Nuru Lutheran Media Ministry director John Maina, right, with Nuru volunteer Benson Cheserem, who helps distribute Braille materials.
This summer, Lutheran Hour Ministries—Kenya negotiated a partnership for holistic ministry with the Kenya Society for the Blind—an exciting new development in an outreach that has been part of the Kenya ministry center’s calling for many years.
When Rodger Hebermehl, late executive director of Lutheran Hour Ministries, visited the Kenya center (known locally as Nuru Lutheran Media Ministry) in the late 1990′s, the center’s active witness to blind people made such an impression him that he arranged for the Kenya ministry staff to receive two Braille machines.
“Our ministry to the blind was a simple outreach,” says Nuru Lutheran Media Ministry director John Maina. “We set up groups in Bible schools and sent out Bible Correspondence Courses in Braille as well as in print. The coordinator of that program was Mr. Jackson Agfana.”
Agfana (who has limited eyesight) and Maina further developed the Gospel outreach to blind people, eventually establishing a partnership with the Lutheran Braille Workers organization to provide a variety of Christian materials in Braille.
The Kenya Society for the Blind reaches out to blind people with a number of programs. The new agreement between Nuru and the Kenya Society will provide Gospel outreach and Voluntary HIV/AIDS Counseling and Testing (VCT) activities along with the other services the Society offers.
To learn more about Lutheran Hour Ministries’ work in Kenya and other countries, visit www.lhmint.org. To explore congregational and individual partnership opportunities with Lutheran Hour Ministries in international Gospel outreach, visit www.lhm.org/partner.
