school opened. Within a year, the school had grown to 313 students and a staff of 6. In that same time, church membership doubled, mostly due to the effects of the church’s concern for the community. Recently, the school had grown to more than 450 children, with 20 paid staff members. The church now numbers over 200 members, with four new congregations planted in other slums. Three additional primary schools and a secondary school have been started, and businesses have come to the area because they see new opportunity there. Observable transformation is beginning to occur spiritually, educationally, and economically.
Church Cares for Man Dying of Aids
Members of a local church had been trained in the biblical mandate to demonstrate God’s love to those in need, and saw the HIV/AIDS epidemic as an opportunity to serve. Several church members were actively searching for AIDS sufferers in need of help. When they went to a homestead and asked if there were anyone living there with AIDS, family members pointed to an animal shed where a man, their relative, had been put to die.
The church team went to the shed, and found him in a dark room with goats and chickens. They relocated the animals, put in a window, cleaned him up, and made a bed for him. The relatives asked, “Why bother with a dying man?” The church people said, “Because he is made in God’s image, and is valuable not for what he can do, but for whom he is.” They were surprised at such an answer. When the man later died, several of the relatives came to know the Lord as a result of the love they saw demonstrated by these church members to a dying man.
Dennis Tongoi
Dennis joined Harvest as an associate staff member in the Fall of 2001 and coordinates the Africa Working Group in its Samaritan Strategy for social transformation. Since that time he has also served with the Church Mission Society (CMS) promoting the ministry of social transformation in CMS churches in nine African nations. In July of 2005, Dennis assumed the post of CMS Africa Director. Prior to these assignments, Dennis was involved in the leadership of Navigators in Kenya for more than 20 years, serving as Director for five of these years. He is the founder of Christians for a Just Society, author of the book Mixing God With Money (click here for more information or to order a copy) that explores Christian attitudes about money and stewardship, and a lecturer and conference speaker on issues related to the role of Christians in society.
Contributions
To make a donation toward Harvest's work in Kenya, click here.