CMF Missionaries Tim and Alicia Stewart recently shared this story about the impact of our urban poor ministry in the slums of Nairobi, Kenya:

“All of us are a part of such an amazing ministry. The other day we were sitting in an office working through some paperwork and a young boy was sitting with us. His name was Martin and even though the students were on break, he was coming to the school most days. You see, he is an orphan and his guardians aren’t very kind to him so he comes to the school where several people love on him all the time. Sometimes he just sits at a desk and writes compositions! Because of the love he is shown here, he comes to school during a vacation to do school work! Tim and I enjoyed spending time with him and even more we loved watching people love on him. We loved that in the midst of a life that presents challenges daily, a life where he feels unloved, abandoned, and unwanted, God has so lovingly provided him with a place to feel safe and wanted.”

Have you visited CMF’s new microfinance website, bigdent.org recently? If not, we’re giving you yet another reason to check out this beautifully-designed and informative site: a brand new blog launched on March 23.

The BigDent website is a one-stop spot where you can learn about CMF’s microfinance and development efforts in Nairobi, Kenya, read the stories of the entrepreneurs and make online donations to assist them in starting their new businesses. The blog will be yet another facet of the total experience that features photos, stories, videos and information to help you connect with this unique project.

“The new blog is designed to inspire and further inform you about our microfinance and holistic development efforts in Nairobi,” said Kent Fillinger, CMF’s Associate Director of Projects + Partnerships, and one of the blog writers. “We anticipate that it will be interesting, thought-provoking and enjoyable to read. Regular post contributors will include CMF team members plus occasional guest bloggers. We hope you will connect with our blog each week and share the message of BigDent with your network of friends and family.”

Over 50 church leaders representing 20 churches from 12 states gathered in Indianapolis March 21-22 for the first-ever Hope Partnership Dialogue. The Dialogue was designed to be a strategic networking event for churches involved in CMF’s Hope Partnership in Nairobi, Kenya. The goal was to pray and plan and dream and discuss the current realities and future goals for the Hope Partnership.

Participants were inspired by Mary Kamau’s update on the ministry’s exponential growth, energized by the focused conversations with other church leaders, and encouraged through devotional thoughts and supplied with fresh ideas. Key updates were also shared regarding the expansion of the child sponsorship program, the launch of the BigDent.org microfinance website and the introduction of a new VBS/Children’s Ministry program called “Good News for the Poor” featuring Hope Partnership projects.

Joe Oettel, missions volunteer from West Side Christian Church (Springfield, IL) said, “I really enjoyed meeting several new people, building relationships and sharing ideas.  In my opinion a lot was accomplished at the meeting, both in discussion groups and one-on-one conversations and I hope we can continue the dialogue.” Tom Moen, Outreach Minister at Mountain Christian Church (Joppa, MD) added, “It was a GREAT couple of days…thanks for hosting…need to do it annually (at least).”

The Hope Partnership continues to grow by epic proportions from 185 children in 1 school in 2006 to nearly 7,000 children in 14 schools plus 7 new churches today. The growth of the Hope Partnership is exciting, but it also calls for a concerted effort, an ongoing commitment and an expanded circle of partner churches and individuals.

This cross-cultural partnership focuses on holistic ministry to transform lives and communities in the Mathare Valley slum of Nairobi, Kenya and is now starting to reach beyond to other areas of Kenya. The success of this partnership is due to the vision and leadership of Kenyan nationals, Wallace and Mary Kamau working collaboratively with a team of CMF missionaries. Another critical component creating the sustained growth of the Hope Partnership is the involvement and investment of over 40 churches and over 5,000 child sponsors that continue to sacrifice and serve to fuel the ministry’s growth. During the event, one partner church demonstrated their investment in the ministry by presenting Mary with a $100,000 gift toward finishing the multi-purpose building at Joska, our boarding school outside of Nairobi.

To learn more about how you or your church can get involved in the Hope Partnership, contact our Projects + Partnerships team at projects@cmfi.org.

You might be hearing reports of a pipeline explosion in the slums of Nairobi. The explosion was in the Sinai slum, far from CMF’s work in Mathare. The explosion was in an industrial area south of Nairobi that is built over a fuel pipeline which was leaking. Some people were trying to draw fuel from the point of leakage and the explosion took place. Please keep all those affected in your prayers.

You can read more about it here.

Missions of Hope International (MoHI) is expanding its work into two slums that neighbor the Mathare Valley in Nairobi, Kenya, where Mary and Wallace Kamau first began to establish schools and community centers more than 10 years ago.

Most of MoHI’s work since has been centered in the Mathare Valley, although they currently have two centers in the Huruma slum and a center in the Baba Ndogo area. Now the MoHI team is in the process of opening a center at Grogan in the Bitathuru slum and two new centers, Nyayo and Grogan, in Korogocho.

“The needs in these communities are great, with desperate poverty that reminds me of the environment I encountered in Mathare more than ten years ago,” says MoHI Executive Director Mary Kamau.

Social workers began the recruiting process for new pupils in July. Using the principles of Community Health Evangelism (CHE) as their strategy, the staff enters the community and gets to know its leaders, and then gives them the opportunity to be trained in CHE lessons that empower them to identify both the needs and resources of their community.

There are currently 156 children who have signed up for the Gitathuru center, 120 for the Grogan center and 121 for the Nyayo center.

“Please pray for the staff and community in these areas,” said Mary Kamau. “It is through the Hope Partnership that we are able to expand and follow the call that we have heard.”

Could you get by on less than $2 per day? Millions of people who live in the slums of Nairobi, Kenya, must do so, but CMF’s exciting new small loan website offers donors the opportunity to make a “big dent” in the cycle of poverty.

CMF staffers and expert volunteers have been working for more than a year to launch BigDent.org, a comprehensive website that highlights the photo and story profiles of hundreds of small business owners in the Mathare slums of Nairobi. Donors can simply go to the website, read the stories and choose an entrepreneur, and then make an online donation of any amount directly through the safe, secure site. A handy search feature helps a donor narrow his choice by gender, business sector (retail, restaurant, tailoring, etc.) and neighborhood.

Donors’ gifts are given to their chosen entrepreneurs as microfinance loans, and recipients must participate in small accountability groups that include training in biblical business principles and moral integrity, as well as mentoring and support, until they have repaid their loans. Loan recipients are also required to establish a savings account even before they receive a loan. The microfinance program then functions like a bank for the business owners, creating an opportunity for most of them to use checking and savings accounts for the first time. The result is greater economic stability and security for the entrepreneur and his or her family. When a loan recipient repays his or her loan, the donor receives an email update. The donors’ original funds are then recycled back into the BigDent program to help another entrepreneur. Currently the repayment rate for BigDent microfinance loans is over 98%.

CMF missionaries and their partner, the Missions of Hope (MoHI) Business Development Services, manage the entire loan process on the ground in Nairobi, taking photos, writing the stories, administering the funds and organizing the accountability groups.

Big Dent’s overall goal is to facilitate transformation among the desperately poor through microfinance programs. The small loan given to a poor business owner helps her to grow her small businesses and change her life, breaking the cycle of poverty for herself and her family for generations to come.

Sound interesting? There’s lots more information about BigDent on the website, including FAQs, a fuller explanation about the loan process, and a quick summary of the concept of microfinance. If you are interested in making a big difference with a donation in a direct and personal way, take a look at BigDent.org today.

Mary and Wallace Kamau and the staff of Missions of Hope International recently shared some of the highlights of the past several months of ministry in the slums of Nairobi, Kenya:

Students

The current number of students in the 10 different centers is 4,356.

Schools

The construction of more permanent buildings for our centers continues as properties are acquired. So far there is land for seven centers. These are challenging to acquire due to complications in ownership and the bureaucratic processes.

Microfinance

The program continues to grow; the number of clients has doubled in nine months. The government registration of the program is in progress and the staff is praying that they will be able to raise the required minimum capital soon.

The skills training program is also growing. Many women have graduated with marketable skills in dress and jewelry making. The Bible study component of the program has also been intensified.

The Hope Partnership office in Indianapolis (CMF) is working on an online giving site for the microfinance program that will go live in the very near future.

Farming

Small-scale farming is progressing at the Joska school, where two greenhouses are supplying tomatoes for Joska and the other centers. The staff hopes to increase the number of greenhouses to subsidize the food budget and give the children the opportunity to learn about agriculture. There will be more opportunities for extensive farming, including raising poultry and dairy cows, on the 38 acres recently acquired in Joska.

Visitors

About 750 people in 50 short-term teams visited the Missions of Hope ministry in 2010. These teams play a very important role as they assist the staff in getting a lot of work accomplished.

Staff

Intensive leadership development of our staff members is continuing. The directors are seeking to manage MoHI’s growth and set the ministry up for sustainability in the future.

There are now 282 permanent staff members and more than 60 casual workers and volunteers at MoHI.

Hope Soldier One

Anthony Wagacha was among the first group of students to be sponsored in high school through the Hope Partnership child sponsorship program. Wallace Kamau declared these students to be Hope Soldiers, waging war with their circumstances to succeed in life and bring hope to others. Not only did Anthony graduate from high school, but he was awarded a full scholarship from a Kenyan bank to pursue an actuarial science degree at Strathmore University in Kenya. You can read his full story and the complete update: Hope Update.

“It’s a miracle!”

If you had been with me, you would have wondered. Several of us Americans were standing in the second story room of a toilet building in the midst of Mathare Valley, one of Nairobi’s—and the world’s—largest slums. The plaque on the building’s exterior honors Alan Ahlgrim, pastor of Rocky Mountain Christian Church in Colorado, because his congregation provided the money to build it.

The toilet building is fairly new, but looks old. It’s a sound but humble two-story structure; a community room upstairs (where a church has been started). Downstairs is  divided in the middle (men’s side, women’s side) with four small cells each, two toilet rooms, two shower stalls. There is no indoor plumbing. If you want to shower, you bring your bucket and shillings, pay the attendant and draw water from an outside tap, then step into the stall and bathe. The toilet is a hole in the concrete floor, a convenience familiar to third-world travelers.

The building, inside or out, simply doesn’t look miraculous. When it was built, though, it was the only such facility for 80,000 people. The previous one was a ramshackle outhouse perched over a tiny stream. Most people resorted to “flying toilets,” recycled plastic grocery bags into which they made their deposit, twisted the bag, and hurled it over the shanty rooftops. To have a decent building for their personal use, one which they never could have raised enough money to build, seemed to the community leader standing next to me to be, well, nothing short of miraculous.

That was my first visit. In planning this Nairobi excursion with some other ministers, I had wanted to see what we teasingly dubbed the Alan Ahlgrim Memorial Toilet. Alan was my student at Milligan College many years ago, a leading minister among our churches, a really good friend—and very much alive. It was fun to tease him about his honor.

On my second trip to Mathare, though, the teasing stopped. Alan and his wife Linda were in this group. We visited the toilet building because on that day the community leaders were hosting a special event: planting young saplings in the area around their building. It was not clean work; the ground consisted of some soil plus decades of layered garbage. The trees would offer a welcome change of scenery.

The Americans and Kenyans were introduced to each other. When these grateful residents of Mathare Valley learned that one of their guests was Alan, it was as if the rest of us weren’t there. A celebrity was in their midst. They were in awe. They embarrassed Alan with their response. This man whose name was on their toilet building, this generous benefactor whose gift had changed their lives, had come to see them, and now they could thank him personally.

I’ll never forget that day.

LeRoy  Lawson

International Consultant

Keith Ham, missionary to Kenya, shared the good news that of the 96 Mathare Valley students studying at Joska, 93 of them passed their high school entry exam. That is fantastic, since the national average for Kenya is 40%. (By the way, 93 of 96 is just over 96% passing, just for comparison.)

This is the second year that the students from the Hope Partnership have sat for the exam. Last year 36 of 37 passed the exam, and all 37 got into high schools. These results speak for themselves. The teachers, staff, missionaries, and supporters behind this wonderful ministry are all very thankful.

Most of the high schools in Kenya are boarding schools, so this group of students will be going to various locations in Kenya. All of these children are sponsored through CMF’s child sponsorship program.

A short-term team from White River Christian Church in Noblesville, Indiana, visited Kenya in late September and helped out at several CMF projects.

Led by WRCC Lead Pastor Phil Heller and his wife, Christie, the 12 team members spent half of their trip in the Mathare Valley of Nairobi working in Community #2, a section of the slum that the church has “adopted.” They hosted a medical clinic at a Missions of Hope International school, and participated in a “Bring the Light” project (installing plexiglass in the roofs of 15 shanties). But the team really “got their hands dirty” when they worked with the Mathare youth group to rake and burn trash and sewage throughout the community. Take a look at the team in action:

The other half of the group’s trip was focused on working with CMF’s medical clinic in Ewaso Ngiro in Maasailand, conducting a children’s outreach at the church there, and hosting an appreciation dinner in Narok for CMF workers from the clinic.

“Our team was profoundly impacted by what God is doing through the Hope Partnership and CMF’s faithful servants,” wrote Heller. “We feel so humbled to get to participate in God’s work.”