The past seven months of the year have been some of the busiest months in Explore’s history. The Explore Head Office in Cape Town has been flooded with enrolment forms and exam scripts from across the continent, especially from Kenya, and the administration team has had their work cut out for them. Explore’s primary means of measuring its reach in Africa is by tracking the number of enrolments received by each student per country. In 2022, there were 2522 total Explore modules studied across the continent, with several students graduating in various countries. Of course, you can read all about this in the Explore newsletter. But in this piece, we want to focus on Kenya.
Our Kenyan Country Coordinator, Misheck Mbevi, has led his small team into various parts of the country, from east to west, from refugee camps to university campuses. As a result, 46% of Explore’s 2023 module enrolments have come from Kenya alone. A unique opportunity in Kenya has been serving Somalian and South Sudanese refugees. Though many of those refugees are Muslims and their camps are situated in Muslim areas, such as Garissa, Explore hasn’t only had enrolments but even contact from potential facilitators. In areas where the gospel is scarcely heard and the Christian faith is often practised in secret, the growth of Explore is a remarkably exciting kingdom development. We pray that more people might hear of the wondrous forgiveness found in Jesus through faith alone.
To grow the Explore groups and the team, Misheck regularly conducts training for men and women interested in facilitating groups. Although there is still a great need for more facilitators to come alongside students, we have already had fruitful and encouraging training sessions across the country.
Future ambitions for Explore in Kenya include renting an office space in Nairobi in order to centralise Explore activities in the country, maintaining its growth in an organised and sustainable manner. The team also intentionally reached university students with an Explore promotion day and facilitation training at the end of September 2023.
Though we praise God for the explosive growth of Explore in Kenya, we’re rejoicing in the evident desire among many of those students to grow in their knowledge of God. This desire is clear from the considerable commitment of those students to their respective modules. God is at work in the hearts and lives of the Kenyan people. He is revealing himself to them through his Word and is enabling them to grow in their love for him and others. Partner with us and pray for the work in Kenya.
by Explore