New Faces

I am excited to share with you all about the newest CARE for AIDS center, which will be opening officially at the end of this month! The center is located in an area called Kangemi, which is right on the Nairobi Highway on the outskirts of the city. Kangemi is a huge slum - I drove through it with Duncan a few days ago and was amazed at the extent to which the tightly-packed, corrugated tin dwellings reached. From the highway you can only see a small section, but the area extends for several kilometers, down a large valley and up the other side.


Last week I was able to sit down with Pastor Chege of the Full Gospel Church of Kenya - Kangemi and hear about his heart for ministering to people living with HIV/AIDS. I also got to spend some time with our newest center workers, Esther and David, who are in training right now. David lost both his brother and sister-in-law to HIV, and he is now caring for their child as his own, which gives him a strong personal connection to the situation in which people living with HIV find themselves. David has been working as a night guard while taking courses on spiritual leadership. Esther has a very close friend who has been living with HIV/AIDS for a number of years now, and she has been trying to find a way to use the lessons she has learned caring for her friend to help more needy individuals. She is married with two children in primary school. Both David and Esther are overjoyed with the prospect of doing this sort of work full time, and they both expressed that they were ready to start on the very day when we met!

Over the next month David and Esther will be spending time with our "older" workers, learning what to expect and how to deal with the many difficult situations they will face in the course of their job. Then they will begin the process of recruiting a group of clients after the official "launching" ceremony in the Sunday service at FGCK Kangemi on September 26. Please pray that God will guide each step of this process and bring just the right clients to the center over the next couple of months!