Pastor Don Rhody has worked in ministry throughout his life, spending many years overseas in various countries. Following a long ministry career, he and his wife, Vivian, returned to Wisconsin and were ready to retire on their farm and lead a quiet life. However, he agreed to become pastor of a small church in Tripoli, Wisconsin - the Log Church. Don began a blog and would post his weekly sermons online, and after a time was contacted by a man named Joel from Kisii, Kenya. Joel, along with a few others, had recently begun his own small church in his local community. Joel asked Don if he could use his blog posts as spiritual guidance and teaching for his own church, to which Don readily agreed. Subsequently, Joel also began calling his own church the Log Church (of Kenya).

Meanwhile, Joel had begun to take in some local orphans into his own home, allowing them to sleep on the floor in a makeshift space he put together for them. These children were orphaned for various reasons, with many losing their parents to disease and post-election violence.

After several months of correspondence, the only latrine used by the household collapsed, leading Joel to ask Don if he could send any money to help with the repair. Initially, Don was quite hesitant to send any money, especially given his own personal experience throughout his career in which he witnessed cases of fraud and deceit. Eventually, Don decided he needed to go to Kenya himself and see if everything Joel said was actually true and legitimate.

He visited Kisii in November of 2017 and found everything to be just as Joel had described. Following his visit, Don and his church in Wisconsin continued their support of Joel’s ministry to Kisii’s orphans, and through 2018 and 2019, construction of a dormitory building was completed and the Log Church Orphanage became an official entity, registering with the Kenyan Governement in 2019.

We met Don in 2018 through a family acquaintance, and we became invested and involved in the ministry to the Log Church Orphanage in Kenya. Our passion for the mission grew, and in the summer of 2022, our family decided to form a US non-profit organization to help ministries such as this - areas of great need with local/native leadership and a personal connection to our family.

We later were connected with Matt Baker, a young missionary with Overland Missions and a passion similar to our own. His work with local leaders and churches in various remote and unreached parts of Africa is a great fit for our family’s mission and we were excited to begin supporting him in 2023.

We continue to work with our partners and look for new connections that we can support and pursue God’s calling for our family.