Providing Practical Help For Growing Churches
At TRAIN(Kenya) we rejoice to see churches across the country that are growing. Many of the churches are seeing significant numbers added to their congregations, mainly through conversions. However, this presents great challenges in terms of their practical needs. While some have no building at all, others find that the building they have is too small to accommodate the growing congregation. Some in the rural areas have no access to fresh water; some have no toilet facilities; some lack Bibles and hymn books. The needs are great, and it is our joy to assist in meeting these needs wherever we can.
However, we are anxious not to encourage a spirit of dependence upon outside help. We are always encouraging the churches to do everything possible to provide as much as they can for their own needs. There are a number of ways in which we seek to accomplish this objective, but one recent scheme is to identify needs and ask the churches to raise as much as they can towards those needs. As a charity, we then double that sum (up to a certain amount). Through this, the churches appreciate the benefit of raising as much of their own support as they possibly can.
