A Dream AMIDST THE TEA LEAVES

One man’s vision for an Adventist campus in the hills of western Kenya helps to spread the Gospel despite horrendous conditions.

By Dustin Comm

In 1952, Paul Sigira attended an evangelistic campaign in western Kenya and began reading the Bible. Five years later, he became a Seventhday Adventist. He started meeting with a small group under a tree on his property, which was surrounded by tea fields. It was the genesis of a congregation that would eventually become the Kimogoro Seventh-day Adventist Church. Later, Sigira visited another campus with a church, school, and hospital on-site, and had a vision that Kimogoro should also be a shared campus. Sigira held onto this dream for years and eventually donated his land on the top of a ridge for a school to be constructed. Finally in 1996, the Kimogoro Adventist School was founded with 35 students. Today, the school serves prekindergarten through 12th grade, educating 230 students each year, with a waiting list. Over the past three decades, thousands of children have learned of God’s love for them here and received the best education in the region, driven by dedicated teachers. But though the school offers a high-quality education, Kimogoro’s living and learning conditions are deplorable.

Cramped, rickety dormitory buildings have leaky roofs and termite-ridden frames. Huge gaps in the walls allow in the rain, wind, and cold. Critters scurry across the dirt floors. And because there isn’t enough space, kids are forced to sleep two, sometimes even three, to a bed. This can severely hurt students’ ability to learn and focus. Without a good night’s rest, it can be hard to concentrate and retain information.

“It normally impacts the learning process because at times, maybe there is coldness,” says Shadrack Kirui, principal. “The dorm is being rained on. The children might be sleeping in class because they did not sleep well at night.”

Besides sleeping quarters, other living conditions at Kimogoro are challenging. Bathing happens in a muddy outdoor enclosure with a bucket. There’s no cafeteria— kids have to eat outside, scattered under trees. The current kitchen is a smoke-filled outdoor shack which isn’t wellsealed; sometimes kids find things in their food.

“You know those cockroaches that get into the food?” said student Sharon Ngatia. “When you eat, you may just get those cockroaches in the food.”

Another challenge that plagued the school for years was the lack of water. Without a water source on top of the steep hill that Kimogoro rests on, each day students had to make the long walk down to a small river to fetch it and bathe. They brought their clothes to do laundry, and once clean, made the burdensome hike back up the hill with the full jugs of water needed for the school to function. Not only was this a tiring daily chore, but the water in this river was brown in color and could make them sick. Yet without another option, they used it for many years.

With all of Kimogoro’s adversities, one might assume that students don’t want to be there. But the truth is that despite all of its problems, kids and their parents love the school, and especially appreciate the teachers. Marzi Chelangat is a mother of two students at Kimogoro, but her third child attends a local government school.

“The one that is in public [school], he returns home, and the books, there is nothing in the books,” said Chelangat. “If I ask, ‘Why? Why did you not write?’ he’s telling me, ‘The teacher was absent.’ After lunch they return home and nothing was written. Nothing. They are not writing anything.”

In contrast, Kimogoro’s staff is what draws people to the school, even though the physical environment is lacking. The teachers deeply care for the students, not only academically, but as individuals. The rapport created allows for effective instruction, resulting in the higher test scores that make Kimogoro a desirable school. In this way, good teachers are a part of a positive cycle—they can help to recruit more students, which brings in more tuition to improve the program. But the opposite is true also—if good teachers don’t stay at a school because of the poor conditions, the program suffers and fewer students attend. Could Kimogoro avoid this negative cycle?

In 2019, the beginnings of change came to this campus amidst the tea leaves. Maranatha saw the need for accessible, clean water at Kimogoro, and drilled a well so students have more time for their education.

“We have been performing well because there’s water,” said Ngatia. “Everything is available. And when we have water, we can wash our clothes at the right time, and we can [still] run to class for our various studies.”

Now, more improvements are on the way. With long-term school projects in Kenya at the Kiutine and Kajiado Adventist Schools coming to completion, Maranatha has shifted its focus to Kimogoro. The transformation is starting with the construction of new dorms with restrooms and showers, as well as a kitchen and cafeteria.

Sigira is overjoyed with how far his dream has come from decades ago. These new facilities will improve hygiene, nutrition, sleep, and concentration on a daily basis. This institution will continue to be the best option in the area academically—the new buildings will now make it an adequate place to live, and ensure that hundreds more children will be led to Jesus for years to come.

Church leadership finds that institutions like Kimogoro are a crucial tool in spreading the Gospel in Kenya, not just as a supplement to other initiatives, but as a leading source of soul-winning itself.

“In one year, we baptized about 150,000 students,” said Andrew Mutero, Education Director for the Adventist Church in East Central Africa. “We baptized more people than are baptized in any public campaign in our division. So evangelism in Adventist schools is real.’

This soul-transformation can be felt at Kimogoro too, just as Sigira envisioned it. As Maranatha’s in-country crew and volunteers begin the work, the campus is set to securely shine its light on the hilltop for generations to come. The ambitious dream of one man will be amplified through construction and the willing hearts of everyday people like Maranatha donors, all desiring to share Jesus with young people until He comes back.

A Dream Realized

1 For years, Kimogoro students collected water and bathed at the bottom of a steep hill.

2 Paul Sigira is all smiles as his dream starts to become a reality.

3 The Kimogoro School sits atop a picturesque hill surrounded by tea fields.

4 Parent Marzi Chelangat has seen the difference between Kimogoro and the local public school and is thankful to be able to send two of her three children to this Adventist school.