Post on 09-Aug-2015
Samburu Friends Missionfounded in 1995 by Isaiah Bikokwa, a Friends missionary to the Turkana people
Isaiah Bikokwa retired in July 2013
Sammy Letoole, the first Samburu Friend trained at Friends Theological College, is now serving as the Mission Director. God is doing exciting things in Samburu!
Samburu Friends Mission is now a fully “indigenous” church, a mission of the Samburu people, for their community
The new leaders opened a local bank account, and are fully responsible for
managing the mission’s money
The mission treasurer and the monthly meeting treasurer are so proud to have made the first bank deposits of their lives
The staff of the mission are nearly all Samburu Friends
Samburu Mission has two full meetings and two new church plants. This is Lorian
Friends Church.
This is Malalwa Friends Church and nursery school, the newest church plant
Here are the youth members of Loltulelei Friends Church
The leaders of Loltulelei Friends Church inside the new meetinghouse
The new Loltulelei church after plastering the walls
Worship is at the center of all the Samburu Mission activities
One Sunday each month, the young adults lead the worship
Samburu Friends praise God through their indigenous culture
The men’s choir at Lorian Friends
One of the women’s choirs at Loltulelei, at the dedication of the new classrooms
One of the USFW choirs at Lorian
One of the USFW choirs at Loltulelei
The children’s choir at Loltulelei
Some of the members at Lorian
God is raising up dynamic young leadership among Samburu Friends
Rosinah Lepariyo, the first Samburu Quaker woman to be trained as a pastor
Christopher Leaduma,
the evangelist at
Lorian
Christopher Leaduma
and his son with Eden
Grace, FUM’s new
Global Ministries Director
Lorian Friends Church
Lorian Friends just built this new Sunday School and nursery school building
New borehole at Lorian
Loltulelei Friends Dispensary building – in dire need of new construction!
Simon and Peter, the clinical staff of the Dispensary
The biosand water filter project was recently introduced at Loltulelei
Wherever Friends are, there are Friends Schools
Loltulelei Friends School is a community-based primary school. This is the school board.
FUM’s Summer Mission Project in 2012 resulted in two new and two renovated classrooms at Loltulelei.
The new classrooms replaced rooms that looked like this.
Loltulelei Friends School students love their school – and they are the top
performing school in the District
Loltulelei Friends School has won national competitions with its traditional Samburu
songs and dances
Rehearsing for the upcoming competition in Nairobi
Loltulelei Friends Nursery School meets in the new meetinghouse
Most adult Samburu women are illiterate. Samburu Mission runs an adult literacy
program to teach these women
Children who work full-time tending the family’s animals come to a special night school called “Shepherd School”. This is the only program of its type in Samburu.
It is very difficult for a family to pay for secondary school, and girls are
often left behind. Samburu Mission sponsors 10 girls in secondary school.
The 2014 Summer Mission Project raised over $20,000 to support girl-child education in Turkana and Samburu
Upper Hill (Loosuk) Dispensary as it appeared in February 2007
The same building 12 months later
The Upper Hill compound was destroyed during the post-election violence of 2008
The windows, doors, furniture, supplies, equipment and roofing were all stolen.
This is what remains of the pastors house
This was the church and nursery school building
We can’t rebuild at Upper Hill. But God has not allowed us to be discouraged.
Friends have been given this land in Loosuk Market, a growing and
populous area, in order to develop a new ministry to the community.
Samburu Friends have a vision of an Empowerment Center on this land
An Empowerment Center will offer much-needed goods and services to
the community while also serving as a vocational training center and
providing an income
stream for the mission.
Lorian Church members are doing the planning of this project. They started out by identifying goods and services that are needed by the community and that have a strong chance of being profitable. Currently, people travel to Maralal for these services, about an hour by motorcycle, at a cost of $10 round trip.
Motorcycles are the most common form of public transportation. They are in constant
need of repair
Business services like photocopying, typing and email are in very high demand, and computer classes are greatly needed
School supplies and text books can’t be bought in Loosuk, yet every child is required to have them.
Sewing of school uniforms and dresses is a profitable business and a desirable vocational skill
A guest house with meeting rooms, like this one in Maralal, would allow many different groups to hold community mobilization events in Loosuk.
Friends are called to impact their community as well as generate income to sustain the mission work.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is changing lives in Samburu
The gospel is truly good news to the Samburu people
Thank you for partnering in what God is doing in Samburu through Friends United Meeting