(Photo courtesy of Kenya Hope)

Kenya (MNN)—Kenya Hope exists to change lives in Kenya through the Gospel of Christ with a holistic approach to children, families, and communities. The single most life-changing thing Kenya Hope can do for the communities they serve, apart from preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ, is providing a reliable and affordable source of fresh water.

“They’re dependent on the rivers,” Kenya Hope’s U.S. Director Steve Holman says. “Right now we’re out of that four-year-long drought, but only God knows how long we are. But what I saw during that period was these rivers are not fit for humans to drink the water, and it means that young girls and women carry loads of water great distances, couple miles or more, to the home, and that they just live with that awful water.”

Kenya Hope can help communities by digging wells, providing electric solar-powered pumps and storage tanks on their Hope Center property, with distribution points to go outside of their Hope centers, as well as building concrete water troughs for animals to come and drink. 

“It means drinkable water, safe water, is accessible to the same girls and women who would carry it from miles away from dirty rivers. It means it’s right there, within walking distance of their house,” says Holman. “It really is life changing.”

It also provides a bridge for Kenya Hope to reach people with the Gospel, by first showing communities that the ministry cares about them as people and about their most basic needs.

“It’s wrong to not proclaim the gospel,” says Holman, “but it’s ineffective to proclaim the gospel and ignore needs. They provide a bridge so that people will be inclined to listen. They will want to listen to the audio Bible put in their hands. They will want to come and see the Jesus Film. They will welcome teachers in their homes and settlements to talk about who Jesus was and what he claimed to be and that really the gospel is about the God of creation, and all those things they need to understand in order to call on the name of the Lord to be saved.” 

Providing water does come with challenges. The technology used needs to be made in a way that will last; it requires people who are familiar enough with the technology to properly operate it; and it requires security to keep parts from being stolen. 

So how can we be praying for Kenya Hope? 

Holman asks for prayers for personnel: “To raise up a person or persons that can be rapid responders, to keep all of our infrastructures going so it fulfills the use, why we spent the money on it. We can have all the money in the world, which we don’t, but we need people, and God always wraps his message in people as they live out and love and are faithful. And I’m speaking particularly and mostly about Kenyan brothers and sisters in Christ, that’d be the right ones to join the team and serve and make all these things happen.”

Photo courtesy of Kenya Hope.

Steve Holman with Kenya Hope explains that authorities saw last Monday coming. “The national government pretty much blockaded and closed down the centers of all those towns, and especially Nairobi,” he says.

The July 1990 protests called for a return to multi-party democracy, according to a report from Al Jazeera. Today’s unrest also reflects anti-government frustration, including deep concern over police brutality, as in the case of Albert Ojwang.

Clashes between rioters and police turned violent, damaging properties, injuring dozens, and resulting in more than 500 arrests. Kenya’s human rights commission reports that 31 people died during the July 7 marches nationwide.

Though the unrest isn’t over yet, Kenya Hope’s Nairobi-based national director, Reuben Kamau, viewed the July 7 riots as one-day events. Holman says Kenya Hope’s work among the Maasai people in Narok State has remained unaffected by events in the capital. 

“What happens there (in Nairobi) will not change their life (among the Maasai),” he says. “They’re already [in] a situation where, while money is given and money supposedly sent, the projects that you and I take for granted — like reasonable roads, public water systems, elementary schools — even though the money’s been allocated, it doesn’t reach there because of corruption.” 

What Kenya Hope needs these days is more gospel workers. 

(Photo courtesy of Kenya Hope)

“We have donations, we have programs ready to go,” Holman says candidly. “We just don’t have enough people to do it well.”

Young people in Kenya are searching for something — or Someone — to live for. Ask God to call young men and women in Kenya to serve with Him in His Kingdom.

“This is a new generation, and there’s a lot of university students who don’t have a lot to do, and they’re looking for a cause,” Holman says of the protesters. 

Header photo: Nairobi, Kenya July 2025 (Photo courtesy of Story Zangu via Unsplash).

Kenya Hope’s Steve Holman says, “The Gospel is widely known, but it’s more of a prosperity Gospel. The vast majority of churches are prosperity; it doesn’t matter what the label is.”

The Lord provided a strategic partnership between Kenya Hope and Emmanuel Baptist Church of Nairobi to help pastors get the training they need.

Last month, 41 pastors attended a conference organized by Kenya Hope and Ekklesia Afrika, a ministry of Emmanuel Baptist Church.

Representative photo
(Photo courtesy of Ekklesia Africa via Facebook)

“For the first time in our mission history, well-qualified Kenyans came to teach, and they taught a package of materials in a seminar format that laid the foundation for healthy pastoring and healthy churches,” Holman says.

“Out of that will come five or six pastors interested in being part of a formal program.”

Ekklesia Africa developed its Soma program to fill the training gaps held by many Kenyan pastors. As described here, the four-year program leverages cohort learning to expand leaders’ knowledge:

Soma is both a Swahili word meaning ‘to read’ and a Greek word meaning ‘body.’ The Soma program is divided into a four-year curriculum that covers key areas of study like Ecclesiology, Biblical and Systematic Theology, Pastoral Theology, Word-based Ministry, and Missions. Soma’s approach to learning revolves around cohort-based study and Socratic discussions. Each month, pastors in different cohorts receive a chosen book, accompanied by a study guide and report-writing guide, in preparation for a joint monthly cohort discussion. With cohorts comprising 6-12 pastors, these gatherings take place locally, allowing pastors to stay close to their homes and churches.

“If you’re being trained while you’re already on the job, it works really well,” Holman says.

“This is not a denominational thing. It is simply a good way to learn together.”

Strategic partnerships make it all possible. While Ekklesia Africa provides the training, Kenya Hope offers logistical support. “This was a test run, and everything we see indicates it’ll be an ongoing conference as the Lord provides,” Holman says.

Church partners in the US help through funding and volunteer work. “They partner with us for a specific place and period, and they help to establish a solid foundation for building Gospel bridges,” Holman says.

“When we’ve shown we care for real human needs, we get the opportunity to slowly, patiently, and systematically teach them the Gospel and call on them to put their trust in Christ in a genuine way.”

Contact Kenya Hope to learn more about church partnership.

Header image is a representative stock photo courtesy of Gracious Adebayo/Unsplash.

(Photo courtesy of Mueller family)

Steve Holman of Kenya Hope explains, “A year ago at this time, there was a decision made to go forward and open the school…. Going back two years, I wouldn’t have thought this was possible. But God really laid this on the heart of Dave and Joy Mueller, and that is why it’s an honor to name it after them.”

Mueller Memorial Academy opened in January, following Kenya’s national school calendar. It launched with three classes (PP1, PP2, and Grade 1) and a classic Christian curriculum in partnership with the Rafiki Foundation.

“The community has been very supportive,” says Holman. “We have these three classes [with] about 75 students. This means every succeeding school year, a grade will be added. And as, of course, grades are added, they have to add facilities for teachers because teachers are generally sent from afar.”

Mueller Memorial Academy’s official dedication will take place on May 7. The Muellers’ oldest son Ian, his wife Stephanie, and their young son are traveling to Kenya for the ceremony.

Mueller Memorial Academy isn’t just about academics. Kenya Hope’s long-term plan is to grow the campus into a full Hope Center — offering widow empowerment programs and sustainable agriculture projects. Already, the property has a strong start with cows, goats, and vegetable gardens.

Mueller Memorial Academy’s campus. (Photo courtesy of Kenya Hope)

“The ideal is that each Hope Center grows enough of its own food to feed its kids,” Holman says. “Wouldn’t that be awesome? We can make a big dent in it at the Mueller Memorial Academy, but not fully. So it takes wise leadership.”

Finding an on-site administrator is the next step. Currently, Kenya Hope’s national director, Reuben Kamau, manages the school remotely from Nairobi.

Holman says, “Eventually, as the school gets larger, there’s going to have to be a full-time leader there, rather than Reuben trying to administer the program from afar. You do have cell phone communication, but there’s nothing like being there!”

How You Can Help

Student sponsors with Kenya Hope. (Photo courtesy of Kenya Hope)

Child sponsorships are another significant need. For $40 a month, you can provide a student with a uniform, shoes, a sweater, daily meals, school supplies, and emergency medical care.

“In all the Hope Centers [with] all the students that go to class and are fed by us every day, not even 10% of them are sponsored,” Holman says. “There’s always a need.”

Sponsoring a student is simple! Just head to KenyaHope.org to donate, and designate your funds for “Child Sponsorship.” You also have the option to sponsor a specific student with Kenya Hope here.

As Mueller Memorial Academy finds its rhythm, Holman asks believers to pray that the school would grow wisely and remain stable through the early years. Ask God to provide for the students and their families, many of whom live in deep poverty. Pray also for a full-time administrator who can operate the school on-site.

Holman says, “Just having seen that brand new picture of the student body, it’s amazing. They are excited to be at school.”

Header photo: The first classes of Mueller Memorial Academy. (Photo courtesy of Kenya Hope)

(Photo courtesy of Mueller family)

“Through the help of the Rafiki Foundation, it’s going to be classic Christian school,” says Steve Holman with Kenya Hope. “There’s already more than 100 kids on a waiting list. There’s already a faculty and headmaster hired. Year by year, we’ll be adding classes.”

The school will be opening with three grades in January 2025. Holman says much of the responsibility for establishing the faculty, the curriculum and the training for the school was on the local Kenyan director’s shoulders. 

“I’m really just amazed at what God has done,” Holman says. “But this was something that Dave and Joy really believed in, and it’s quite ambitious. It’s clear that God’s been in this.” 

Kenya Hope has a five-level strategy by which they partner with local communities. First comes clean water, the gospel, and audio Bibles. Then come community development projects, such as their Widows Might program and eventually a school.

“We had seven locations last year, but it looks like very soon, we will be involved in 12 ministry sites among the Maasai people. That’s a big step forward,” Holman says.

Mueller Memorial Academy campus (Photo courtesy of Kenya Hope)

The Mueller Memorial Academy campus is the first local property the ministry has owned. But Holman is quick to point out, “The human part is far more important — cohorts of widows [in the Widows Might program] and then the children coming to the school. [Then] the school growing each year and fulfilling its mission as a unique Rafiki Philosophy of classic Christian education, Kenyan style.” 

There are many ways Kenya Hope serves as the hands and feet of Christ. Connect with them at kenyahope.org or check out their Christmas Giving Guide to find your place in the story! 

“Start with our website and look at the opportunities there,” Holman says. “We need more partner churches — a church that takes a look at what we do and says, ‘We believe in that. How can we personally get involved?’”

Header photo of students from another school courtesy of Kenya Hope. 

Kenya Hope works with local Kenyan believers to support widows, community water and health initiatives, and empower families through their Hope Centers – all in the name of Christ. Last year, Kenya Hope had seven ministry sites among the Maasai people. But soon they hope to expand to 12 locations.

(Photo courtesy of Kenya Hope)

Steve Holman with Kenya Hope says, “Our board has approved an initiative of some major fundraising which will take the next couple of years. With all those new ministry locations, obviously there are infrastructure needs – practical things like classrooms and a dining hall or cook houses and faculty housing and things.”

Yet, with the sudden loss last year of their executive directors, Dave and Joy Mueller, Kenya Hope is in need of new leadership and looking for a new executive director.

“It would take a step of faith for any person to say, ‘I’ll be the next executive director of Kenya Hope,” says Holman. “We’re not looking to replace Dave and Joy Mueller. They were unique and irreplaceable.

“But we are confident that God’s hand is on this ministry, and we’re looking for a godly leader to have the skills to work with a multicultural team and have the ability to effectively present a compelling story.”

Ask the Lord to raise up a godly leader to the helm of Kenya Hope.

If you’re interested to learn more about opportunities with Kenya Hope, visit their website here!

Header photo courtesy of Kenya Hope.

Kenya Hope’s Steve Holman says, “One major part of our ministry model is partnering with local congregations across the United States. This church is Grace Community Church in Hudsonville, where we are, and this team includes Alexa and Forrest Mueller. Forrest is the middle son of Dave and Joy Mueller.”

Forrest and Alexa Mueller at Kibera Hope Center. (Photo courtesy of Alexa Mueller with Kenya Hope)

Dave and Joy Mueller were the former executive directors of Kenya Hope who were tragically killed in a car accident while on the Kenya mission field one year ago. Steve’s daughter, Julie Holman, also died in the crash.

On October 25th, the missions team started the morning in Kenya with a devotional, prayer, and remembrance on the anniversary of the loss of Dave, Joy, and Julie.

Steve says, “One purpose was to help our Kenyan coworkers and widows groups and people in the Hope Centers grieve with Alexa and Forrest over the death of Dave and Joy and to remember them properly.

“Another purpose was, now that we have so much infrastructure and locations, how are we managing all of this stuff? [They are] seeing how well the wells were drilled and the water systems installed.”

(Photo courtesy of Alexa Mueller with Kenya Hope)

The team is visiting all the ministry’s Hope Centers in Narok County. They started with the Kibera Hope Center for a memorial service. The team also distributed food relief bags to Kenyan families and Dignity Kits to teen girls.

Please be praying for the Kenya Hope missions team as they continue ministry this week.

“First and foremost,” Steve asks, “[pray] for safety as they travel around. Second, for sensitivity to the leading of the Spirit as opportunities arise.”

Learn more about how you or your church can partner with Kenya Hope at their website!

Header photo courtesy of Alexa Mueller with Kenya Hope.

(Photo courtesy of Mueller family)

The new school will be named in memory of Dave and Joy Mueller, Kenya Hope’s former executive directors who died in a car crash in Kenya eight months ago.

Steve Holman, U.S. Director of Kenya Hope, says the ministry is still searching for new leadership. “We can’t replace Dave and Joy Mueller. They’re very unique. I would say they’re once in a generation. But we’re asking God to raise up other people.

“The Gospel is never advanced without someone somewhere paying a price. That means sacrificing your own culture and your own comfort and going and living close enough so that you have an impact. So that’s very much on our minds.”

In the meantime, additional responsibilities are being expertly handled by the ministry’s local Kenyan staff, such as Neddy Wafula, coordinator of the Widows Might program.

Holman asks, “Pray for Neddy. She’s a godly Kenyan woman. I’ve talked to her many times face-to-face in Kenya, and now it’s laid on her the administrative task of seeing to it that the cohorts of widows in six or seven locations are each moving along in the program, growing in their skills, and coming to know Christ and follow Him wholeheartedly.”

Neddy Wafula, Widows Might program coordinator [front right]. (Photo courtesy of Kenya Hope)

These community-boosting projects allow Kenya Hope to begin a Gospel presence there, and they open the doors for audio Bible distributions and JESUS film showings.

Pray that the Lord would guide the right people into leadership at Kenya Hope. Ask God to continue working through this ministry and ultimately lead more Kenyans to the Savior, Jesus Christ.

“We’re just reminding ourselves this is something that God is doing,” says Holman. “We’re asking God to do what only God can do — to provide, to raise up people, and to bear fruit.”

Learn more about Kenya Hope.

Header photo of Kenya Hope’s Emmanuel (Hope Center Representative) and Duncan (Hope Center Caretaker and Jesus Film Evangelist) at their newest Hope Center Oloshaiki. Photo courtesy of Kenya Hope.

Major flooding across the country damaged at least 62 primary schools. So when other schools were re-opening from flood closures last week, 15,000 students from destroyed schools had nowhere to go.

Since mid-March, at least 250,000 people have been displaced by the floods. The slums of Kibera were especially impacted.

Steve Holman with Kenya Hope says, “If water floods classrooms, that’s even worse. Because already, just the issue of each child having their own workbook or sitting at a desk meant for two and there are three, all those hardships are there every day — with or without floods.”

(Photos courtesy of Kenya Hope)

Kenya Hope supports widows and vulnerable children through its Hope Centers.

Holman explains, “The model of the Hope Center is that we bring in resources, fence it in, put in a water system, and up to 300 families can have a reliable place for clean and even drinkable water all the time year-round.”

The Kibera Hope Center has a daily feeding program for kids. For many of the children, it’s the only meal they get that day.

Up to 250 kids come to the Kibera Hope Center each week for Saturday Bible Club where they have fun, sing songs, and hear Bible stories.

Also, Holman says, “We help widows — often they’re young, but have a lot of children. We help them learn a livelihood. Plus, they’re discipled in the Gospel and following Jesus.”

Pray for good governance in Kenya to address infrastructure issues in the wake of flooding.

“For Kenya long term, there’s always the need for better infrastructure in a place like Kibera where everything is informal. The electricity is rigged, there’s no proper supply of water and drainage of sewage — all the things we take for granted here.”

Also, please ask the Lord to comfort Kenyans who were affected by flooding, and pray for encouragement for the Christians meeting peoples’ needs.

Holman says, “There’s just so many obvious ways that we can show compassion and…build a bridge, as it were, to have long-term opportunities to speak the truth of God’s Word into lives.”

Connect with Kenya Hope here.

Header photo courtesy of a schoolboy in Kenya. (Photo courtesy of Jan Canty/Unsplash)

Last fall, the Kenya Hope team experienced its highest high and lowest low in a four-week span. First, “Our fiscal year ended September 30, and it was a banner year,” Kenya Hope’s U.S. Director Steve Holman says.

“It was the best year we’ve ever had financially in ministry initiatives and new opportunities.”

Then, at the end of October, a car accident tragically claimed the lives of executive directors Dave and Joy Mueller, as well as Holman’s daughter, Julie. The unexpected losses sent shockwaves throughout U.S. and Kenyan communities connected to Kenya Hope.

“Dave and Joy poured their hearts and all their physical and spiritual strength into the Kenya Hope ministry, and they’re suddenly gone,” Holman says.

(Photo courtesy of Kenya Hope)

In a moment, everything changed. Now, no one was at the helm to oversee Kenya Hope’s initiatives. “Unexpectedly, it caused us to raise certain Kenyans to a higher level of responsibility,” Holman says.

“Some of the things that Dave and Joy hoped to put in the hands of Kenyans, now God said, ‘It’s time!’”

Please keep Kenya Hope and its communities in your prayers. “I’d like to be able to announce that we have appointed an Executive Director, but we have not,” Holman says.

“It takes quite a bit of time to get a handle on what we have and where we’re going.”

Know someone who might fit the need? Connect with Kenya Hope here.

“My dream candidate would be veteran missionaries in their 40s with a proven track record of good leadership and cross-cultural skills. And, if it’s not too much, Lord, someone who speaks Swahili already,” Holman says.

Header and story images courtesy of Kenya Hope.