This request is a little different than the others, but it has been weighing on both of us lately. As we have gotten to know the families in Mathare and Kibera more deeply over these years, the needs we see are real and they are constant. School fees. Medical bills. Food running short before the next payday. People know us now, and people ask, and it is genuinely hard to know when helping is the right and loving thing to do and when it might actually be doing harm in the long run.
We have seen what happens in other ministries when good intentions create a cycle where the local church and local believers stop stepping up because the foreign missionaries always will. That is the last thing we want here. Four of our five churches are now led by Kenyan pastors who are capable, gifted men, and we want the people in their congregations looking to them and to each other for support, not to David and me.
At the same time, we do not want to hide behind a philosophy and ignore a widow who genuinely has nothing for dinner tonight. It is a tension we feel often and do not always navigate perfectly.
Please pray for wisdom for us and for the Kenyan pastors we work alongside as we figure out, case by case, what real biblical generosity looks like without undermining the strength and dignity of the local church. We would rather get this right slowly than get it wrong quickly.