First Baptist Church of Roswell in Kenya

Over the last 6 years, First Baptist Church of Roswell (www.rfbc.org) has worked closely with The Beech Foundation and R.O.C.K. Bridge Ministries, bringing many volunteers together to serve as medical missionaries in Nakuru, Kenya. The medical team provides assessment and treatment for several thousand men, women, and children at multiple locations.

Additional volunteer opportunities include service with the Tumaini Mission Center and Bethany Children’s Home, Arap Moi Children’s Home, Nakuru Hills Special Needs School, Nakuru 3:16 Street Girls Mission, and Living Water Project at Gioto (a city of homeless Kenyans living, literally, at a garbage dump). Our next medical team will travel to Nakuru in early 2014, and I have been given the opportunity to join this team.

Tumaini Mission Center

Years of compassion, collaboration and cooperation have provided numerous opportunities for growth, in the Kenyan communities and in the volunteers who serve there.  Together, these Kenyans and volunteers built the Tumaini Mission Center, including the Bethany Children’s Home, a primary school, clinic, dormitory, dining hall and kitchen, staff housing, conference center, cottages, farm land, and greenhouses.  Ongoing development includes a secondary school.

The conference center, cottages, farm land, and greenhouses help empower the Kenyan people to implement programs that are self-sustaining and effective, now and for generations to come.  Self-sustaining efforts include dairy farming, fish farming, chicken farming, and agricultural products.  Farming and agriculture help meet budgetary needs, as well as feed the many orphans, students and staff living at the Tumaini Mission Center.

R.O.C.K. Bridge Ministries

The efforts of The Beech Foundation and its partners are not a temporary handout but, rather, a catalyst for change. The Kenyans are eager to learn, work, and grow. This is possible, in part, through cooperation with a local non-profit organization in Kenya known as R.O.C.K. Bridge Ministries (www.rockbridgeministries.org).

R.O.C.K. (Reaching out to Communities in Kenya) Bridge Ministries, is a Christian, interdenominational, non-profit organization. Their primary objective is to serve as a bridge between communities in Kenya and partner churches in both Kenya and the United States. Through these partnerships, R.O.C.K Bridge Ministries seeks to equip and empower the Kenyan communities spiritually, physically, emotionally, and economically.

The Beech Foundation

In 2004, The Beech Foundation (www.thebeechfoundation.org) followed a call to organize a mission trip to Kenya and partner with other organizations and churches working there. What started as a short-term mission has become an eternal commitment with widespread participation. Partners and volunteers from five different states, various denominations, and many different non-profit ministry organizations have worked with six churches in Nakuru, Kenya to establish a joint ministry: the Tumaini Mission Center and Bethany Children’s Home.

The reality is that HIV/AIDS and other tragedies have left three million children orphaned in Kenya. With collaboration between The Beech Foundation and the PCEA Nakuru West network of local churches, land was purchased in 2006, and the first wing of the children's home was opened in 2007. Ultimately, 400 children will be nurtured, along with a Primary School, Secondary School, Clinic, Chapel, and much more. These efforts are part of a blessed bridge building effort that will continue for years to come.