Our greatest need going into 2023 WAS a dormitory for the high school boys. But the Kenyan Ministry of Education is now requiring us to setup a Jr High which totally scrambled our priorities...or so we thought.

You may or may not know that the High School boys are currently living in a building that was originally built to be an orphanage or grade school, so it was designed with two wings, a boys wing and girls wing with a dining/study hall and kitchen connecting them in the middle. The high school boys have temporarily occupied the entire building since 2018.

This building was originally designed to a school…we had envisioned it being an elementary school one day. But now the Kenyan Government is requiring a Jr High.

So, the thought dawned on us…maybe this government requirement for a Jr High doesn’t need to take priority OVER the boy’s dorm. What if…we could raise enough to build the new dorm. Then we could move our high school girls into the new dorm. By doing that we could move the boys into the old girl’s dorm which is a huge upgrade for them. And by moving the boys out of their current building, that building could now become our Jr High? Can you see the domino effect of the dorm? 

Building the dorm, provides an upgrade for the girls, a massive upgrade for the boys AND allows us to setup the Junior High.

But, what about the cost of additional staff for the Junior High. Well, we already have “junior high” staff. THey are already teaching those children at the elementary schools. We will simply move them from the elementary schools to the Central Ministry in Ngong.

In fact, think about the 4th domino in this line. If we move our upper elementary school children to a Jr High at the Central Ministry in Ngong, we will then have space for 200-400 new elementary school students in our slums schools.

So, by building the dorm, we provide an incredible new space for our girl and by moving our girls, we can provide an incredible new space for our boys. And by moving our boys, we provide an incredible space for our Jr High and by moving our upper elementary students to the Jr High, we can enroll 200-400 new students at our slums schools….children that would otherwise not have access to education and discipleship.

By doing this ONE THING…we are doing FOUR things!

We love when God goes miles ahead of us clearing the path forward!

But what will it cost?

Check this out because this might be the most exciting part. The dorm was estimated to cost $360,000 a year ago. And then two incredible things happened:

1. We had a couple of incredibly generous donors get us WAY ahead of where I thought we’d be. Of the $360,000 we need; we have already raised $210,000!!!!!
2. Then for our last board meeting, I re-ran the estimates and something happened that’s never happened before. You see our estimates come in the form of Shillings. We have to convert that to dollars to figure out he budget. There is always a little bit of movement in the currency exchange markets but over the past year the dollar has become incredibly strong against the shilling. This project, that was set to cost $360,000 just a year ago, will now cost $297,000 because of changes in the currency exchange markets!! We just got a $63,000 donation from the currency exchange markets!! This has NEVER happened before!

Gang, what this means is that we’re not trying to raise $360,000. We’re trying to raise $297,000. But we’re not trying to raise $297,000 because several incredibly generous people have already given $210,000. GUYS…that means that instead of pleading for $360,000, we only need $87,000!!!!

And it’s not just for one project…raising that $87,000 allows us to green light the new dorm which will bless the high school girls and by moving he girls, this will bless the high school boys and by moving the high school boys, we can create the government mandated Junior high and by moving the junior high kids from the slums to the Junior high, we can enroll 200-400 new children in our slums schools.

I love how our plan was to build a dorm.

The government’s plan was to build a junior high, but God’s plan appears to be to build the new dorm for the girls, so the boys can be blessed so the Jr High kids would be blessed so that 200-400 children without access to education or discipleship would be blessed.

His plans are SO much bigger and so much better than our own.