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After months of preparation back home in Texas, and lots of bumpy rides on the back of a piki piki, producing documents, collecting signatures, and getting copies made, we are officially recognized in Kenya as a Community Based Organization (CBO), known as Kiwanda Cha Tumaini, the Swahili translation of The Hope Factory!

Through the kind and energetic efforts of the sweet woman at the County Government Offices, I even got my hands on the actual certificate before leaving Western Kenya last Sunday. It wasn’t supposed to be ready until the following Tuesday after I had returned to the States, but she said if I would be patient, she would go and track down the District Commissioner and get his signature. We waited for about two hours while she was gone (also on a piki piki).

So, here it is!! Our CBO Certificate!

This gives us legal coverage to operate where we are in Western Kenya while we await our certificate from the NATIONAL Non-Governmental Organisation Co-ordination Board. That’s right! It is finished!!! Our application as an NGO on the national level was fully accepted, and the certificate will be ready in December!!! God has granted us favor at every turn, and we are giving Him all the glory and honor. This is His work, not ours!

Bwana asifiwe!!! (Praise the Lord)

Mary Catherine

Most Kenyans will tell you that there are 42 tribes in their land, a country almost exactly the size of Texas. However, official sources list anywhere between 40 and 70 tribes. Each of these ethnic groups has its own tribal language, or mother tongue; but the majority of Kenyans also speak Swahili (Kiswahili) and English, which are the official languages of the country.

While tribalism has diminished because of Western influence, to which tribe you belong is still the most important factor in social life. Political parties, for example, are largely based on tribe and less on ideology.

I have just returned to the States from the most amazingly successful trip to Kenya ever! In the coming days, you will be reading reports of how God had paved the way for our every step, granting us favor and success in everything we undertook, and doing more than we ever hoped or imagined!!!

We have taken a diverse group of Kenyans, from different backgrounds and customs, different tribes, and have become a unified, loving, cohesive group with a common goal of achieving God’s vision for Kenya. To celebrate that, we thought it only appropriate to name our tribe; so, today, we are proudly announcing A NEW TRIBE IN KENYA!!! We are the TUMAINI TRIBE.

‘Tumaini’ is the Swahili word for Hope, and our (now) international organization is officially known as Kiwanda Cha Tumaini (The Hope Factory). Jeremiah 29:11 tells us, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” We are clinging to this precious promise as we work tirelessly to accomplish all that He has given us to do. With my Bible open to this much-loved passage, we ceremoniously joined our tribe as one, donning matching rings that announce our HOPE to the world.

Our tribe is made up of a bunch of Luhya, a couple of Luo, one Kikuyu, one American Comanche, and one melting-pot American from Cherokee, Texas. However, we have become one. We are the Tumaini Tribe, and “our hope is based on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness!”

Bwana asifiwe! (Praise the Lord!)

Mary Catherine