A Late Update on Kenya
I owe you all a heartfelt apology.
I’ve had a number of you write to me about the last appeal we made for an unexpected need in Kenya. The land they used to house and educate abandoned children was being unjustly stolen from them by the family who sold it in the first place, and a hospital that was going to auction it out from under them to satisfy an unpaid bill.
I was so preoccupied with the release of Just Love that I neglected to circle back and report on what happened in our last appeal. That’s my bad, and I’m sorry. As always, your response was so generous, and you deserved a more timely update and acknowledgment for the fruit of your generosity. So, belatedly, and apologetically, here it is:
Again, we were blown away by the generosity you extended toward the people of Kenya. What began for us in Kenya almost twenty years ago was never a program I dreamed up or a mission strategy I wanted to manage. It began the way so many of Father’s invitations do—with relationship, with a few hearts stirred by the message of living loved, and with needs too desperate to ignore once they came into view. In this last instance, you gave enough that we were able to rescue the Forkland Care Centre and restore it to its rightful owners. In early March, they received a clear title to the Forkland Centre and will not have this trouble again. They were relieved and grateful to the “Lifestream Team,” as they call it, even though I tell them it is just brothers and sisters responding in love to their needs.
Surprisingly, you gave more than the amount they needed, so we had extra to help them print copies of He Loves Me and Just Love to share throughout the country. We also held some in their account here for future needs. A few weeks ago, we released more of those funds because the brothers there were being invited all over Africa, including Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, and the Congo. I have also been spending time in Zoom conversations to help train them to share this message of love and how to equip people to experience this love firsthand.
So, we sent extra money, and this is their response:
Thank you so much once again for your great support. We would like to share some updates on how the support has been used. Your support became an answer to the prayers of several widows who were really struggling and, in some cases, almost sleeping outside. By the grace of God, we managed to build semi-permanent houses for them. (The partial construction is pictured above.) One house with three rooms, which accommodates three widows, and another four-roomed house accommodates five widows.
After the heavy floods of 2025, we also tried to help them settle again. In addition, we bought food for them, and they are very happy and continually thanking God for answering their prayers.
Another prayer that has been answered concerns those who are spiritually hungry and seeking the truth of God. So far, we have managed to reach over 130 groups in different regions across Rift Valley and Western Kenya. Each group has around 25–30 people, and we further divide them into smaller groups for prayer, sharing the message, and discussions.
What we have discovered is that people are very happy when they are given time to interact, ask questions, and share together. There are still many regions inviting us, including Mt. Elgon, where many people are still suffering from trauma, and also Pokot, where they have called us to share the same message.
We have also printed a few copies of the book Just Love, and soon we are planning to schedule a Zoom meeting with you to discuss further how we have understood and used the teachings. Thank you so much for equipping and supporting us in spreading the message of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Thank you also for allowing your book to be printed and used by us as we move from village to village and region to region, sharing the life of God. There is a great hunger and thirst for God here in Kenya and across East Africa. We truly thank God for the provision and the privilege He has given us to be used as tools to spread the message of His love.
The Bible tells us in John 3:16 that God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son. Through Jesus Christ, God showed His love openly to the whole world by saving, healing, forgiving, and restoring humanity. As believers, we are also called to demonstrate that same love to others through compassion, generosity, prayer, encouragement, and sharing the Gospel. When we serve the needy, stand with the brokenhearted, and preach Christ, the world can see the love of God through us.
Please continue praying for us, that we may train and coach small groups of about 20 people who can help us continue this work effectively.
We will keep this fund active, if any of you want to continue to give either for immediate needs or to help them respond to the invitations to share God’s love throughout East Africa. If you have anything to help us here, please visit our Donation Page at Lifestream. Check the box for “Kenya Relief”. You can also Venmo contributions to “@LifestreamMinistries” or mail a check to Lifestream Ministries • 107 N. Reino Rd, PMB# 411 • Newbury Park, CA 91320-3710. Or, if you prefer, we can take your donation over the phone at (805) 990-8780.
As always, every dime you send will end up in Kenya. We do not take out any money for our administrative costs.
For those who want a summary of our work there, I asked ChatGPT to cull through my past Kenya blogs and write a summary of what your generosity has accomplished there. (No, I didn’t have time to do this on my own, but it’s a really good summary.)
In the aftermath of Kenya’s post-election violence in 2008, we were drawn into the lives of children and widows who had lost almost everything. What started as emergency help became the Living Loved Care Centre, a place where orphaned children could be fed, sheltered, educated, and surrounded by people who would show them they were not forgotten. Many of those children have since grown up, completed school, gone on to college or university, found work, and begun to stand on their own. That has always been the hope—not to create dependency, but to help love open a door where there had only been loss.
As the years unfolded, the needs broadened. We helped provide food, clothing, bedding, school fees, medical care, and staff support. We also helped launch projects that could sustain the work from within Kenya itself—a petrol station, a grain enterprise, truck transportation, and other income-producing efforts to help feed children, pay staff, maintain the centre, and educate those who had no other way forward.
Then came North Pokot. A drought had devastated a nomadic people, leaving families without food, clean water, or a viable future. Through the generosity of so many of you, relief was sent, wells were dug, irrigation began, and agricultural projects were started so communities could feed themselves again. It was not merely about keeping people alive for another week, but helping them discover a way forward. In that process, many also encountered the Gospel of God’s love, not as a sermon first, but as water in the desert and food for their children.
Later, our hearts were drawn to Forkland School, where contaminated water threatened the children and the surrounding community. We helped drill a well that not only provided clean water but eventually became the foundation for Springs Garden Mineral Water, a bottled-water enterprise intended to sustain the school, bless the surrounding community, and create overflow for others in need. When government requirements later forced the school to expand its land, we were able to help with that as well.
Through the years, there have also been repairs, rescues, and setbacks—flood damage at the orphanage, repairs to the Living Loved Centre, restoration of the water bottling equipment, support for the grain enterprise and petrol station, and emergency food during drought. Even recently, our friends in Kenya wrote with gratitude for help in North Pokot, the rehabilitation centre, the water company, the grain enterprise, the petrol station, and repairs to the centre.
Looking back, I am still amazed that a small audience like ours could be part of so much. Millions of dollars have flowed through Lifestream, and every dollar designated for Kenya has gone there without administrative fees. But the deeper story is not money. It is love taking shape in wells, classrooms, meals, medicine, businesses, farms, and hope—so people who once wondered if God even saw them could taste, in tangible ways, that they are deeply loved.
Thank you to everyone who has given to these dear brothers and sisters and those who have held them before God in prayer. They are immensely grateful, and so are Sara and I.