Professor-daughter team ministers in Kenyan slums during summer mission trip

Walking around one of the poorest parts of Nairobi, Kenya, Liberty University School of Education Professor James Swezey clearly saw why mission teams are needed there.

The Mathare slums, an area less than 1 square mile but home to more than 500,000 people, are filled with dirt-floor shanties that have no electricity or running water. All of the waste from the community runs into the street, contributing to the rise of diseases. Walking through the streets, Swezey said, is like walking through a landfill.

Through an 11-member mission team that was part of Generations Christian Church in Trinity, Fla., Swezey and his daughter, Joelle, a junior elementary education student at Liberty, traveled to Kenya for the 10-day trip from June 16-27. While there, they partnered with Missions of Hope International (MOHI), a Christ-centered, nongovernmental organization that serves orphaned and vulnerable children and their families in the Mathare Valley slums and other disadvantaged communities throughout Kenya. This includes providing them with low-cost education opportunities and medical care.

The team served as teachers in a MOHI-sponsored school and helped provide medical care in a community clinic. Swezey, a professor of graduate education and chair of qualitative dissertation research, taught a group of students ranging from elementary to high school age.

Though Swezey had been on mission trips before, the Mathare slums gave him a new perspective on outreach, both mentally and spiritually.

“I don’t know that there is anything in the world that compares to this,” he said. “The poverty is relentless, and it is heartbreaking to see that people are living in these conditions and have been for generations.”

Before the trip, Swezey said he was learning in his own life how to be content, no matter what situation the Lord put him in. Watching the Kenyan people still have hope, despite their circumstances, ignited the “spiritual fuel” Swezey said he needed.

“These people, despite deplorable surroundings, try to do the best they can,” he said. “It made a tremendous impact in teaching me how to walk in contentment.”

The final part of the trip consisted of the team purchasing Bibles to give to the older students. The children were thrilled to receive them because they value Scripture and know that is where they receive hope, Swezey said.

“To be able to see the joy and jubilation that went up among the students when they received their Bibles was incredible. Despite their difficult circumstances, they are deeply committed to the Word of God.”