Tonight Jason and I get to have a date night! I am excited. Who doesn't get pumped for date nights...especially when they don't happen very often?!!! This date night though has a purpose behind it...a fundraiser to help a build a school. Some incredible people are giving up their Friday night to babysit our kids so that kids a half a world away can go to school. We get a date night and the money that would have gone to pay a babysitter will go towards the goal of building a primary school in rural Kenya through The Kilgoris Project.
I am asking you to consider making a donation to The Kilgoris Project to help build this school. Let me tell you a bit about TKP.
The story of Kilgoris started in 1999 when a couple from California was on safari in Kenya. This couple ( the McCormacks) struck up a friendship with one of the waiters (Willie) at the game reserve and they bonded over their mutual Christian faith. Over the next couple of years the McCormacks and Willie corresponded. They learned of the desire of Willie's church to build a church building and start a preschool and The Kilgoris Project was born.
Fast forward 14 years later and there are now four schools, a church, a tea farm, women's co-op and basic care (nutrition, clean water, and medical care) that is making a huge difference in the lives of those living in the Kilgoris village and the surrounding villages. The schools are educating the children, providing them with an opportunity to find employment when they grow up. The tea farm is producing a sustainable way to pay the teachers at the school. The basics such as food, clean water and medical attention are there to keep the children healthy so they are able to learn. The women's co-op is a way for the moms to learn to make crafts, which are then sold in the U.S., enabling them to provide for their families.
From the Kilgoris website...
Through these four schools, the churches and the tea farm, now known as The Kilgoris Project, the villagers are able to touch their neighbors. Many children are learning for the first time. Parents see hope for the future. And community sees a visible expression of God's love.
Poverty, exploitation of the poor, modern day slavery and human trafficking as you know are huge problems. Injustice. I cannot read the words of Christ or the Old Testament (Micah 6:8, Isaiah 58:6-7, Zechariah 7:9-10, Amos 5:24, Matthew 12:7, Matthew 25:40,Luke 1:52-53, Acts 4:34-35) without being reminded about my role in this. I can't read 1 John 3:17 which says How does God's love abide in anyone who has the world's goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses to help?...without being convicted and just cut to the heart. It's not about doing church right, it's not about us and how comfortable we want to be, it is about Jesus and bringing him glory. It is about seeing or hearing of injustice whether here in America or half way around the world and doing all we can to stop it. We don't respond to pat ourselves on the back, we respond because it is showing the love of Christ in a tangible way.
Building schools, and teaching moms a trade... these are ways to combat poverty, exploitation, slavery and trafficking. Ministries like The Kilgoris Project are hitting it at the core...educated children grow up to have opportunities to lead them and their families out of poverty, change their own country and parents who are able to provide for the needs of the family are not easily exploited or coerced into selling their kids into slavery. In the book Half the Sky by Nicholas Kristoff and Sheryl WuDunn they cite a study that UNICEF came out with that says when women are empowered (educated, taught a trade) the future of that society changes. We can be apart of helping them, to change their society. This is justice. This is what Isaiah is talking about in chapter 58:10, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the opressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your light will become like the noonday.
Will you help build a school? Will you help change the future of these boys and girls in Kenya not just because it is the right thing to do, but because of your love for Christ. If you would like to help, you can go here and select One Time Donation. In the comments section you can add that this is to help Kadi Fit build a school.
Happy Friday!
Love
Tracy
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