Joyful growth of Crossroads partnership with KCEA

Lisa Mitchison, Crossroads Church's Pastor of International Outreach, met John Keshe (KCEA and MCESP founder) almost 10 years ago in the Masai Mara.  That meeting planted a seed of trust and mutual respect that has grown with every intervening year, and its fruit is especially evident this year. Crossroads has played many wonderful roles in the Nkoisuash community that we'll be blogging about soon. But in this blog, we focus on their support of KCEA student sponsorship.

Lisa Mitchison and John Keshe with members of the Maasai community and the 2024 Crossroads team.

In 2021, Crossroads sponsored their first 5 KCEA students, which was especially critical, because these five had been orphaned by the devastating COVID-19 epidemic. Now in 2024 twelve members of Crossroads have been inspired as individuals to sponsor KCEA students. They had learned of KCEA from activities at Crossroads, including a wonderful women's retreat in February 2024 attended by Amy Steffy as an ambassador from KCEA. 

Especially deep connections between Crossroads team members and KCEA students were formed when 30 Crossroads members visited the Keshe's community in July 2024. The team had the opportunity to meet with individual sponsored girls. Importantly, these meetings (where possible) included the girl's family, especially mother and grandmother. The sharing and joy in these meetings was intense and wonderful.  

For example, my boys and I got to meet with our student Faith and her family.  We experienced firsthand the strength of the relationship between them, and how intensely Faith's mother and grandmother support her yearning for education.  Faith's family was overwhelmingly grateful for the educational opportunity made possible by our support.  My boys and I will never forget how our hearts were so filled with joy.  We were also humbled by the experience.

Faith with her family (her mother and grandmother) together with Suzanne with hers (her two sons).  The exquisiite beaded necklace Suzanne is wearing was made for her by Faith’s mother.

In these meetings we saw that the Maasai culture places great emphasis on strong relationships within families and between community members.  John Keshe is respected for his strong relationships to community members and community elders.  When a girl wants to go to school, she needs not only the consent of her family, but typically also the concurrence of the community elders.  John's relationships are essential to his success in persuading families/communities to send their young women to school (instead of marrying at a young age).  We got to experience some of this intense bonding within the Maasai community.

John had arranged a ‘wellness conference’ for students/families from nearby communities; (more about this in a later blog). This conference facilitated meetings of team members with students seeking support for secondary school education. By the end of the trip, multiple additional team members sponsored students.  

I hope our experience will inspire those of you who are not yet sponsoring girl(s) in the Nkoisuash community.  I now know the indescribable feeling of meeting in-person with our sponsored student and her family. It is a true testament to the community that John cultivates with students and their families.

Another picture of Faith, a radiant young woman who is so grateful for the opportunity of education and for a wider community who cares about her.