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July 23-Aug. 3 (With Game Park)
July 23-Aug. 2 (Without Game Park)
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| Tasks: |
Our team will be leading a medical clinic at the Baptist Children's Center, a Vacation Bible School with orphans, and evangelism with the local community.
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| Cost: |
$4,200 with game park
$3,700 without game park
Please see the application for scholarship options.
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BACKGROUND
In May, 2006, Jeff Raines traveled to Kenya with Buckner Orphan Care International and several West Texas churches to explore partnership and missions opportunities. Buckner asked our church to consider partnering with the Baptist Children’s Center (BCC) on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya. The BCC, run by Kenyan Baptists and Buckner, sits on 13 acres in the midst of a slum-type area of around 25,000 people. They have a residential orphanage for 48 AIDS orphans, a cafeteria, a medical and dental clinic, a school, a vocational training center (teaching sewing, woodworking, and computer), and a chapel. The staff (all Kenyans) include house parents, social workers, vocational teachers, school teachers, a nurse, and a nurse practitioner.
Their specific request of the West Texas churches represented was to fund the construction and operation of three additional school buildings. (The bottom picture on the right side of this page is of the school building we funded in 2008.) Eventually, this school will be able to provide education through the 8th grade for 200 children (the 48 residential orphans plus children in the surrounding slum area.) They also asked that we bring teams over the next few years to further the work of the BCC.
Our Missions Committee enthusiastically voted that our church participate. This is a wonderful way for us to seek to make a difference with one of the great crises of our time. In 2003 there were 12 million AIDS orphans in sub-saharan Africa—with projections of 18 million by 2010. As you can imagine, the stories of those children at the BCC are heart-breaking. A Buckner social worker in Busia, Kenya, found a toddler, starving, sitting on the graves of his parents. Someone had buried his parents and left him to die. He is now living at the BCC, where the staff is trying to help him and the other orphans have better options in life.
Over the next few years, our church will give toward this exciting project and will take several teams to work with these children and in the community. Please pray about how you might be involved!
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Kenya Fast Facts
Population: 34.2 million
Numer of orphans: 1.7 million
Number living with AIDS: 3 million
Number of AIDS orphans: 1.5 million
Income: 58% live on less than $2 a day; 26.5% live on less than $1 a day
Unemployment rate: 50%
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