Optical
Mar 21 - 30, 2024
$3,295
Nanyuki, Kenya
Onesmus Kibera, Mt. Kenya Baptist Church
Onesmus and his wife, Millicent, have two grown children, Tabbysue (30) and Shadrack (28), and a son-in-law, Moses. Onesmus played on a local soccer team as a child, and was saved through sports evangelism at Mt. Kenya Baptist Church. He was discipled by Pastor Jerry Daniels, and joined Mt. Kenya Baptist Bible College while still in high school. He later graduated with a Bachelor of Applied Science in Bible from Louisiana Baptist University in 2012. Pastor Onesmus has served as the lead pastor for nearly 20 years.
Mt. Kenya Baptist Church serves as a mother church to more than 180 churches which form the Mt. Kenya Bible Baptist Fellowship. These churches span across multiple counties with the furthest being about 9 hours away. Some of the church ministries include a dispensary in Timau Bible Baptist Church, school ministries, nursery, counseling services, famine relief, a community program to vulnerable children, and benevolence to needy populations.
When we asked Pastor Onesmus and his family what their goals and desires were, he said: ‘That people will see that healthcare can be accessible to them, that the church will be seen as a helping ministry caring for the communities and that the love of Jesus Christ will be seen through our MKBC and fellowship.’
Pastor Onesmus says that the Kenyan people are warm and friendly, but suffer from dental, mental health, and optical issues. In his community, they tend to receive diagnoses much later than we’re used to in the United States.
We are already fans!
https://mountkenyabaptist.church/about/
https://www.facebook.com/MtKenyaBaptist
VISA REQUIRED
Set in eastern Africa, Kenya borders the Indian Ocean and rises to mountains and plateaus in the center. Most Kenyans live in the highlands, where the capital Nairobi sits at an altitude of 5,500 feet. Geographically, it is slightly smaller than the state of Texas.
Due to its location on the equator, Kenyan temperatures are warm all year round. During the rainy seasons in November and April, there are short bursts of refreshing rainfall, making a perfect climate to produce lots of tea, coffee, avocados, and bananas. The hottest month is February and the coldest month is July.
Kenyans generally have three meals in a day, with tea in between. Breakfast can be tea or porridge with bread, chapati, mahamri (fried bread), boiled sweet potatoes, or yams. Githeri (mixed corn and kidney stew) is common at lunch, while Ugali (ground corn porridge) with vegetables, sour milk (mursik), meat, fish, or stew is eaten for lunch or supper. The favorite drink of Kenyans is tea, and Kenya is the world’s third largest tea producer. Although coffee is produced in Kenya, most of it is exported, and only a minimal amount of coffee is consumed by Kenyans.
Kenya has huge areas of land devoted to wildlife habitats. All of the "Big Five" game animals of Africa (the lion, leopard, buffalo, rhinoceros, and elephant) can be found in Kenya. Each year more than one million wildebeest and 200,000 zebras participate in the migration from the Serengeti in neighboring Tanzania to the Masai Mara in Kenya, in a constant clockwise fashion, searching for food and water supplies.
Most Kenyans are Christian (85%), with 54% Protestant and 21% Roman Catholic. Islam is the second largest religion, comprising 11%, the remaining include Hindu, Jews, and indigenous beliefs.
Kenya is active in sports, among them cricket, football, rugby, field hockey, and boxing, but the country is known chiefly for its runners. Kenyan athletes dominate the world of distance running, as almost 75% of all gold medal winners in long distance running come from Kenya. Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge is widely regarded as the greatest marathon runner of all time, having won the 2016 and 2020 Olympic marathons, and being the world record holder with a time of 2:01:09. Keep an eye out for him as he competes at his third Olympics in Paris in 2024.
For more country information, click here https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/kenya/
Our plan is to offer medical and optical care to this community. If you are a dental or physical therapy professional interested in potentially serving on this team, please fill out an INTEREST FORM to inquire about offering these services. Every patient who receives care will hear the gospel from a member of this local church.
This trip is now closed. Thank you for your interest.
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