March Mission Moment

“Give a person a sweater and you clothe them once. Teach a person to knit and you clothe them for a lifetime.” This could be the motto of a knitting school supported in part by gifts from ELCA members like you that is doing God’s work in Kenya.

The Nairobi International Lutheran Congregation sponsors the knitting school, which has approximately 25 young, female students. In a faith-based environment, the women learn to knit warm clothes as both a service to their communities and as a way to support themselves and their families.

The Rev. Michael Fonner is the pastor of the Nairobi International Lutheran Congregation. Michael and his wife, Leslie Weed-Fonner, are ELCA missionaries in Kenya. “As a program of the congregation, the knitting school is both an outreach to the local community and an income generating activity,” they say. It provides training to equip women to support themselves and their families, and also ensures warm clothes are provided where there is little heat during the cold season. These goals “are important to the Nairobi International Lutheran Congregation and the Kenya Evangelical Lutheran Church as we work toward self-reliance and financial independence,” they added.

“Congregations supporting the ELCA’a global mission work in Kenya are participants in the life-giving ministry of the Nairobi International Lutheran Congregation knitting school,” the Fonners said. “We are grateful for our church’s commitment to making a difference through global mission. This is ‘God’s work. Our hands.”

Your gifts to ELCA Global Church Sponsorship directly fund missionaries like the Rev. Michael Fonner and Leslie Weed-Fonner as they work hand in hand with our neighbors around the world. Thank you!

Learn more at https://community.elca.org/Kenya

We cannot be quiet about what we have seen and heard. Acts 4:20

Send me your congregation’s stories! We’d love to share them with our synod.

Christine Kuehl
TLGCS ELCA Mission Interpreter Coordinator
cedonahue@gmail.com