January 2014 – Bob and LuAnn Herring arrived in Africa not knowing what to expect. What they found there – the gateway to the Tuwani slum outside Kitale, Kenya – opened their eyes to a ministry calling that has filled the past decade of their lives.

While spending several months of every year in Kenya is now the norm for the Herrings, the Massachusetts family had never foreseen how their lives would become invested in missions. 

“Back in 2004, my husband and I were really seeking God, but felt like we weren’t experiencing vital Christianity,” LuAnn Herring told AFA Journal. “That fall, a guy brought Peter Siakama, a Kenyan pastor, to our door. We heard him share at several fellowships, and we really connected with him personally. On his way out, he said, ‘Why don’t you come to Kenya?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, sure.’ I’d never even been out of the country.”

But God had a plan; and with the invitation of the Kenyan pastor, everything changed. 

“From that moment, God just began this whirlwind of directing us to go to Kenya,” Herring shared. “Other people in our fellowship and people that we knew confirmed it, raised the money and bought tickets for us. And within two months we were in Kenya.” 

Pastor Siakama introduced them to a project of Graceway Harvest Chapel, the church he pastored.

“He took us around to the back of the church, and there were two little mud huts falling down, and about 60 kids came out to greet us,” Herring said. “This was the Neema (grace in Swahili) Care Centre, a preschool the church had started to try to keep kids from the slum off the street.” 

There in the backyard of GHC was also the entryway into the Tuwani slum of 80,000 people. Entering that portal, the Herrings began an unanticipated partnership with the local Kenyan ministry and founded AfricaConnect.

“At the time, an emergency measure was needed to support the school because they had no feeding program, only one teacher, no schoolbooks. The kids were malnourished and in rags,” Herring said. “God gave us a roadmap for AfricaConnect, and that was to partner with Kenyan nationals to empower them to do what God put on their hearts to do.” 

Gateway to a child’s future
Today, the school enrolls 90 children every year in a three-year educational program for children ages 3 to 6. These children receive two meals each day – for many, the only food they will eat all day. They also are provided uniforms, shoes and medical care, and they are nurtured by a staff of committed Kenyan Christians.

Preschool education is crucial for a Kenyan child because it is a requirement for admission to primary school. However, preschool is not free, and for poor kids from the slum, it is financially out of reach. Shut out of education, they’re trapped in the cycle of the slum, a world of mud huts and insatiable poverty that survives solely on gang activity, illegal liquor and prostitution.

“The children tend to be forgotten, if not rejected and abused,” Herring said. “When they first come to us, they are usually sick, malnourished, timid and shy from abuse and neglect. Many have intentional burn marks and bruises from abuse; most have parasites; some are HIV positive.”

The Herrings are instrumental in raising funds to serve these children, and within months of coming to the preschool, these children are routinely transformed and full of joy.

Windows into the slum
In addition, the relationships established through the preschool open opportunities for outreach in the Tuwani slum. 

“The vision that God gave us was with the preschool, and that is the core and center of everything we do,” Herring said. “But the children are the door into the slum. We literally follow them home and get to know the parents and the family and the neighbors. So this has given us a road into the community, where we evangelize in homes and find out needs.” 

One major project of GHC reaches beyond the sphere of the preschool to impact parents and effect lasting change for the entire family. 

“You can send a child to school, but he’s still going to come home, and you can only imagine what that life is like,” Herring said. “With AfricaConnect, we’ve begun empowerment programs for the parents so that the whole family becomes stronger and hopefully self-sufficient.”

These programs teach parents basic concepts like sanitation, personal care and how to treat their children without using abuse. Adults have opportunities to attend classes on agriculture, small business operations and literacy. A tailoring school provides women with a valuable skill that allows them to break out of prostitution. Unfortunately, the tailoring program has been temporarily suspended due to inadequate facilities. 

AfricaConnect supports medical clinics offering health services in villages where no medical care is available. These medical clinics treat up to 350 people in a day and are conducted in partnership with the local church to bring evangelism to all who attend 

People rise up with the gospel
As a matter of policy, AfricaConnect doesn’t simply give money, but it fosters relationships that help families improve their lives. In fact, all that is done through the partnership of AfricaConnect, GHC and the Neema Care Centre focuses first and foremost on evangelism. 

“As a church, Graceway is extremely passionate about their outreach,” Herring shared. “Graceway has a portable sound system to use for film evangelism in the villages, and that’s been really effective. Programs from these outreaches are broadcast over the radio, reaching millions of people in Uganda and Kenya.” 

Furthermore, pastor Don Roach of Calvary Chapel of the Berkshires, the Herrings’ home church in Massachusetts, has traveled with AfricaConnect to Kenya for the past three years to teach Bible training, which is also heard on the radio. 

“It’s the gospel that changes the heart and gives hope and power to enable change,” Herring said. “So our goal is to reveal Christ and love people. The long-term goal of AfricaConnect and its Kenyan partners is for God to change and use these people. 

“The people in the slums that it seems least likely God could use – these are the ones that God wants to use to change the world. And we’re seeing it happen. They’re rising up; they’re getting Bible training; and now they’re going out as missionaries to other areas of Kenya.”  

Current needs
▶ Preschool sponsorship – $25 a month
▶ Ian Memorial Scholarship – $300 per year 
▶ Facility to reopen tailoring program –$8,000

AfricaConnect supports:
▶ Rescuing and rehabilitating preschoolers at the Neema Care Centre and Preschool
▶ Educating children and parents, equipping them with hope for the future
▶ Empowering families with practical vocational solutions and skills
▶ Transforming lives through the love and forgiveness of Christ

africaconnect.org
[email protected]
P. O. Box 598
Lee, MA 01238