by Dorothy Dulo

At the beginning of the year I asked God to show me the things I could give up in 2017 to love others extravagantly. Throughout the year I tried to be open to notice the things God was bringing to my attention. Showing love extravagantly is hard. Jesus gave us this example – He lay aside his life to Love us to the point of death. He brought eternal value to our lives.

What a privilege to be part of continuing His work – bringing value to people’s lives.

What do we hold valuable that we can share with someone? Our time, money, clothing, electronics, and the list goes on and on. We can choose to keep feeding our appetite for ‘things’ and live with a mindset of always wanting more for ourselves. This makes us see the world with the eyes of scarcity. But we can also choose to demonstrate love by sharing that which we value. The world needs our extravagant love daily.

Many of you have shown extravagant love this year by sharing what you value with Rafiki and the communities we serve in Kenya. You have shared your time as a volunteer, traveled to Kenya, given your resources, prayed, and much more. Your love has been seen. The communities we serve in Western Kenya have seen your love. You have been part of many stories and milestones. We thank you. We wish you a blessed Holiday season filled with love, joy and peace with friends and family. We love you all and look forward to showing love together again in 2018.

Our Annual Celebration Dinner on October 19, 2017 was excellent! We had a great time sharing food and fellowship, and hearing from our speaker Jonathan Coleman, of ASSETS Lancaster, about missions and colonialism and the things we can do to invest in locally smart, grassroots solutions that honor the local people and their wisdom, as well as empower them to change their situation.

We are so grateful to everyone that came out and all of the new and renewed commitments to Rafiki Africa. Our work wouldn’t be possible without excellent partners!

Dorothy also shared about a new social enterprise opportunity for the women’s program. Lemongrass grows quite easily in Kenya, and can be used for tea. Kenyan Chai Masala is also quite easy for the women to make. Dorothy is currently doing market research in the US to learn about what the demand would be for such a product. If you’re interested in partnering with that project, you can contact Dorothy through the form under the Contact tab.

During the dinner, we also shared a video with updates from 2017, which you can view below if you missed it.