:: Manyatta Kenya 2005

In April of 2005, I went to Manyatta, Kenya, with Terry Bruns to visit a small church that he had ministered to over the Internet for the past 2 years. Some of the believers from the church founded a Society "Great Commission Center" sanctioned by the Kenya government to teach AIDS/HIV awareness. These wonderful people have placed 47 orphans in foster homes and provide food, clothing and other care for them.

:: My Project in Kenya

God has given me a vision: "To produce exceptional documentaries of missionaries and their work". One day Terry mentioned that he was going to Kenya to visit his small church there; I said great, have a nice trip. Two days later while riding the RTD Light Rail to work, God opened my eyes with the charge to go with Terry. This was a chance to do what He had commanded me to do, a chance to give my talents a test run. So I went to Manyatta, Kenya, with the sole purpose of documenting what I saw and experienced there. I shot over 3-1/2 hours of MiniDV video and took almost 800 still photographs. I edited all of this into a 30 minute DVD. The full video and several smaller parts are available from the Video link. These are in Windows Media format which streams well from the Internet, but are not of the best quality.

:: What I Hoped to Accomplish

For many years, I have been dissatisfied with the quality of missionary presentations in the churches I have attended. They pose 20 different couples in front of the same gorgeous flowering bush and snap an off centered, slightly out of focused, and too dark of a picture. Then they put these snap shots in a carrousel slide projector and narrate them with a monotone/uninteresting voice, click, this is Mario and his wife, click, this is... ad-nausea. While this is a needed part of their ministry, it quite frankly puts most attendees asleep.

My goal in producing the video is to show much more than just the people who attend the church. I want to make you feel like you were there right beside me as I walked along the dirt paths smelling the Frangipani blossoms at night, tasting the exotic fruits. I want to show the flora and fauna, the "Sense of Place" that photographers seek to portray.

If you get a chance to view the video in its entirety, I believe that you will have experienced Manaytta, Kenya, as I have. You will feel the warmth of the people, seen the love in the hearts and eyes as I did, have a better understanding of what it is to live in this remote village.

:: A Swimming Party

While Terry and I were in Kenya we had a swimming outing for the young members of the church which was received with great enthusiam. Several of the youngsters said that they had never done anything like this before in their life. Most children in the United States take going swimming for granted. I know as a teen-ager we went swimming 2-3 times a week. To hear their comments and see the fun they were having moved my spirit.

A year after that swim party Grace wrote to tell me that the orphans wanted her to ask me to sponsor a swimming party for them like the one we had last year. I sent Grace some money so that she could organize a party for the little ones. Not only did they get to go swimming they went horse back riding and had a nice lunch consisting of 1/2 of a fried chicken, fries, and soda.

Grace sent me some scanned in photographs of the party: Click Here

Receipts for money spent at the party: Click Here

Some thank your letters from the kids: Letter 1 .. Letter 2 .. Letter 3 .. Letter 4 .. Letter 5 .. Letter 6 .. Letter 7 .. Letter 8 ..

I have received several emails concerning the party. Here is a clip from a pastor in Embu: Click Here

For such a small amount of money 46 orphans had the time of their lives and I wound up with a very warm and content feeling that I had made just a small difference in their daily existance.

Would you like to make a difference in 46 kids's lives? Consider contacting Grace to sponsor an outing for these precious little ones. Great Commission Center contact information: Click Here

Mat 25:40 The king will answer them, 'Truly I tell you, in that you did it for one of the least important of these my brothers, you did it for me.'

:: Thank You!

Thank you for visiting my site. I hope that viewing my work has brought you some insight into my personality. Hopefully my work has stirred your heart in some way, especially the images of the children in Africa. I would appreciate hearing comments from you, follow the Contacts link. If you have any interest in documenting a mission's project, feel free to contact me. God has given me the inspiration and talents to accomplish new and greater works.