Mwata Area Mission,Kisii, Kenya

Mwata School for the Deaf is the only Seventh Day Adventist school for the Deaf in Kenya. There are 16 other schools for the Deaf in this country alone.

Currently the students vary in age from 3 years old to twenty years old and there are 19 Orphans among the 78 students.  

The following story is provided by Mae Jordan.

When Candy Ringering and I first arrived at Mwata in April of 2024, we saw many areas that needed assistance.  Some concerns were impacted immediately with WhatsApp calls back to our home church, Woodburn Community SDA, in Oregon. By God’s grace we were able to meet some of the immediate needs.

There were no schoolbooks on the campus. Students learned sign language by the pictures on the walls of the classrooms.  Teachers borrowed books from other schools to teach their students, but the students never had access to the books.  The joy on the faces of students when their new books arrived told the whole story. 

The country of Kenya requires that there be a bed for each of the students at the boarding school.  Unfortunately, when we toured the dormitory approximately half of the steel-framed beds had no mattresses and no one had sheets or blankets. By God’s grace that was taken care of.

Lack of food was a definite problem. Students and staff shared one meal a day with maize being the dominant food.  Hungry children can’t concentrate on learning.

Impossibilities are God’s specialties.

The book of Matthew in the Bible tells us that with God all things are possible.  That has been seen at Mwata School for the Deaf.

In February of 2025 Candy and I returned to Kenya with Dalene and Roger Johnson. The school’s food supply was the dominant theme.  We had been working on this problem since leaving in 2024. 

The South Kenya conference was able to purchase, with 13^th sabbath offering funds, a neighboring corn field. This gave us a 200×90 garden to clear, cultivate with oxen, and plant.  At home we had read “Farmstew” on how to plant in Africa, and had it memorized.  We found out that you cannot bring seed into Kenya which was our next hurdle.  God gave us answers for each step of planning.  An educated seed specialist, who loved our proposed project, donated 1,000 seedlings for the cost of sending them from Nairobi to Kissi which amounted to $0.25 per plant. 

Kenya has 2 growing seasons which allows fresh vegetables and fruits to be harvested all year round.  Now vegetables are being grown in the quantity needed for students to have fresh vegetables every day.  While we wait for the banana and papaya trees to grow, the church is sending funds to supplement their need for fruit several times a week.

While there, we were able to make improvements in the small kitchen.  Carpenters from the area built sturdy 6 ft by 7 ft cabinets, to replace the need for storing food on pallets on the floor.   We bought enough dishes for everyone to eat at the same time instead of in shifts, buckets with lids for safe food storage and knives for the Maasi chef who had only one sharp knife. The store owner gave us a discount right away as he remembered us from when we purchased the sheets and blankets in 2024.

Last year after getting bibles with their schoolbooks 4 students were baptized. This year God has blessed us with 17 student baptisms and one staff baptism. Only 1% of deaf people around the world go to any church due to the language barrier.   This brings tears to my eyes because I know the struggle for the Deaf to understand Gods word without interpreters. They are unable to listen to sermons or go to a traditional bible study. We are so thankful for each student who accepts Christ as their personal Savior.

There have been so many miracles at the Mwata School for the Deaf that we don’t have room to share them all here. If you would like to partner with the Woodburn Community SDA Church and be part of the miracle, you can do so by donating here

The Woodburn Community Seventh-day Adventist Church has been given a unique opportunity to support Adventist World Radio (AWR) through the distribution of GodPods in Kenya. In October of 2023 three church members traveled to Kenya with 150 GodPods at the request of volunteer evangelists that recently opened up work in a previously unentered region.

After that time an urgent request came to the church for many more. The Baraton University ministerial students were wanting Godpods for
evangelism. In addition to that, through Bible study seminars, there were 104 pastors of non-SDA churches that were bringing their entire congregations to join the SDA church. They asked for GodPods to help nurture those new members.

In April of 2024, Woodburn members Candy Ringering and Mae Jordan traveled to Kenya to deliver as many Godpods as possible. The church initially ordered 200 more in English and Swahili.

The Woodburn Community Seventh-day Adventist Church invites you to join with us in sending GodPods to Africa. These lightweight devices
contain audio recordings of the entire Bible, several Ellen White books,evangelistic messages, and more! They also include a small solar panel
on the back so that they can be recharged even in places with limited access to electricity.
You may address your tax-deductible gift to the Woodburn Community
SDA Church-GodPods for Africa. 1253 5th Street/PO Box 276
Woodburn, OR 97071 or donate online at
https://adventistgiving.org/donate/ANIFSG
Thanking you in advance for your commitment to mission.

A group from Woodburn made the trip to Kisii, Kenya this January, 2026 to explore the possibility of a mission trip this year. More information about the mission will be coming soon.