The Church: St. Delight Pentecostal Church
The Challenge: Tackling large projects on another continent using the resources of a tiny U.S. congregation
One Key Idea: Congregants chip in to send their pastor to do the work over a period of many years.
The entire congregation of St. Delight Pentecostal Church in Little River, S.C., may include only about 35 people, but its small size doesn’t discourage its members from making a big difference in the lives of Kenyans.
Since 1999, the congregation has pooled the funds to send its pastor, the Rev. Charles Randall, a retired Air Force master sergeant, to the small Kenyan villages of Mbale and Jerbrok. Randall has returned once or twice a year, representing the oversight organization St. Delight Association of Independent Ministries, comprised mostly of the same church members, to oversee various projects.
“It’s just something God has put on my heart to do,” Randall says. Because the church, which was founded by Randall’s mother in 1968, is now run by Randall and his wife Doretha, he’s “able to do what I feel the Lord is leading me to do. And I know he put a burden on my heart for Africa.”
In 2002, St. Delight shipped three 40-foot containers filled with medical supplies to stock its new medical clinic (aimed primarily at stabilizing children with HIV/AIDS), which was housed in a rented building. Around the same time, Randall set up a church in an old, donated Army tent. Though those were helpful temporarily, they needed permanent solutions.
In April, with funding from his church and from the Rotary Club of Little River, of which he is a member, Randall returned to Kenya. This time, he helped build the foundation and walls of the church, which was to be completed in July. Plans are in place to build facilities to house the medical clinic and a school in September. Additionally, he hopes to raise enough funds through various sources to dig a well to provide the area with potable water. Right now, he says, its only water comes from a nearby lake.
“Some people talk about it and get on TV,” he says of larger churches whose missional efforts are well-known, “and we just go get it done.”