 | | Kakuma Refugee Leadership Training School |
Tom Albinson recently had the privilege of visiting with refugee churches in Kakuma refugee camp, located in remote northwestern Kenya.
Kakuma is presently "home" to around 85,000 forcibly displaced men, women and children from countries like Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, D.R. Congo, Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda.
There are between 40-60 refugee churches in the camp. They have organized themselves into an association called the "United Refugee Churches" (URC) through which they are able to support and assist one another.
The URC has a 4 year leadership training school designed to prepare students for pastoral ministry and missionary work. 120 refugee men and women are presently enrolled!
 | | Refugees listen intently during the 2 day leadership training conference in Kakuma. |
We were invited to assist with a 2 day URC leadership training conference in the camp. Many of the students had to walk miles to reach the Ethiopian church building that hosted the conference. In spite of their lack of basic resources (e.g. books, handouts, Bibles), the men and women who came were deeply engaged in the conference. As one of the students pointed out with a smile, "Jesus didn't have any handouts or text books either."
More than once, we heard refugees refer to their difficult life in the refugee camp as the "University of Kakuma". They view their present hardships as God's special training.
Like Nehemiah in the Bible, many of these leaders have a vision and longing to one day return to their country of origin and serve God as a pastor or church planter. In fact, some former refugees and graduates of the Kakuma Leadership Training School are now leaders in the founding government of South Sudan!
Others have a vision to serve God in a future country of resettlement.
All of them recognize that their present task is to reach out to their fellow refugees and into the surrounding Kenyan community.
IAFR considers it a privilege to partner with the URC. We are helping break their isolation by extending relationship through regular visits. We're giving them a voice to the church at large by developing a website through which they can tell their own story and make their needs known. And we're developing projects to help meet their needs, the first of which is Bibles for Refugees ( click here for details). | 
"When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven." Nehemiah:1:4