Life Abundant LA – Missionary Update 🌍

Our third update from the Miller family who are currently serving in Nairobi, Kenya.

A Note From the Millers
From Brad, Jess, and the kids – Caleb (14), Audrey (11), and Noah (7)

Hi Life Abundant family,

We're writing this from the kitchen table of the small guesthouse we've been calling home for the past three weeks, with the sound of the neighborhood coming through the open window – a rooster that has absolutely no concept of appropriate timing, kids playing in the road outside, and somewhere in the distance, what we're pretty sure is someone's worship music drifting over the rooftops. It already feels normal in a way that still surprises us. Nairobi has a way of getting into you fast.

We want to start by saying thank you. The messages, the voice notes, the emails from the kids' classmates back home – we read every single one. On the hard days, and there have been a few, they have meant more than we can say. You are with us on this trip in ways you might not fully realize.

What We've Been Doing

The first two weeks were a lot of orientation, relationship-building, and honestly, adjustment. Anyone who tells you there's no culture shock is either lying or has been here so many times they've forgotten what the first week feels like. We were tired in a way that went beyond jet lag. The food, the traffic, the pace, the weight of what we'd come to do all landed at once.

But week three has felt like a turning point.

We are spending the majority of our time partnering with Hope Community Kenya in the Mathare Valley neighborhood, the same community many of you helped support through last year's Global Missions offering. Walking into that newly completed classroom block for the first time and knowing that Life Abundant LA's generosity built those walls – we didn't have words. Jess cried. Brad pretended not to. Caleb took about forty photos.

The classrooms are bright and clean and full of children who show up every morning with a seriousness about learning that has put our own kids to shame in the best possible way. We've been helping lead an after-school literacy program three afternoons a week, working alongside local teachers and community volunteers. The curriculum is simple but the impact is not. Many of these kids are the first in their families to read fluently in English. Watching that click into place for a child is one of those things you don't forget.

Stories From the Week

A boy named Samuel. He is eight years old and has the most focused pair of eyes we have ever seen on a child. For the first week, he sat at the back of the literacy group and barely spoke. Our team leader, a remarkable woman named Faith Wanjiku, quietly told us: "Give him time. He is watching to see if you will stay."

This week Samuel moved to the front row. On Thursday he read an entire short story aloud to the group without stopping. When he finished, he looked up and his expression was almost confused – like he hadn't been sure until that moment that he could do it. The room erupted. Faith caught our eye from across the room and smiled like she'd known all along.

We think about Samuel a lot when we pray at night.

Noah's adjustment. Our youngest has had the biggest journey of the three kids. The first week he was homesick in a way that broke our hearts a little, asking every night when we were going home, missing his friends, missing his bed. We prayed with him and held him and were honest that it was okay to feel all of it.

By the end of week two, something shifted. He started kicking a soccer ball around with some of the neighborhood kids after the literacy program each afternoon. Language was not really the barrier we thought it would be. Seven-year-olds, it turns out, have their own universal dialect. This week he asked us if we could stay longer. We didn't see that coming.

A conversation with Pastor Joseph. Our primary partner at Hope Community is Pastor Joseph Kamau – a man who has been serving Mathare Valley for twenty-three years with a quiet, unshakeable faithfulness that makes us feel like we have a lot of growing up to do. We sat with him for two hours on Tuesday evening over chai and he told us the history of the neighborhood. The hard years, the slow years, the years when it felt like nothing was moving.

"I never stopped," he said simply. "I don't know how to explain it except that God made it impossible for me to stop."

We came to Kenya thinking we had something to offer. We are finding, more and more, that we are the ones being given to.

What's Ahead

Weeks four and five will take us into a new phase of the partnership. We'll be helping facilitate a two-day leadership training for youth group leaders from five different churches in the Mathare area. Jess will be leading two sessions on trauma-informed care in ministry, drawing on her background as a school counselor. Brad will be co-leading a session on sustainable community development with Pastor Joseph. Caleb has asked if he can give a short talk to the youth group leaders about what it's like to grow up in church as a teenager. We said yes before he could change his mind.

We'd love your specific prayer over these days. We want to show up as learners as much as teachers.

How to Pray For Us This Week

🙏 Samuel and the other children in the literacy program – for continued breakthrough, for confidence, for every door that learning to read will open for them.

🙏 The upcoming leadership training – for the right words, the right spirit, and genuine connection with the leaders who attend.

🙏 Jess's health – she's been fighting a stubborn head cold all week. Nothing serious, but she's running on less than full capacity and could use some prayer and vitamin C.

🙏 Pastor Joseph and Faith Wanjiku – that they would feel honored and not overwhelmed by our presence, and that this partnership would leave something lasting behind when we go.

🙏 Our kids – that whatever they are seeing and experiencing here would shape them for the rest of their lives in ways we can't yet predict.

🙏 Our hearts – honestly, pray that we don't come home unchanged. We already feel it happening and we want to lean into it, not manage it back to normal.

A Note From Caleb (14)

My parents said I could write something so here goes. Kenya is not what I expected. I thought it would feel like a mission trip the way people describe mission trips. Like you're doing something for people who need help. It doesn't feel like that at all. It feels more like... being somewhere that's teaching you something you didn't know you needed to learn. I don't know how to say it better than that yet. Ask me when I get home.

– Caleb

A Note From Audrey (11)

My favorite thing so far is a girl named Amara who is also 11 and taught me how to braid hair the Kenyan way and said my attempt was "very good actually" which I think was her being nice but I'll take it. Also the mangoes here are insane. That's all.

– Audrey

We love you, church. Keep the prayers coming, we feel every single one.

Grace and peace.
Brad, Jess, Caleb, Audrey & Noah Miller

Want to send the Millers an encouraging note? Email missions@lifeabundantla.com and we'll make sure it reaches them. To learn more about our global partnerships or support the Millers' trip, visit lifeabundantla.com/missions.