It’s easy to become entranced by the primal beauty of a safari. The conveniences of modern civilization appear frivolous in its wake. A ride on the back of a jeep into the Rift Valley, which some archeologists call “the birthplace of humanity,” provides the perfect vantage point to view Mara trees at sunset, grazing giraffes, herds of game and lions that lounge about and hunt near dusk. Without a doubt, it is the wildlife adventure that attracts most visitors. Before recent violence in the region, including the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in 1998 and hawker riots in 2001, tourism was the country’s biggest source of income. About 500,000 people visit Kenya annually.

But there is a whole world in Kenya most tourists will never see. While it hasn’t hit Kenya as hard as some of the neighboring countries, low estimates of HIV/AIDS infection rates are 15 percent for adults. That number does not take into account the number of children orphaned by the rapidly spreading disease or the number of unreported cases of infected adults too ashamed to go public. The social stigma associated with having the illness is suffocating. Stories circulate of men and women too weak to walk being left alone in huts without food and water. Pneumonia is often cited as the cause of death. While AIDS has crossed economic and social boundaries in Kenya, hardest hit have been the slums of Nairobi, where running water, electricity or even a good pair of shoes are scarce. Working people are fortunate to earn the equivalent of $2 U.S. a day, and it’s common for a family with five to 10 children to live in a one-room shack. Single mothers run most households; many fathers have left or died of AIDS or other infectious diseases.

Buckner saw the needs of orphaned children in Kenya firsthand in February 2001 on a trip with the minister of missions from Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas. The church approached Buckner after seeing the needs of the 45 children living in the Baptist Children’s Center on the outskirts of Nairobi. At the time, the children were living in two small, cramped rooms—one for boys, one for girls—and two to three children were sleeping on mattresses designed for one. Unlike other orphanages Buckner works with throughout the world, every child at the Baptist Center in Nairobi is truly orphaned—that is they have no living parents. To protect the children from the stigma associated with AIDS, the children’s health records are kept confidential.
Since that fist trip to the children’s home, conditions have changed dramatically. It is easy to see the Lord’s hand in the improvements at the center. Twenty children are in foster care with Christian families. The 45 children living at the center and attending school there have been moved into four new buildings, each with a dynamic Christian dorm mom or dad. Church services held every week are open to the public, and the children are all-too-happy to sing and perform in the service. Residents from surrounding areas sometimes walk miles to attend the bilingual service. Almost all of the children have accepted Christ as their personal Savior, and their faces beam at the sight of visitors.

In June, I was blessed to go to Kenya with Mike Douris, vice president of Buckner Orphan Care International, and Nelson Hogg, vice president and chairman of the Buckner Board of Trustees. My other travel companions were Cherly Hogg, Jonathan and Kacee Hogg, Angie Barrett, Larry Mercer of Moody Bible Radio Ministry in Chicago, and Elvin Smith. Our group took the children to a local amusement park where they rode a camel, horse and paddleboats; played in a bounce house; and ate ice cream. The trip was a rare treat for the children.

From a Western perspective, the needs in Kenya are vast. With each trip I make overseas to visit orphanages and spend time with God’s children who have no earthly parents, I’m humbled to know what little I can do in my own strength. But Philippians 4:6-8 reminds us to: “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.”

I am once again reminded that the God we serve is great, and He works in us and through us and answers our prayers. What seems impossible to us is just right for Him. Witnessing the move of God at the Baptist Children’s Center in Nairobi, Kenya, is evidence of that.
Weekly church services at the Baptist Children's Center draw villagers from miles around to hear the Gospel of Christ. Unlike other children's homes that Buckner serves, each child at the Baptist Children's Center in Nairobi is a true orphan with no living parents.
Buckner constructed four new buildings at the Baptist Children's Center where orphans live, worship and attend school. Buckner and Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas partnered to improve living conditions for orphaned children in Nairobi, Kenya.
The nomadic Maasai tribe, donning their traditional garb, represent the pride still apparent among Kenyans despite the ravages of AIDS and poverty.
Working people in the slums of Nairobi are fortunate if they earn the equivalent of $2 U.S. a day.