Wanawake wa Mungu Initiative

Ndhiwa, Kenya

“Work is fundamental to the dignity of the person. Work, to use an image, ‘anoints’ us with dignity, fills us with dignity.”

While Fellowship of Lone Shepherds approaches ministry from a Protestant point-of-view, we affirm the truth of the powerful words of these late Pope Francis. Work brings dignity that is lost when people in need are given unsustainable handouts that put them in a position of subordination and helplessness. The foundational issue for many congregations pastored by those who are active in Fellowship of Lone Shepherds is that their congregation members do not have stable ways to support themselves financially. This impacts the FLS pastors in the following ways:

• Pastors are heartbroken and discouraged by the suffering of their church members

• Impoverished people understandably expect to be helped materially by the church. When the church is unable to help, they move on to another church who might be able to help. This makes it hard for a congregation to keep people around long enough for them to hear the gospel and become invested in the life of the church.

• When those who do remain with the church are impoverished, they are not able to support the basic needs of the church for doing ministry such as a building, chairs, musical instruments, Christian Education curricula, food for congregational meals, etc.

• The tithes and offerings of impoverished congregations are also unable to provide a livable income (or any income) for their pastor(s). So, pastors must find other ways to feed their families and pay for their children’s education including subsistence farming, odd jobs, etc.

• If pastors are able to earn a living through other income sources, as a newly prosperous person, to preach to a congregation full of impoverished people. This changes the dynamic and usually results in everyone in the congregation asking them for assistance, which lowers pastors’ ability to take care of their own family.

The long-term solution for all the issues listed above is for

which also means they do not have an income from which to bring tithes and offerings to support the ministry of the congregation or the pastor. So many of them are widows or other mothers who have been abandoned by men to raise their children on their own. They typically have minimal education, no vocational training, no job prospects, and they have no start-up capital to start or expand a small business. They are barely scraping by and often going hungry. Rather than giving them aid, we seek to give them the dignity that comes from meaningful and profitable work.

Wanawake wa Mungu means “Women of God.” It is the name we have given to a partnership between Fellowship of Lone Shepherds and three congregations in Ndhiwa, Kenya to raise start-up capital for the women of these congregations to start or expand small businesses. This is their best opportunity at an adequate and sustainable personal income that will feed their children and enable them to receive an education. If these women have profitable small businesses such as grocery delivery, scrap metal sales, baking, and farming, they will not only be able to feed their children, but they will support the work of the church and their pastor. The “rising tide” of working women will cause all ships to rise.