We spent this morning in Kalobeyei Refugee Settlement. It’s about 10 miles from Kakuma refugee camp and hosts around 40,000 refugees from neighboring countries.

We met with pastors from the 45 churches there that are affiliated with our local partner United Refugee and Host Churches (URHC).

They took time to thank IAFR and our financial partners for providing metal sheets to roof 10 of their churches. It was clear this assistance not only met an pressing need but they also saw it as a sign of God’s faithfulness for them in the midst of their daily struggles.

The pastors were also interested in hearing firsthand about refugee life in Europe and the US.

Perhaps the two most shocking things they reacted to were 1) the role of pastor does not carry prestige or receive automatic respect in Westerners nations and 2) church services in the US generally last 1 hour and then people go their own way (services in the camp last an average of 3-4 hours every week).