February 2007

Saving the Less Fortunate

-by Jenny Susa, Herald-Standard, Monday, March 19, 2007

As a pastor and the founder of the nonprofit organization Discipleship Ministries, the Rev. Terry Collins has traveled extensively, reaching out to the less fortunate, offering a message of hope and meeting some of their most basic needs.

His ministry has taken him to places like Russia, where Collins said he saw children and elderly people starving to death and struggling to heat their dilapidated homes in sub-zero temperatures.

The mission team to Kenya left to right: David Campbell, Pastor Terry Collins and Michael Kabay. The card that David is hold is in Swahili, Kenyan's native language, and Michael is holding the English translation.

But during a recent trip, he said that he saw poverty like he had never seen before. He was in Kenya in Africa. Collins and volunteers Michael Kabay and David Campbell traveled to the village of Eldoret in Kenya to hold a Christian crusade and conference, as well as assist the people by providing food.

Collins said the people in the village who had homes were living in thatched huts where they cooked on charcoal and bathrooms that were nothing more than a hole in the ground. Those who owned livestock or chickens shared their home with the animals during the night since there was no other shelter for them, and for fear that the animals would be stolen if they were left outside.

Many people, including children, had lost their parents and loved ones to AIDS, and were living in the street.

"They do operate on a class system over there," said Collins. "Only four percent of their population is considered wealthy. After that, the people are classed as poor, poorer and poorest. I realized that their poor would be like people on our welfare system here, and it keeps going down from there."

Collins said that most people got around by walking or by riding bicycles. The few cars in the village were 30 or more years old and barely ran. He explained that some of the food available to the people subjected them to disease, like meat that had been hanging at the meat market for a week with no refrigeration.

An African man told Collins that many of the people in his village "look good on the outside, but they are dying on the inside."

Collins said that a prime example was a man who was living in his car. He would sleep there at night, then bathe the best he could outdoors in the morning, then climb back into the car and change into his a work suit.

"You would not have known to look at him that he was living in a car," said Collins.

Every night that the volunteers preached, the crowds continued to grow in size. And Collins said at one point people stood listening to the sermons for farther than the eye could see. The volunteers were also able show the people Christian films using a generator and projector. Collins said this was a historical event in the city, since a drive in movie-theater has never existed.

The distribution of Corn (hindi) to the people of Homa-Bay.

"The second part of the outreach was to institute a feeding program." said Collins. "We purchased approximately three tons of corn and sent a large truck to a village called Homa Bay in Kenya."

The task was far from easy, as the village was a six hour drive, with part of the trip on a dirt road riddled with potholes. The car the volunteers traveled in bottomed out several times, forcing them to get out of the vehicle to clear the ruts. Upon their arrival, they learned the townspeople had been waiting for three hours in the hot sun to receive their food.

Collins said they were all very joyful when they found out the volunteers had brought enough food for everyone.

"We learned that the average village person eats only three or four days a week," said Collins. "Our outreach was enough to feed over two hundred families that day. We also fed over 150 families in the city Eldoret."

Collins said that during the crusade, he saw people worship with more enthusiasm that he has rarely seen before.

"I have not seen physical hunger like this before, but I have also not seen a spiritual hunger for Christ like these people have," said Collins, adding that almost felt sad for the people at home in the United States, while there. "We're blessed so much, but we don't hunger for Christ as much as they do."

Discipleship Ministries is already in the process of planning a second trip to Africa. When the organization again, it plans to hold crusades in Eldoret and Homa Bay. The organization hopes to feed twice as many the second time around, and hopes to build a small orphanage for some of the street children and "raise them up on the ways of God so that they can help their own people as they become adults."

Collins said he is thankful to all those who helped his organization make this trip possible. If you wish to partner with us please go to our Donate page.

If you would like to see more please check out our photo Kenya Photo Gallery, it is a beautiful photo essay of the trip which has been put together by own Michael Kabay.

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