Lansing's Peter Goehring leads trip to Kenya to build Safe T Homes®

Ten Safe T Homes® made by Sukup Manufacturing Co. will be built in Kenya in January to help missionaries spread the word of God among nomadic herdsmen in the East African country.
The project is led by the Eagle Grove, Iowa-based Global Compassion Network in cooperation with African Inland Mission (AIM). Most of the 10 homes will be built between Wamba and Maralal in western Kenya, said Peter Goehring, director of African initiatives for GCN.
The homes will initially be used by missionaries in a two-year outreach program with AIM. The goal is to plant a church in the region, Goehring said.
Of the 42 tribes in Kenya, the Samburu is among the least connected because of the people’s nomadic lifestyle, said Goehring. “The missionaries plan to live among them as they herd their sheep and goats and cattle and camels.”
Besides introducing Christianity, the mission will be focused on helping the Samburu in practical ways such as understanding the benefits of formal education, he said.
Volunteers from three North Iowa churches will travel to Kenya in early January to build the Safe T Homes®. Among them are Sukup employee Mick Pals and his wife, Terri, who are members of Rolling Acres Christian Reformed Church in Mason City. The other churches sending volunteers are First Presbyterian and Praise Community.
“The closer we get, the more the excitement builds,” said Mick Pals. He’s looking forward to discovering what life is like for the Samburu, and to spending time and sharing faith with them.
Sukup Manufacturing has helped defray the cost of the homes through its 50 Homes for Humanity project, which is part of the company’s celebration of its 50-year anniversary in 2013.
“We think it’s our duty as Christians to share. Everyone needs a home,” said company founder Eugene Sukup.
Having a place to host visitors will be helpful to AIM missionaries, Goehring said. Ideally they will be more comfortable and want to stay longer.
Two or three of the Safe T Homes® will probably be erected farther to the north to be used by other missionaries, said Goehring, who was asked by GCN co-founder Terry Baxter to serve as GCN’s director of African initiatives. Goehring and his wife previously spent a year in the Ivory Coast and a half year in Cameroon.
Goehring visited Kenya recently to help work out logistics for erection of the Safe T Homes® and other compassionate ministry.
Goehring said the Safe T Homes® will be erected in pairs or trios, each group roughly five kilometers from a hub where missionary team leaders live. Each mission unit – a couple or group of two or three singles – will have two or three homes; one or two for themselves and one for hosting visitors. The general location is about nine hours north of Kenya’s capital, Nairobi.
The economical and easy-to-build Safe T Homes® are an ideal housing system for the region, Baxter said, noting that traditional mud huts deteriorate in heavy rains; wooden structures suffer termite damage; and concrete is costly. The ability to get the Safe T Homes® to regions difficult to access with other building materials is also a key benefit.
A second initiative developing for Kenya will involve building Safe T Homes® at a Kisumu orphanage/boarding school.
If the Safe T Homes® prove as effective as expected, others may be built for huge refugee camps and near hospitals and schools, Baxter said.
“As this gains some momentum it could really be exciting,” he said.
Global Compassion Network currently works in Haiti, Peru, India, Kenya as well as responds to disasters in the United States like the recent tornadoes in Washington, IL. To learn more, visit GCN’s website at www.globalcn.us.