Read all about the Wedderburn pastorate trip or watch the video

4 people from the Wedderburn pastorate at HTB, ably accompanied by Rev’d Toby Flint and Claire Portal (poached from Butler pastorate), spent ten days in Kenya leading a three day Global Alpha Training event and working alongside Kenya Children of Hope, a charity which works with street kids.

We arrived in Kenya early on Wednesday morning, and by lunchtime we were on a small farm free-holding, which had recently been purchased by Kenya Children of Hope (in faith that the money would appear) to act as a ‘halfway house’ for the most vulnerable street kids in Kenya. It is a place where children can live, be fed, be educated and be weaned off a variety of drugs.

We spent time with sisters Amina and Adija who had been at the house for a couple of weeks; they were enjoying the space, playing in the garden, reading school books and having fun. The following day we were plunged into one of the most shocking scenes any of us had ever witnessed. The place where Amina and Adija had been rescued from two weeks previously; a slum filled with kids as young as three addicted to sniffing glue, unable to make eye contact, barely able to stand, trying to scratch a living out of recycling old rubbish that surrounded them.

We spent three days working with Kenya Children of Hope, and although we finished our time with them feeling frustrated about not being able to help in a more practical way, all of us felt that God had ‘broken our hearts for what breaks his’.

We spent Saturday getting some much needed rest and relaxation, which involved a Reverend kissing a giraffe and the whole team ending up on a heli-pad on top of Kenya’s tallest skyscraper.

We left Nairobi on Sunday morning, after attending a service at Nairobi Pentecostal Church alongside thousands of worshipers, and headed to the President’s home town of Othaya. After a quick band practice and prayer at the church venue, we headed to our hotel, which reminded us a lot of New Horizons - very fitting for an Alpha event.

We arrived at the church on Monday morning in the rain, which had more of an effect than we anticipated. The delegates had to go to their farms to start planting crops, as Kenya had been in one of the most severe droughts for the last decade and there was a food shortage. However, by midday 50 delegates had registered and we kicked off with Toby explaining ‘What is Alpha?’.

Throughout the three days it was encouraging to see the delegates learning about how Alpha works. They were humbled by the idea of learning not to preach at people on Alpha, but to let God do the work. As a team we were blessed to see well established church leaders embracing Alpha and having fun worshipping to some Swahili-style, Tim Hughes music.

By day three the number of registered delegates had risen to 65, some of whom were already running Alpha. During the ministry after the Holy Spirit talks, many delegates had their first experience of the Holy Spirit, and one delegate said he had been cured of intermittent hearing impairment.

The major highlight came on the third day when we divided the delegates into three groups and tailored talks specifically for them. We could definitely see the excitement, nervousness and anticipation they were feeling about running the Alpha Course in their churches. It was at this point that we realised that the seeds we were planting were definitely taking root.