Tumaini Means Hope: The Summer Journey in Kenya Has Begun
A field update from Steve and Shelley Switzer, MANNA Africa Directors, and Alecia Dockery, MANNA Africa Assistant Director.
There are places that stay with you long after you leave. and for our manna team, Kenya is one of them.
"What a joy it is to be in Kenya again," the Switzers shared in a recent update from the field. That joy is contagious, and the story behind it is one you helped make possible.
It started with the local church
Before any program runs or any meal is served, MANNA begins with people who already know and love their communities: local pastors, missionaries, and national leaders. They speak the language. They understand the culture. They see the needs up close, every single day.
That is why this summer's trip opened with the Serving in Ministry Together couples conference, bringing together pastors and their wives from rural churches across the MANNA, R4C, and Crossroads networks. Nearly 100 leader couples gathered to worship together and to be equipped side by side, encouraged in both their faith and their ministry. These are the men and women God has placed on the front lines, and pouring into them is one of the most lasting investments anyone can make. When local leaders are strengthened, entire communities feel the difference for years to come.
A huge thank you goes to Hallmark Church and Pastor Jon Haley, who brought a wonderful team ready to serve with open hands and humble hearts. Teams like theirs show what partnership looks like up close. They traveled across the world to come alongside the leaders God has already placed in these communities, to encourage them, learn from them, and lend their hands wherever they were needed most. That kind of going leaves a lasting mark on everyone involved, the families who are welcomed and loved and the team members who will carry Kenya home in their hearts for years to come.
A celebration in Mwanguda
From there, the team traveled to the village of Mwanguda to celebrate alongside the people of Tumaini Church. Tumaini is the Swahili word for "Hope," and it is hard to imagine a better name for what is happening there.
Sunday and Monday were full. The team gathered for worship, where Pastor Jon Haley preached from Psalm 16, and then poured into the children across two days of programs. One day the kids heard the story of Jesus calming the storm, made cross crafts, and sang together. The next day brought the story of the battle of Jericho, more songs, and a game of soccer, followed by lunch served side by side at the MANNA Worldwide Nutrition Center. Those are simple, beautiful moments where kids are fed, known by name, and reminded that they matter.
That is the heart of how MANNA works. A warm meal opens a door. A door opens a relationship. And through that relationship, children and families come to know the love of Christ. This is what it looks like to rescue children from the grip of poverty in every form, the physical poverty that leaves a body hungry and the spiritual poverty that leaves a heart without hope.
So the most joyful news from Mwanguda was this: three precious people gave their lives to Jesus. Praise the Lord! Food for the body and hope for the soul, in the same place, on the same day.
The gospel went into the homes of Mwanguda, too. While visiting families, the team met a woman named Margaret, whose son Harrison lives with cerebral palsy. With so much she could have asked for herself, the person on her heart was her friend Fatuma, who did not yet know Jesus. Margaret asked the team to go and share the gospel with her, and they did. Fatuma asked them to pray that one day she would choose Him. Would you join us in praying for Fatuma, that God would soften her heart and draw her close?
You are part of this story
Here is what makes the MANNA Africa team’s updates so meaningful. The lunch at the Nutrition Center, the children's programs, the encouragement poured into pastors and their wives, the moment three people stepped into new life in Christ: all of it happens because partners and friends like you choose to give, to go, and to pray.
This is your story too. When you partner with MANNA, your generosity reaches places you may never visit and lives you may never meet this side of heaven, and it bears fruit that lasts.
Alecia Dockery, MANNA's assistant director for Africa, served alongside the team all week, and she captured the heart of it beautifully. "There's nothing quite like seeing Him transcend cultural barriers to get the gospel to the lost through His children," she shared. That is what partnership makes possible, friends and leaders from different places joining hands around the same hope.
As the Switzers put it, this summer journey in Kenya is just getting started. There is so much more to come.
So keep praying. Keep partnering. And keep watching what God is doing through the global church as it works together across borders, one community, one family, and one child at a time.
Caring for the whole child
MANNA exists to rescue children from poverty in every form, the kind you can see and the kind you cannot. A child who is hungry needs a meal. A child who is sick needs care. A child who has never been told they are loved by God needs to hear it.
So MANNA partners with local churches around the world to care for children as whole people, in body, mind, and heart. That work takes many shapes depending on what a community needs most:
Nutrition Centers that give children reliable, healthy meals and a place where they are known by name
Schools that open doors to education and help break cycles of generational poverty
Medical Centers that bring essential care to families with few other options
Orphanages and Family Homes that surround vulnerable children with safety, stability, and consistent love
Clean Water Projects that bring safe water and healthier days to whole communities
Youth Camps and Retreats that give the next generation space to grow in faith and character
Different needs, one mission. In each place, the goal is the same: children who are fed, families who are stable, communities who are strengthened, and people of every age who have the chance to encounter Jesus and find hope that lasts forever.