I’m excited.  For a few years now you’ve heard me mention in our podcasts about Johnny and Kate Brooks and what they are doing, er living in Kenya.  I’ve written more than once how I see them as an example of doing missions outside of the institutional church.  Think about it.  The IC has been, and still is the main funding source for most of the missionary efforts coming out of this country. 

Now imagine having your family with you living in another country as missionaries sent out by the IC, and then leave the confines of the IC along with the strong chance of losing your funding and possibly having your reputation tarnished out of spite.  That in a nutshell is what they did.

Their mission statement is simple: Taking care of orphans and widows: Pure Christianity.  It would have been easy to create another orphanage to care for orphans and create a great vehicle for fundraising.  God bless the folks that help orphans, but Johnny and Kate took it a step further and decided to adopt 9 Kenyan girls who were abandoned or orphaned into their family, and simply raise them with their own ‘bio kids’ as Kate affectionately refers to her own brood.  That’s all quite noble, but uh, how can you afford that when you may have lost your status with the IC? 

Relationships. 

The friends and family that knew them in their hometown in Texas still financially support them directly.  They’ve also expanded their friends through social media, mainly Facebook and their blog.   Now they’re going after something big.  They have the chance to purchase some land at a fraction of the normal asking price.  To raise the money they’ve turned once again to social media to raise it.  They are running a campaign on Indiegogo. 

I would like to personally recommend them to you, and suggest that you check them out for yourself.  If you can give, share or just encourage them they will appreciate it.  Oh yeah, I created the video for their campaign.   

bob humphrey