Project Christmas Blessing 2022 was a spectacular demonstration of God’s love and provision as over $153,000 was raised to bring comfort and joy to suffering families and children throughout Kenya.
Kenya was suffering from the worst drought in 40 years. Wells were drying up, animals were dying, and food and fuel prices were soaring. Many families were eating one meal daily due to food insecurity. PCB 2022 brought relief to hundreds of homes with a large supply of food and gifts which brought smiles to the children of Kenya.
PCB Distribution
A team from the United States (Michael, Rene, and Vanessa Smith; Julie Elwell; Kendra Cole) spent two and a half weeks in Kenya shopping, buying, packing, traveling, teaching, preaching, and visiting many villages in western Kenya.
The young people at Huruma Orphanage assisted the team by packing hundreds of bags with food items and filling drawstring bags with gifts and school supplies for children. Each family received 180 lbs. of maize and 55 pounds of rice in addition to sugar, salt, tea, oil, soap, cookies, sweets, etc. Each youth pack contained: a drawstring backpack, hoodie sweatshirt, Keys for Kids/Unlocked devotional, 5 school notebooks, 5 pens, bottle of soda, Vaseline, toothbrush, punch balloon, helicopter spinner toy, stickers, ball or beanie baby, biscuits, candy, etc. Due to higher costs and the need to provide each family with a meaningful supply of goods, more than the advertised $125/family and $25 child was spent.
Distributions took place over the course of nine days. For three days, two additional teams of Kenyans traveled far distances to take the good news of the gospel accompanied with the joy of PCB to hurting families.
Early in the morning on distribution days, large trucks were loaded with thousands of pounds of maize and rice and then gifts bags were piled on top. Upon arrival at the distribution points, tickets were passed out to the gathered families and children who had preregistered. This helped curtail the chaos that would have ensued when many people arrived wanting help and the supplies were exhausted. Before distribution, one of the sisters would tell the wonderful story of the birth of Christ. Bro. Michael would preach a short gospel message and an invitation was always given for people to accept Jesus into their hearts. The wonderful love of God was shared and received by many, sometimes under the hot sun and sometimes in a mud or brick chapel. The angels rejoiced!
Thousands of people in Kenya were blessed by PCB. Widows would testify how they were praying for God to help them because they had no food, and God answered their prayer. Bibles were distributed and each family received a Bible Story Book in Swahili. They were encouraged to have nightly family worship with their children.
The children were all given a good quality hoodie in addition to their other gifts. In spite of some daunting logistics, PCB 2022 was wonderfully successful.
In addition to the major outreach in Kenya, there were smaller PCB sponsored outreaches in both India and Pakistan.
Blessing the Servants
PCB blessed the families of ministering servants in Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, India, and Pakistan. Pastors, schoolteachers, gospel workers, and orphanage staff were supplied with funds not only to feed their families but also to personally purchase gifts for their children.
Annual Project
Project Christmas Blessing annually makes a permanent difference with a major project (approximately 10-20% of each donation). PCB 2022 plans to construct housing for those teaching and volunteering at Huruma Dolor Orphanage.
