Richard Murungi, a bishop from Nairobi, Kenya, is winding up a multi-week visit to the Mother Lode, strengthening relationships with Mother Lode ministry partners and speaking in churches.
Several churches, businesses and individuals in the area regularly support Murungi’s work serving orphans, widows, single mothers and other Kenyans affected by such challenges as HIV, climate change, sex trafficking and inflation.
Murungi started his ministry work by founding Destiny Community Church and has since expanded, now leading 15 churches and 40 pastors.
In addition to the spiritual work, the ministry carries out many practical programs meeting pressing needs. One of the most successful programs is providing goats for single mothers and widows.
“One goat can work miracles in a village,” Murungi says.
The milk and meat can sustain a family and provide income, and as the flock reproduces, the women earn income selling goats. Income can be vital for single mothers, not only for food and shelter expenses, but for education of the children. In Kenya, families must provide uniforms for their children to attend school, at a cost of about $50, which is also about the cost of one goat.
Another successful program is sewing and tailoring. The ministry provides sewing machines and training, and the women can sew uniforms for their children and earn income from making and selling clothing.
Direct support of orphans is also a vital part of the ministry. Currently, they are supporting 80 orphans. These children are raised in foster homes, under the guidance and protection of local pastors, because Murungi has found that this gives better outcomes than placing children in orphanages.
The many other programs include feeding poor children, education, rescuing women from prostitution and sex trafficking, and transitional care for those who need help becoming independent and self-sustaining.
Murungi visits the Mother Lode on a regular basis to connect with his ministry partners. This allows the Mother Lode supporters to hear firsthand how their donations are impacting the Kenyan people, and it also strengthens their personal relationships.
Murungi finds it important to share time over a meal, discussing the ministry as well as connecting personally. He also speaks in the churches that support the ministry, encouraging them and delivering a strong spiritual message.
One of these churches, the Country Cowboy Church, sent a team of 19 people to Murungi’s ministry in 2017 to build water towers, teach widows self-sustaining business skills, give gifts to children and help in various other ways. Another local church, Sozo Fellowship, is planning to build a village clinic in the near future.
Murungi says he learned from the Lord that “living a self-sustaining life is better than depending on a sponsor supporting you forever on a monthly basis. That makes you weak and inactive. But when you are taught how to do it by yourself, that is raising up a generation to help another generation.”
Since arriving on May 1, Murungi has spoken at Harvest Fellowship, Country Cowboy Church, Potters Touch Church, Mountain Bible Church, Generation Life Church, Assembly of God Church of Waterford, and Sozo Fellowship.
He was scheduled to speak at Chapel in the Pines this past Sunday. The following Sunday, June 12, he will speak at Heaven’s Open Door Church in Sonora, before returning to Kenya.
Asked about racism, Murungi said, “I don’t get it.” He thinks it may have something to do with America’s history of slavery, but there was never slavery in Kenya. Race, he says, has to do with skin color, but what is on the inside is what’s important.
“Inside, our organs and our brains, are all the same,” he said.
