November 5, 2025
Missions of Hope International began in the Nairobi slums with the goal of serving the poor through education, spiritual development, economic empowerment, and basic medical care.
September 1, 2023
By Laura McKillip Wood Stacy Hollingsworth grew up in the mountains of East Tennessee and lived in Senegal for several years as a missionary. She then returned to the United States and worked as a forensic psychologist on violent crimes. Doing that work with the state, she saw firsthand how hard life can be for people with traumatic backgrounds. As an adoptive parent of six children, she is invested in improving the lives of children in her South Carolina community. However, her vision for helping impoverished people who have experienced trauma expanded when she visited Kenya for the first time
A Kenyan woman born and raised in the Mathare Valley slum near Nairobi has made the most of the opportunities provided by Missions of Hope International. Jecinta Wanjiku earned her law degree and recently was sworn in as an advocate for the high court of Kenya. . . .
October 6, 2022
Christian individuals and ministries are working together with the goal of raising the necessary funds to install 10 mini-pitch turf soccer fields in the slums of Nairobi, Kenya. The first two fields were installed by a joint team of U.S. and Kenyan workers this spring.
Stadia Church Planting and Missions of Hope International have announced a partnership and goal of planting 100 churches, building 100 schools, and sponsoring 100,000 children by 2030. PLUS NEWS BRIEFS . . . including a free retreat for ministers at Great Lakes Christian College.
October 24, 2020
By Kip Lines People use the term “unprecedented” to describe the COVID-19 global pandemic. But in the grand story of God’s mission in the world, we are not living in unprecedented times. There have been pandemics before. There have been times God’s people could not gather, and yet the church has persevered and grown. Even during the last 100 years, the Restoration Movement has dealt with uncertainty and challenges. In fact, after the first few North American Christian Conventions were held from 1927 to 1929, the Great Depression and World War II dictated that the gathering would happen only seven
September 22, 2020
By Laura McKillip Wood Anthony blinked hard. His head spun. He fingered the bottle of glue in his pocket; the effects of huffing it still lingered, dulling the memory of the night before, when a man from the neighborhood found him alone in the dark and took advantage of him. He closed his eyes and lowered his head. Nobody cared that he had nowhere safe to go, no one to feed him or provide for his needs. I’ll never be anybody, he thought. He shook his head as the dizzy numbness took over his thoughts. The Need Kenya has roughly
March 4, 2020
Compiled by Jim Nieman and Chris Moon As a boy growing up in Kenya, Daniel Koitatoi wanted to become a physician, but he faced many barriers, including the cost of medical college and his obligation as the eldest son to help his siblings get through school. CMF International shared the story of how several Christians came together to help Daniel achieve his dreams, including missionaries Gary and Judy Woods and Lynn and Dori Cazier, FAME, and First Christian Church of Decatur, Ill. In the process, Daniel transitioned from helping FCC’s medical teams that served in Kenya to taking the lead
January 15, 2020
By Chris Moon Tom Nutt keeps getting requests. “Right now, I have sent out two so far this year,” he told Christian Standard. “I’ve got four that need to go out in the next few weeks and an additional one that I will ship in March.” He’s talking about the solar kits Good News Productions International, based in Joplin, Mo., has been sending around the world for the past 39 years. Nutt, vice president of operations for GNPI, says the organization has sent out nearly 800 of them in its historyall in an effort to enable missionaries to show evangelistic
December 25, 2019
By Laura McKillip Wood Melvina’s hands shook as she dialed 911. “I found my dad on the floor! I can’t wake him up!” She took a deep breath and tried to calm herself as the operator instructed her to begin CPR. Within a few minutes, paramedics arrived, but it was too late. The heart attack was fatal. They pronounced Melvina’s father dead at the scene. In many ways, this event marked the end of Melvina Brown’s childhood: “I was 17, but his death turned me into a 30-year-old.” She made decisions about the funeral and bought a casket. She began
October 1, 2019
By Dan Crum INDIA: I visited north India earlier this year and was honored to sit among leaders of one of the largest movements to Christ I’ve ever known. While there, a woman stood up and shared about her work among the transgender community. Prisha (not her real name) had approached the transgender community and requested to teach them about Christ. She was rejected initially, but soon one of the people in that community became ill and medical treatment was not helping. Some folks reached out to Prisha and told her she could come and pray for their friend. If
July 22, 2019
By Laura McKillip Wood The sun beat down on the American visitors as they made their way through dirt streets and stepped over the open sewers that lined them. Tin and wooden shanties crowded together. Whole families with five to ten members lived in one room. The smells of smoldering cooking fires, garbage, and sewage permeated the air in the slums of Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya. Just the week before, a 14-year-old boy, loved by many in the community, faced the guns of a corrupt police force. Shot multiple times, the boy died immediately. The visitors knew nothing
April 25, 2019
By Justin Horey Missionary. Coach. Pastor. Mentor. Influencer. Entrepreneur. Greg Johnson prefers not to be labeled, but he could be described as any of those. “I don’t like titles,” he says. “Even when I was leading a megachurch, I didn’t want to be called ‘Pastor Greg.’ I’m just Greg.” International Beginnings Johnson grew up in Ethiopia, where he attended boarding school while his parents worked as missionaries. His family lived in a very remote area where there were few white people. He remembers Ethiopian nationals traveling for miles to see him and his classmates and touch their white skin. In
November 13, 2018
Lifeline Christian Mission partners with churches, schools, and others to provide the supplies—and opportunities—to serve people locally and globally through food-packing events. By Ben Simms Mix. Weigh. Seal. Ship. These four simple steps involve several generations, as participants gather to package shelf-stable meals for the hungry. A meal-packing event is one of the easiest and most popular ways to engage a group of people, whether large or small, in a service project together. The fun begins as you bring your group together, whether it’s your church, school, or employees. You host the meal-packing event at your location across the
May 19, 2018
By Chris Moon Fire Destroys MOHI School but Not Hope in Its Mission Missions of Hope International suffered a blow to its efforts to spread the gospel in the slums of Nairobi, Kenya, when one of its school buildings burned to the ground in February. The building in the Bondeni community housed 18 classrooms that served 694 students. Desks and textbooks were lost in the blaze. MOHI is a partner of Indianapolis-based Christian Missionary Fellowship International, which immediately began fund-raising to replace what was lost. The estimated loss was $300,000. “We thank God there were no injuries,” said Mary Kamau, executive
June 19, 2017
By Stephen Bond Here”s what I learned from our group climb to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro, the roof of Africa. January 4, 2017, is a day I will never forget. At 8:00 that morning, I stood on the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro. Looming 19,341 feet above sea level, Kilimanjaro is called “the roof of Africa.” The views are breathtaking. Reaching the summit was an over-the-top, bucket-list experience, made even sweeter because I was part of a trekking team that raised more than $140,000 to build classrooms for impoverished children in Kenya. The vision to climb Kilimanjaro exploded into my
November 11, 2016
By Kip Lines What is justice for followers of Jesus? What does it mean for the church to demonstrate God”s justice in the world? These are difficult questions I”ve discovered often lead to unexpected answers. In Kenya, together with Turkana church leaders, our missionary team sought to envision what it would look like in our communities if God really was in charge . . . if our following Jesus meant the kingdom of God was truly breaking into our human kingdoms. You might expect the largest injustice issues in a developing nation would be items like hunger and food security,
By Doug Priest Dan Crum and Joe Cluff, along with their families, have served for many years as missionaries among the Maasai people of Kenya. They were interviewed by CHRISTIAN STANDARD contributing editor Doug Priest. When did each of you arrive in Kenya and what has been your ministry through the years. DAN CRUM: We arrived in Kenya in 1988, and lived in rural Maasailand for 10 years in the ministry of evangelism, church planting, and leadership training. The next three years were focused on producing written materials in the Maasai language, followed by seven years as team leader.
September 5, 2014
By Jennifer Johnson A British man living in Dubai rode his bike across the Alps this summer to raise funds for a Missions of Hope International school, part of Christian Missionary Fellowship”s ministry in the Mathare slums of Nairobi, Kenya. Tim Hooker, his American wife, Fiona Petrocelli, and their son, Quinlan, became acquainted with the work of MOHI when they were planning a luxurious safari holiday in the Masaai Mara in 2011. Fiona wanted to add a different perspective to the trip by spending a day doing some type of service for local people. “Some friends of ours put us
August 13, 2014
By Jim Tune Last spring I taught a course on apologetics. We devoted considerable attention to the resurrection. I wanted students to sink deep roots in the ground of real hope””not optimism, not wishful thinking, but hope! I remember a story about a painful time in the life of a young missionary woman. This woman had married a Rwandan pastor, a Tutsi, and they had established a home together in that country. She was visiting Kenya on a mission trip when the dreadful Rwandan tragedy erupted. Hutu militia moved in, butchering men, women, and children wherever they went. The ensuing
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