~ Ministries ~

With a vision akin to Rick Warren’s P.E.A.C.E. Plan Initiative, Pastor Benard is building orphanages, planting churches, and training up church leaders in Kenya. His ministry team is currently in the planning stages of planting four more churches, building a medical clinic with missionary housing, and continuing expansion of their orphan care. We are looking for people to partner with this ministry in multiple areas: 

Orphans
You can sponsor-a-child at www.Hungry4Him.com for $15.00 a month to meet food, education and clothing needs. You can also sponsor-a-brick for new construction projects. Donations go to the ministry through Dublin Bible Church in Georgia.

Friends of Christ – Ahero Campus
A day school that provides both spiritual and physical nourishment to 167 orphans everyday. Most of their parents have died from AIDS, and the children now live with guardians or relatives that care for them in the evenings and on weekends. Even though the school can only provide two meals per day, doing this removes a huge burden from the guardian families and increases their support of the school.

Friends of Christ – Wachara Campus
This is another day school that opened in Pastor Benard's childhood village, Wachara. Over 25 orphans receive care here, and the number is quickly rising. These children also live with guardian families and spend their weekdays in school. The main difficulty now is keeping good staff for both schools. Unpredictable compensation often forces teachers to consider alternative employment, so we have started a sponsor-a-teacher program for both campuses.

Seminary

Ahero Evangelical School of Theology (AEST)
In 1993, Pastor Benard helped found this seminary to train up more pastors. Today, more than thirty students are enrolled at AEST, most of who depend on the $400 annual sponsor-a-student scholarships to fund their tuition, room, and board.

Planting Churches
God is also raising up leaders in the churches. Pastor Benard has planted seven churches, the most recent one in his childhood village, Wachara. This church is already talking about planting four more because many who want to come live too far away and cannot walk six miles to the church every Sunday. In Kenya, there is one pastor for every nine churches. This severe shortage has led not only to pastoral burn-out but also to many needs slipping through the cracks in an area where people are open to the Gospel.

Future Oyugis Foster Homes, School, Medical Clinic,
and Missionary Housing
The Oyugis site project will begin after the Ahero school project is completed. There is a matching donor fund for up to $12,500 toward construction of the clinic, and we plan to take a medical team to Wachara, Kenya in the summer of 2010. For more information on taking part in the Summer of 2010 trip, please contact Karen via e-mail at Karen@BenardsVision.com. 

Water Wells
Pastor Benard put in one well, and it serves as a ministry to the non-Christian people in his community who also use it. He would like to put another one in, but they can be very expensive depending on the location and how far down the workers have to dig.  He recently received an estimate for one deep well they need in Wachara at $30,000.