Trips to Kenya to reach the unreached

We are planning our trips for next year. You may want to consider joining us or you may know others who have a passion to go where others don't go. This next year our trips will be in partnership with the PLO Lumumba Foundation and will be to the far Northeast, Northwest and Southern most part of Kenya. Our focus will be:

1. Medical camps
2. Sports
3. Evangelism
4. Civic education (to assist Dr. Lumumba in his fight against corruption)
5. Promotion of health as an asset
6. what if? Campaign fighting the spread of HIV/AIDS

We will equip and support the kenya team of musicians, preachers and doctors as they reach 9 unreached tribes. Trip dates include:

February - Marsabit
June - Turkana
August - Mombasa
October - village outreach not determined yet

As you consider if you are called to go with us you might want to read what Pat, a nurse who went to Marsabit with us in August said about her trip:

"The model of coming along side ministries and supporting them is so effective.  Those that are in the trenches day in and day out need various forms of support, encouragement and counsel.  Each of the ministries we worked with were strong spiritually as reflected by their fruit. Partners for Care is not just about doing good things for struggling people.  PFC is about seeing God transform lives through us, His hands and feet.  The ministry believes not just in the concrete ways we can serve, but also the very big God we serve who still does miracles today!"

Come with us and meet the people and ministries PFC equips to serve God in the slums and in the deserts of Kenya. See the miracles for yourself.

Blessings,

Connie
Sent via Cingular Xpress Mail with Blackberry

Partners for Care - just where we need to be

I have returned from Kenya. I want to use this update to share with you

the status of the Partners for Care organization in Kenya.

It has been said every man has a turning point...I believe every
organization also has a turning point and PFC Kenya ends this year having
made a turning point. Our mission is to equip, engage, encourage and
empower young Christian leaders in the fight to save lives for the
kingdom. It hasn't always been easy to do this. We have struggled with
many attacks from the enemy but God has been faithful.

We are working with the highest moral authority of the Nation - Dr. PLO
Lumumba who is championing the move to eradicate all corruption from
Kenya. It is an honor and a blessing to work with him and the people who
run his foundation. One man in particular, Vincent Omondi, doesn't speak
of serving his people - he serves them! Through medical camps and his own
personal work in the slums of Kenya, he shows the hurting, the lost and
homeless Christ's love and brings them to Christ. We are blessed to serve
with him.

The PFC staff in Kenya are leading the way - we in the US are supporting
their efforts. They work in the slums, using music, sports and medical
outreaches to transform lives - to win souls for Christ. Sammy Wanjau
leads the team with good direction and dedication. He is well respected by
the PFC staff and pastors and community leaders. Sam Wachira leads the
what if? Life Changing Centre, working closely with Sammy as they create a
sustainable business that helps the small village and slum of Mururi.
Just yesterday a TV station interviewed the team to learn of their work.
The news show about Kenya Partners for Care will air 6 times on TV next
week.

We used to struggle when working with some Kenyan doctors at our medical
camps because of their lack of passion for their people - no more! We now
work with Helping Hands led by Dr. Martin Okello who serves the poor with
passion, kindness and respect. We will hold medical camps together all
over Kenya next year.

Pastor David Karanja of the Christ Harvesters International Ministry
(based in Marietta, Ga.) has agreed to preach the gospel where ever we go
for medical camps. We could not have asked for a better man of God to
spread the gospel! Our opportunities in Kenya continue to expand. We are
now working through PCEA churches to spread the message of HIV/AIDS.

And for me personally I have been blessed by those who have gone - seen
the work and now call this "our ministry". What a blessing to have
passionate
people engaged to help equip the Kenyan team to do God's work.

This next year will be the best year for Partners for Care in Kenya. Thank
you for reading these updates, for sending encouraging messages and
especially for the prayers and financial support. It takes many people to
help the children, the hurting, the homeless and lost. I look forward with
great anticipation to what God has planned for these young leaders in
Kenya as they work everyday to save lives for the kingdom.

Blessings,

Connie

Sent via Cingular Xpress Mail with Blackberry

Dearest Connie,

Thank you for the continuing updates of your ministries in Kenya. I am so
proud of you and what you have wrought in that little corner of the world.
I look back at some of your first attempts to satisfy God's calling on
your life by organizing teams to provide medical clinics in the slums of
Nairobi.

I remember sitting at the dinner table at H.E.A.R.T. in the outskirts of
Nairobi and the feeling of despair of you and the team members when your
attempts were thwarted by the arrogance of a Kenyan doctor hired by you to
provide the medical services. I understood his usurpation of the team's
effort for his own self aggrandizement, of his barely concealed contempt
for your female leadership, and our discussions of how that model compared
to my own somewhat limited knowledge of fielding medical teams. You asked
for my input from a few of my experiences of leading medical teams to
various parts of the world to address the matter at hand. I shared what I
could, but the model I followed was more of servant leadership. My main
advice was for you to take charge, quit beating yourself up over the past
decisions, put the doctor in his place and pray for direction from God. I
imagined that the following day would be confrontational with perhaps a
parting of the ways with the hired Kenyan medical staff.

You speak in the current e-mail update of recognizing a turning point in a
person's or organization's life. What I saw the next day was the
beginning of a metamorphosis of Connie Cheren. Instead of the
confrontation that I had imagined, (and probably would have precipitated
myself had I been leading) you exhibited an act of servant leadership that
will always be with me. Rather than calling the team out and explaining
how it was to be henceforth, you and your little US team held a foot
washing service for the Kenyan team! That act of humility and servant
attitude was something that none of them (nor had I) ever witnessed in
such a situation. God used you in a way I would never have dreamt, but
the result was that Kingdom work was done from that point.

I understand the trials and tribulations you have faced over the past
years in the pursuit of providing for those you serve. I have seen the
efforts temporarily sidetracked by relying on those whose heart and
service was not for those needing food, shelter and medicines, but using
your good efforts to attempt to take credit for your work to advance their
own ill-advised cause. You have held the faith during these times,
forgiven the instigators of these travesties, moved on and continued the
fight for the right. You have recruited where possible from those that
you went to serve; you have empowered those with the vision and calling
among the poorest of the poor, and have pledged your own health, service
and treasure to that Kingdom calling.

I have traveled the world with some of the best and brightest Followers of
Christ. I have served with Wes and Joy Griffin of I L I in training
leaders worldwide; I have led local medical and construction teams to
several continents; and from my Board seat on The Mission Society, I see
the cutting edge of Mission work worldwide and those missionaries who are
leading those efforts. My hat is off to you and those who have been
inspired by you - the leaders you have supported in P F C - The Kenyan
nationals who share your dream and survive on your support - and the US
supporters that you have opened a door for to share in the Great
Commission. I know where the real talent and drive emanates, and that is
with an Atlanta nurse who could not resist His call for her service!

Long ago I listened to a college professor who shared a Life Lesson with
me that I shall never forget. He said, "In this world, there are only two
types of people - winners and losers. The winners give, and the losers
take."

Connie, you are a winner.

Blessings,

Jim Davis

When God shows you a need He wants you to act...not plan

Last Wednesday God showed me a need. And, He expected me to act with compassion. Instead, I went home to plan what to do. But, if I am honest with myself God told me what to do...right then not later. Nick and Charles had told me for two days they had a new client. Charles - a young man of 29. Charles was bedridden from the disease of AIDS but he had something else wrong with him. Nick would describe he was bleeding from his leg..I asked medical assessment questions but couldn't figure out what was wrong with him. Nick said people in Mathare slum were "afraid" of Charles because of the "bleeding" and were running away from him.

On Wednesday I was able to go to Mathare to see this young man. We were blessed to be taking with us Michael Agwanda from Life for Children Ministry and his wife Lola who is a doctor. We found Charles bedridden, in pain and unable to move. He had a large growth on his left knee. Searching for any information about his health condition we found a folded up piece of paper. It was a referral for follow-up for the cancer tumor on his left knee. He was to have radiation and chemotherapy. The referral was written in August. Obviously, Charles could not afford that kind of treatment. So, now he lay dying. Laying in a shack in a slum, on fifty sheets barely able to open his eyes. We prayed for him and went to plan what to do. We knew he would need a chest x-ray to see if the cancer had spread. Then we would know if treatment was still an option or if he needed palliative care. He had developed a bedsore on his hip. The CT volunteers were visiting him changing the dressing on the bedsore and offering what support they could.

I wanted to get him clean sheets, pain medicine that relieve his pain and arrange with someone to stay with him while he made his passage to heaven. I am a nurse. I know what the dying need. But, I didn't act...and on Friday we received word that God relieved the suffering of this young man and called him home.

I made a pledge that the next time God allows me the opportunity to meet the needs of a dying person I will act with haste...and not plan. All Nick and Charles and their volunteers need is the medicines, the clean sheets, the food...they do the work. We can help them. I could have helped them this time but didn't. Next time I will...

Connie
Sent via Cingular Xpress Mail with Blackberry

Playing barefoot

The Kenya Partners for Care staff use many different ways to reach the youth with the message of living for Christ and HIV prevention. Their latest efforts is soccer. The staff have started two what if? soccer teams in Muruiri slum - under 16 and over 16. These boys practice everyday - without a soccer field, without shoes or uniforms. The community comes out to watch them practice. As I stood watching them play in a grassy field barefoot I imagined them in uniforms and soccer shoes. George works with them teaching them about how to live as good examples to others in this small village/slum area. Just another way Partners for Care is helping transform the next generation - one boy at a time.

Connie
Sent via Cingular Xpress Mail with Blackberry