Even though their summer mission trip to Kenya is canceled, the people of Salado United Methodist Church still want to do everything they can to help their sister church there, the Kaaga Synod.

With that thought in mind, the Salado congregation voted to send 75 percent of its Lenten offering to their brethren in Kenya.

The relationship between the Salado church and the Kaaga Synod started in August 2007 when Travis Franklin, pastor of Salado United Methodist Church, traveled to Kenya with five other Texas pastors.

“We went to the northeast side of Mount Kenya to meet with the Bishop William Muriuki,” Franklin said. “He showed us the area and talked about all the projects the local Methodists were working on.”

Watering farmland is one of Kenya’s greatest needs, Franklin said, so the Synod is working to create an irrigation system. Other projects include health and community programs related to AIDS epidemic, the construction of new churches, and school efforts for new computer labs and libraries.

“They are very active - proactive,” Franklin said. “They’ve built so much, infirmaries, schools and churches, and the people there are so grateful. Going there and seeing them has changed my life. They’re in poverty, real poverty, yet the people there are content with what they have. It makes me want to do everything I can to help.”

After the summer 2007 mission trip, Muriuki came to Texas to visit the congregations of the Methodist pastors who visited his synod.

“We figured that the best way to generate local interest about the needs in Kenya was to bring give it a human face,” Franklin said. “And after listening to everything Muriuki had to say, the (Salado church) decided to become partners with (the Kenya church).”

A second summer mission trip for 2008 was planned, Franklin said, with almost a dozen people pegged for participation.

“But because of the civil unrest there, our contacts in Kenya have advised us that it is too dangerous for us to try and come,” Franklin said. “People have been in an uproar since the incumbent got elected.”

The pastor was talking about the violent riots that have taken place in Kenya since President Mwai Kibaki won a second term in the December 2007 election against challenger Raila Odinga. A NPR report called it “the tightest presidential race in Kenyan history.”

“Since everything has happened, communication between us and them has been difficult,” Franklin said. “But that doesn’t stop us from wanting to help. Our hearts are still in prayer for them.”

--tlunsford@temple-telegram.com