… And how the ministries in Africa got started.
In 1998 Dr. Brown was teaching at Grace Bible College in Kenya when she was approached by one the young theology students, Fred Obonyo. Despite being from a fairly poor family himself and working to put himself through Bible college, Fred had started working with some of the street children in Kibera, the largest urban slum in Africa.
Fred took Dr. Brown to see what he had been doing and recruited her help to start a school for the children. The school, which they started in a rented building in the slums, provided basic classes and two meals a day for the children, but was not able to provide sleeping accommodations, and many of the children where still forced to sleep in the streets or by the railroad tracks.
Dr. Brown was required to continue teaching at Grace College for the remainder of her contract and Fred was still working and attending Bible classes, so he began looking for another teacher to employ for the school in Kibera. One evening, Fred was returning home after being delayed interviewing a potential teacher, when he was brutally attached and stabbed. The attackers where thieves, who took the only money he had on him, his bus fair home, and left him for dead. Fred was found before he bled out, but unfortunately died a few days later from his injuries.
At Fred’s funeral, Dr. Brown met Fred’s family for the first time, including his brother, Samson Obonyo. Samson took over his brothers work with the children, and was able to find a place where a full orphanage and school could be started.
The school started by Fred was the beginning of the River of Life ministries in East Africa. The school and orphanage was eventually relocated to the Mathare slum and currently houses about 130 children.
Working with Dr. Brown, Samson continued to expand work his brother had started, and Bishop Samson currently oversees the River of Life Ministries in East Africa, which include 3 orphanages, and over 50 church plants.