As part of Fox River Missions, we have the great opportunity to partner with missionaries in each of the countries that God has called us to. One of the missionaries that God has partnered us with in Kenya, is Jenna Nyanje. Some of you might know her as Jenna Horgan. We are going to take some time today and learn more about who God made Jenna, and the role that she plays in our Kenyan mission.
Jenna has been on several mission trips in her life, and she said that each time she came back she knew that missions was something she wanted to do, but there was always something that told her "not yet". She took her first trip to Kenya on a Fox River medical team in 2012. Little did she know that this trip was going to change her life. There was something about Kenya, and the people that she met there, that made it so clear, God said "Go". She returned on several short-term trips before packing up her belongings and moving to Kenya in the summer of 2014 to go where God was calling her.
Jenna on her first medical trip to Kenya.
Most of Jenna’s work happens in the village of Vipingo. The property in Vipingo houses the classes KG1 (Kindergarten) through Standard 8, as well as a Feeding Center, Rescue Center and Bible College. She is the administrator of the school in Vipingo, think of her as the head principal. She helps the school run as smoothly as possible. She meets with the teachers weekly, as well as having Bible study with all of them. The teachers at the school take both their own and the students spiritual health very seriously. Jenna also helps keep track of the finances of the school, and helps keeping up with the students. Along with the leadership of Fox River she coordinated short term trips that you can come on! Which encourage Jenna and the people of Kenya so much. She also orchestrates the process of choosing the new KG1 (kindergarten) students, at the start of each new school year. Jenna and the teachers would love your prayers throughout the year, as they prepare to choose the students that God would have for our school.
Jenna also helped start the Rescue Center on-site in Vipingo, and continues to spend a lot of her time there. The rescue center takes in babies that have no home, and gives them a forever family. Right now the Rescue Center has three sweet boys, with a mama and an auntie. The Rescue Center is a huge blessing in the community of Vipingo and is truly going to change the course of the lives that enter it.
Two of the rescue center babies.
Something that Jenna has done so well in Kenya, is acclimating to the culture and life of Kenya. Jenna dove right into Kenyan culture and life, and made herself right at home in Kenya. She takes the time to learn about their culture, cook their food and live the way that Kenyans live. She attends and serves at Crossroads Fellowship Church, where another missionary partner, Jim Horne, is the senior pastor. You can find Jenna teaching Sunday School, helping with the youth or even hear her on their video announcements on any given Sunday. Crossroads Fellowship, is a very special place to Jenna, because that is where she met her husband, O’Neal. They just got married in January!
Jenna says,
“O’Neal has an amazing testimony. One that I would never rob him by telling you 2nd hand. But I hope that one day you can come visit us and hear it. This man has a testimony of a faith in God so inspiring, that I distinctly remember praying one night over a year ago, that I might be able to meet him one day. And that was it, with no feelings attached. I remember writing in a journal somewhere asking God that I might have a testimony like his. I asked God that someday I might be able to meet this man that I had heard so much about. I think God laughed at my ‘grain of rice’ sized prayer. I know I certainly would have if I would have known how long he had actually been weaving our stories together.
God ended up orchestrating the day that we finally got to meet, in a coffee shop. And in that coffee shop we spent an entire afternoon talking about what God had done so faithfully in our lives and what we dreamed God would one day let us do in the future. We talked about those dreams as individuals. And today the dreams we talk about are the dreams that we now share as husband and wife.”
Only God can write a story like Jenna's and it takes a heart fully following Him to move halfway across the world and do the work that God has asked you to do. Although Jenna's first move to Kenya was only intended to be for a year, it was clear at the end of that time that God had called Kenya to be her home. She loves the people that God has put in her life as family and friends, and the people that she gets to show God's love to.
We are so thankful for our partnership with Jenna, and pray that it would continue for many years into the future. As you think of her during this week, pray for her and her ministry in Kenya.