Our Story
The Journey That Led Us Here
From Ohio and Indiana to the streets of Nairobi how God called David and Carol Hendricks to Kenya.
Two Lives, One Calling
David grew up in small-town Ohio, a church kid who didn’t take his faith seriously until his late twenties. He built a career in construction and project management. Carol grew up in a pastor’s home in Indiana, studied education, and spent fifteen years teaching third grade. They met at a church conference in their early thirties, married, and raised three children together in the Chicago suburbs. Neither knew that God was quietly preparing them for something neither had imagined.
David Goes to Kenya
David joined a short-term mission trip to Nairobi and came back a different man. He had seen the informal settlements of Mathare and Kibera — the need was staggering, but so was the hunger for the Gospel. He came home unable to let it go. Carol listened, prayed, and wrestled. Leaving grandchildren, aging parents, and a good and comfortable life was no small thing. But the call was real, and she knew it.
The Call Settled, the Process Begins
By 2017, both David and Carol had settled it before God. They partnered with Crossroads Global Mission and began the long work of raising support, completing training, and preparing to leave. Cornerstone Bible Church in Naperville stepped forward as their primary sending church — a partnership that continues to anchor their ministry to this day. Friends, family, and a growing team of donors rallied around them.
Wheels Down in Kenya
The Hendricks arrived in Kenya in 2018 and got to work. David began identifying persons of peace in Mathare and Kibera, meeting in homes for Bible study and discipleship. Carol launched her women’s program and quickly discovered a gift for the work that would grow to over sixty women. Carol’s cat Simba wandered into the compound that first year and never left — a small sign, they joke, that they were home.
Five Churches. Countless Lives. Still Going.
Seven years on, the Hendricks have seen five churches planted — four now fully led by Kenyan pastors. A sixth is taking root in the rural village of Longisa under the leadership of Samuel Koech, a young church planter David is discipling. The work is not finished. The story is still being written. And they would not trade a day of it.