Kenya

[the africa diaries] day ten: the road to kasese

March 22, 2010
BibleDude.net
By Dan King

Our first meeting for the day was at the Five Talents Uganda national office. The program here was set up a little different than the program in Kenya. In Uganda, the Five Talents organization actually functioned a little more like a lending organization and the provider of the funds for microloans.

The office was very different than what you would think of for a financial institution, but my Western mind was still adjusting to the way of life (and work) in Africa. I was tickled to find out that they worked very hard to set up a special conference room for us to meet in. Little did I know that this special arrangement would be a couple of desks and chairs squeezed into a garage. Like many other things in Africa, it worked for what we needed it to do…

[the africa diaries] day seven: wrapping up business in kenya

November 5, 2009
BibleDude.net
By Dan King

She walked up to me as I was setting up for my morning session, shook my hand, and simply stated, “I am Alice.” We laughed about that for a moment, but I never realized that this was about to be one of the most powerful moments of this trip for me.

In order to understand what I mean, you’ll have to understand part of the lesson that I was responsible for. I had taught the last lesson of the day in yesterday’s session, and was about to pick up where I left of this morning. I was responsible for teaching the section on finances. Before we finished yesterday I had already started my piece on the importance of separating personal and business money. One of the illustrations that I used was this story about a fictional person named Alice…

[the africa diaries] day six: starting with the next group

November 3, 2009
BibleDude.net
By Dan King

I was finally an accomplished missionary! Well, at least in my mind I was. After all, I had just finished my first full sessions with one of the churches in Kenya, and now I was off to another. I knew that this next group that we were about to work with would be different, I just didn’t know how.

For our next two-day session on basic Christian business skills, we had to drive about an hour outside of town into a much more rural community called Kairi. Most of the drive was down poorly paved and/or dirt roads making this commute a bit of a bumpy one.

[the africa diaries] day five: finishing with our first group

August 27, 2009
BibleDude.net
By Dan King

Finally! Today is my day to teach! Well, at least for half of it…

Day two of our lesson plan calls for two important subjects. First up was the financial session. In this session we covered such basic, yet critically important, topics like keeping your business and personal money separate, and how to create a budget. This is the session that I got to teach! Then we wrapped up the training on the second half of the day with a session on business planning. Here we talked about things like putting God first, and using all of the information that we covered previously to create a business plan.

[the africa diaries] day four: first day of teaching

August 20, 2009
BibleDude.net
By Dan King

Here we go… This is what we came for!

Our first day of teaching has arrived! And one of the first things that I learned today was that schedules (time) in Africa are very different than they are back in the States. I think that our start time was supposed to be 9:00 AM, but it wasn’t until about 10 or 10:30 that we really started getting a decent crowd rolling in!

[the africa diaries] day three: visiting the clients

August 17, 2009
BibleDude.net
By Dan King

This was the big day that I had been waiting for!

Today our plan was to meet with the people at the offices of Thika Community Development Trust (TCDT). They are the Five Talents partner that runs the local microfinance program. After that, we were going to go out and meet some of the existing program clients… people who are currently benefiting from microloans to help their businesses.

[the africa diaries] day two: the road to thika

July 23, 2009
BibleDude.net
By Dan King

My first morning in Africa! I could not wait to look out my window to finally see what Africa looked like! But I had no idea how quickly this trip would start impacting me.

The place that we stayed that first night was actually a really nice guest house that was run by the local Anglican church. It was a beautiful place! As I looked out my window that morning I saw some plush, green grass and amazing yellow and purple flowers everywhere. The atmosphere was different than what I was used to. In the heart of Nairobi I seemed to be in a secluded little sanctuary and I could tell there was much to see and explore outside the walls of our little church guest house.

[the africa diaries] day one: arriving in nairobi

July 8, 2009
BibleDude.net
By Dan King

I was only at the airport before this trip started to impact me. As I sat there waiting to board my first flight, I couldn’t help but to wonder what this mission trip was going to do to me. Would I come home a different person? How would my heart and my mind be affected? The only thing that I could manage to do was to study my notes for the lessons that I was going to be teaching once I arrived in Kenya.

the africa diaries

July 5, 2009
BibleDude.net
By Dan King

In May of 2009 I joined a team of businessmen from around the United States as Five Talents International sent us out for a Business as Mission Trip to Kenya and Uganda. FTI is a faith-based organization that fights poverty with microfinance. They work in areas where there is extreme poverty and help to provide small (micro-) loans to people to help them start businesses that help them pull themselves out of poverty.