Kenya’s Bible Week focuses on cancer patients and former street children

NAIROBI, Kenya — The Bible Society of Kenya’s 2002 Bible Week focused on two particular groups of people: cancer patients at Nairobi Hospice and former street children who live at a children’s home in the countryside around one hour’s drive from Nairobi.

According to Sospeter Gatobu, the Society’s Public Relations Manager, the aim of Bible Week was to “share what we have as a Bible Society with those around us, especially those in special circumstances and those who cannot afford to buy the Bible for themselves.”

Responding

Bible Society staff who visited Nairobi Hospice during Bible Week felt strongly that God was responding to the patients’ needs through them. Before their visit, they packed Bibles to distribute to the patients, but did not know exactly which Bibles would be most appropriate. When it came to distributing them, however, they found that there was an exact match between the Bibles they had brought and the patients’ requests, even down to a large-print Bible for a woman who had been praying that one would be available.

The staff members talked to each patient, seeking to offer words of encouragement and to “assure them of God’s love even in their circumstances.” General Secretary the Rev Henry Kathii also addressed them as a group, telling them, “We will never understand what you are going through, but God does. He has promised to be with us always, to the end of the age.”

The other key event of Bible Week was a visit by Bible Society staff to a home for former street children run by the Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA). The home, located off the Nairobi-Namanga road east of Nairobi, offers these children a safe environment in which their physical, emotional and educational needs are met.