Oct 17

Oct 17 A Family that Stretches from Chicago to Nairobi

There’s something about being in a family that not only draws you together through emotional and physical connections but also causes you to feel a sense of “home” when you’re together. There is an instant sense of closeness and familiarity, even if you’re meeting for the first time. That’s how it felt for seven members of Trinity Church (Chicago), who recently visited our church family in Nairobi, Kenya. We’ve been connected to OneTribe Church Nairobi for many years, but our relationship has grown even stronger as we’ve traveled there to host an annual kids’ camp.

Our involvement with the kids’ camp started three years ago when our friend, Mbonisi Malaba (the lead elder at OneTribe), told us about a prophetic word the church had received about reaching their city through children. He asked if Trinity would be willing to send a team to Nairobi to help the church press into this word. The team would orchestrate and implement a kids’ camp alongside others from OneTribe. This camp came to fruition in July 2017. And then again in August 2018. And yet again, God is good and he created another opportunity for a camp in in August of this year.

This year’s team from Trinity Church (Chicago)

We had one of our busiest weeks of camp yet, with an average of 115 kids per day! We saw families returning from year one, along with new families attending for the first time. We heard many stories of how families have been added to OneTribe directly because of these camps. Kids were singing songs from years past, and it was amazing to see their relationships with each other and Jesus grow stronger.

This year, as we prepared to visit our family again, I felt impressed over and over by how God was faithful in every detail of our time there. It’s such a privilege and a blessing to say yes to him. And it was an easy “yes” to say. We loved visiting our church family in Nairobi, meeting new people, and reconnecting with so many kids. Our theme of the week was, “Life is Wild, God is Good!” What a good Father we have.