Group returns from Kenya mission trip

A mission team from Fair Haven Baptist Church returned Aug. 29 from a fact-finding mission trip to Kenya, where the church has been involved for some time in building wells for the people of the Homa Bay area.

Lee Adcock, Jennifer Blackburn, Molly Adcock, Mike Smith and Wilbert Nelson made up the team. Nelson has been one of the prime forces behind the church's involvement with Homa Bay; for others, like Smith, it was his first time to see the poverty of the Developing World. Smith is the church's minister of worship and education, and preached while in Kenya.

"I was just going as Brother Charles [Williams]'s representative," said Smith.

Visitors to a place like Kenya come away struck by the need and poverty, but also by the hope and spirituality of the people they meet, and Smith was no exception.

"God is very evidently at work in Kenya," he said.

Homa Bay, on the shores of Lake Victoria, is choked with an invasive plant called water hyacinth. Many of the people in the area draw filthy brown water from standing ponds and pools. Fair Haven has built two operating wells, to allow fresh water for area use. Two other attempts at drilling wells have been held up because of rock. The church hopes to ship a jackhammer and an air compressor to Kenya for use in helping to dig wells. One well should be started soon and four more are needed. Each well can serve 20, 30 or even 40 families.

"The people we met are just really thankful," said Smith.

It's hard to grasp the lifestyle of people in the Third World without seeing it first-hand. So many things that Americans take for granted in terms of medical care, common utilities, even passable roads are either unpredictable or unavailable in much of the world.

Although Homa Bay is in the southwestern portion of Kenya, the team also spent some time in Kenya's capital, Nairobi, where they worked on a school for the Great Commission Fellowship, the church with which the Rev. Dennis Odhiambo is affiliated.

Nelson said those interested in contributing money towards the well project can contact him at 580-5083. A program about the trip will air Saturday at 11 a.m. and Sunday at 8 a.m. on Charter Communications Channel 22.