Glenn and Kathy Kendall Update # 138 of October 7, 2008, Nairobi, Kenya

Kenya: a country known for safaris to hunt and photograph magnificent African animals, sparkling beaches on the Indian Ocean, the grandeur of the Great Rift Valley; quintessential Africa of the TV and movie screens.

Another less known world is that of education.  It is here in an outlying area of Nairobi that Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology (NEGST) is located and where we have colleagues who work as professors in theology, pastoral studies, counseling, in management, maintenance, and teaching English.

This school draws students from across Africa to do studies at the masters and doctoral levels. The over 800 graduates work in 35 countries.  Most of the students come with families.  Some of them have sold literally every possession to pay for transportation and fees.  Some wives and children come knowing no English or Swahili to a country and school of those languages.   Hunger and hardship are part of the education as they pour everything they have into this process. 

The students are a determined group; determined to acquire education and training and knowledge, determined to return to their homelands to make a difference in the lives and hearts of their people, determined that the church be better, determined that as Africans they proclaim well the truths of the Bible in a way that will best impact their culture and their people.

Praise:

For great East Africa Leaders Meetings.  We prayed, worshipped, encouraged each other and discussed strategy and future goals.  For instance we set up a think tank to help us help our ministries to the poor and needy do more good and less damage (i.e. not create as much dependency.)

Prayer:

Uganda meetings today and tomorrow then we have individual interviews and meet with BUU (Baptist Union of Uganda) leaders and go up to the Sudan border on Sunday.

NEGST is seeking to expand into a University and has asked us to help find a few good American Staff: professors in Counseling, Organizational Leadership and Business Administration (Entrepreneurship) and program developers.

In part because of the troubles at the beginning of the year NEGST is having a cash flow crunch right now.  Also believers related to us along the coast have little to no food because of poor rains leading to poor harvests.

We are looking for two couples interested in outreach among South Asians and Arabs living on the Kenya coast to add to a great team doing effective outreach.  Believers regularly go back to their least evangelized countries.