Roberta Peterson Personal Testimony

Many years ago - 22 to be exact - my family and I visited Jarvis Memorial United Methodist Church, in Greenville, NC, where we had recently moved. As we wandered down the hallway of the enormous old church, the first person we came across was John Speight, the Assistant Pastor. He directed us to the nursery for our daughter and then to a Sunday school class that he was sure we would like. We did like the Sunday school class and the people there and never looked for another church. We became members at Jarvis a few months later, discovered John lived down the street from us and we became friends.

In the next couple of years, John got married and moved to San Antonio, Texas, where he pastored at another church. After a few years there, he became lead pastor at Christ Church in Fairfax Station, Virginia. We remained friends through the years with infrequent visits and correspondence.

We met up again in October 2002, when John was in Greenville to perform a wedding. While talking after the wedding ceremony, he invited me to join a mission team from his church going to Russia the next summer. I told him I’d love to go with him, but that I was already committed to going on a mission trip with my daughter during spring break and couldn’t afford to go on two mission trips in a few month’s time. John told me he would keep in touch.

John did keep in touch. He sent me the itinerary and suggestions on how to raise money for the trip. I prayed that if going on this trip was God’s plan for me, the money would be provided, and it was! All the costs for the mission trip to Russia were provided. It was a great time of mission, ministry and getting re-acquainted with John. I joined him again the next summer on another mission trip to Russia.

In June, 2006, I joined a small group from my church, Jarvis Memorial UMC, on a mission trip to Kenya. There I met and became friends with one of the pastors of the church there in Kenya with which our team was partnering, Pastor Henry. On my next trip to Kenya, Pastor Henry challenged me to find a pastor from the United States who would come and preach in Kenya. He said Kenyans would come out to hear a preacher from the states. I knew, even then, that I did not know any pastors who wanted to preach in Kenya. I figured I would forget about the request to find a preacher and I hoped Henry would, too.

But I did not forget about the request. A few months later I mentioned this request to my good friend and former college roommate, Cheryl Cranston. Cheryl worked for a Christian education organization and did some part-time preaching. She jumped on the opportunity to preach in Kenya and shared that she had a vision about nine years ago of being under a tree with a group of dark skinned children. She had always thought this was God’s call for her to go to Africa.

I also mentioned this desire for a preacher in Kenya to my friend, John Speight. He also was excited about an opportunity to get involved with missions and ministry on the African continent. He said it was his church’s goal to have a presence on every continent.

Plans began to formulate with both Cheryl and John for trips to Kenya. Pastor Henry came to the United States in the spring of 2007 and met with both Cheryl and John. Partnerships were formed and plans begun for both to go to Kenya that year.

I returned to Kenya in June of 2007 for a five-month stay. I worked with a Christian home-based ministry team that visited HIV+ people in three different slums in Nairobi. During that time, Cheryl joined me for 20 days. She preached 10 times--sometimes twice a day--in many different venues in and around Nairobi as well as in the rural area of Sakwa, where Pastor Henry grew up.

From the moment we entered the Sakwa area, I loved it. It is a beautiful, lush, hilly area that produces many fruits, vegetables and flowers. I describe it as “Hawaii, without the ocean.” Most of the people there struggle to survive by living off what they can grow. There is a small school in the area that was begun to help the local families by providing quality Christian education at a low cost. Besides preaching at the local church, we were able to visit the school site and a few student families in their homes. From those first visits, God began to grow a love for those people and that area in me.

When John and his mission team of 14 traveled to Kenya in November of 2007, I was also able to take them to Sakwa. From this visit, a partnership began to develop between Christ Church and the Hope Educational Centre, the small school there.

In 2008, I was able to stay in the Sakwa community for most of one month. During this time, I lived in a local home, worked with the children of Hope Educational Centre, and walked the dirt roads of the community and up and down the hillsides to visit many of the homes and families of the students. Through these experiences, I was able to identify some of the needs of this area, which include: quality, affordable education; accessible and affordable medical services; and business and earning opportunities for these families.

An urgent need for improved toileting facilities and a clean water supply for Hope Educational Centre was revealed after my return from Kenya in the summer of 2008. Christ Church was able to raise the needed funds to provide for this need and a building with six toilet areas was built, along with a water collection and reservation system provided. These additions have improved the sanitation for the school, as well as the overall health of the students and staff.

A group of four, which included Pastor John, two men from his church and I, made a short trip to Kenya in early February of 2009. Together with Pastor Henry, we met with the local councilor, medical and district officials, and the Hope Educational Centre school board. We spent time at the school doing activities and playing with the students. And, we were able to see the new toilet facilities, the new water tank, as well as a few plots of land to consider buying for a permanent school and ministry site. The outcome of this trip is continuing support of Hope Educational Centre and plans to hold a medical camp there later this year.

Plans are being discussed by Cheryl and me to return to Kenya to do more preaching, as well as some trainings for pastors and teachers. There is a great need, as well as desire, for trainings for pastors and teachers, especially in the rural areas. These people are not usually able to afford the cost of trainings or the expense of the travel to them. This trip would most likely include return visits to Nairobi, Sakwa and the surrounding areas.

My heart and calling is definitely with the people of Kenya. I have become a partner and co-founder of Hope Africa Ministries with Pastor Henry. Through this ministry we support Hope Educational Centre in Sakwa, as well as Hope Worship Centre, a recent church planting in the outskirts of Nairobi.