Changed Lives in Action

Happy New Year – 2026

This week I met with William and Polycap in the Ngong quickmart today. William is gathering a group he will lead in Ngong town and tomorrow we will have our first Discover Recovery bible study with his friends who want to get sober.

It went very well – we launched Ngong united and everyone plans to start their own new group! Bella, pictured with me above, plans to start a ladies group!

Let the little children come to Me

This week we are adding a morning with the kids in Lanana for the Disciple Making Movement (go to BEYOND.org) and disciple-making skills training. It will not be about Addiction Assistance but will focus on Discover Bible Study. In the afternoon, we will keep our regularly scheduled activities and attempts to go and form new Discover Recovery Support Groups.

Our Outreach Continues

(Top to Bottom) At a car wash in Rongi; talking with Pastor Frank about beginning a group near his church; with Gen Z youth leaders at Kayole; Shari at an ENZI tech talk with the Boda Drivers; with girls at the Amini home, a safe house started by a Doctor from Kijabi hospital.

Below the Gen Z’s get Discover Recovery training – they are all high energy!

A Busy Month

This month, we hosted our first in-person ENZI boot camp in partnership with ENZI and Economics of Mutuality Alliance. ENZI is an innovative Kenyan startup creating safer, cleaner, and more dignified livelihoods for motorcycle drivers across Kenya. Special thanks to ENZI’s Bill Schafer and the whole team for hosting and facilitating such a powerful learning experience.

Sharing Good News

Jesus said in John 4, “Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. “ It is so exciting for me to see God at work using this ministry to help people find hope and peace through faith in Christ. Here, Isaac is sharing the good news. Praise God, all who came that day gained forgiveness and eternal life by believing in the atoning work of Christ on the cross.

People Reaching People

Training the staff at a safe house called Amani Home. And in Kayole with recovering addicts and a self help group sharing Discover Recovery training. At the end, we take the points people learned from the training and turn it into a song.

Showing the forgiveness video at the Mutuini chiefs gate.

Stepping Out

Isaac, Polycap, and Steve are taking the initiative to share the gospel! I don’t have to go. The survivors go and teach others. It is so rewarding knowing I could leave them and Discover Recovery would carry on.

A New Group!

Yesterday we started a new group in a place in Rongi where youth hang out to smoke and hide from the police. Many here were very high while participating. It was a lot of fun! Isaac and Steve lead this whole thing alone and Alex, the lead dancer, gave his life to Christ!

Polycap is a graduate of W4AL and Wired for Business. He loves to read and write and compose lyrics to music. He has to make sure to be at home each night to protect his mother from an abusive alcoholic father.

Meet Polycap

He is six months sober and is being trained by Isaac who is 10 months sober. Today, Steve, Polycap, and Isaac and I are going to Kayole to start new groups with addicts, and to help the group we trained here earlier (from the police station) get their bible studies going.

It was an honor and a huge treat to have a friend from my workplace back in the U.S. come visit us and spend time at one of our newly formed women’s groups.  Carla not only encouraged the ladies by sharing her journey with single motherhood, but also gave a ZUMBA class! 

These are pictures from my day yesterday. We started a new Discover Bible Study with some Boda Boda (motorcycle taxi drivers)  guys and five made a decision to turn their lives over to Christ and we gave them bibles. I gave a ride to three of the former, commercial sex workers and asked them about how their classes were going. NONE of them had ever touched a computer before and now all of them are getting computer skills training classes! They answered well when I asked why I should hire them and what salary they were looking for.

People love football in Kenya. “Coaches” was a star football player until he got into drugs and alcohol. I met Coaches and taught him Disciple Making Movement & AA through Discover Recovery. He then took what he had learned to the leaders in the drug dens. Now, some of them are now using the training at a Youth for Football camp. Reubin was born with a birth defect and has issues with smoking, but he is learning be a sober and become a youth footballer coach – I am proud of how far he has come and give Coaches a lot of credit for sticking by his side.

Today in Rongi, we had three generations of disciple makers – David taught Isaac, Isaac taught Polycap, and Polycap taught David (another David) and we had Samson who just came to our office yesterday and became a new believer and had been drinking and smoking for 21 years.

I am excited !!! I was recently invited to have an online meeting with 40 young women. Please pray for a great impact. Our meeting agenda is:

1. Talk to us about addiction any kind, I know we can’t miss. All are struggling with an addiction of some sort.
2. I know most are not employed and are on the verge of giving up. Pastor Lucy’s ministry can be of great help to them.

“Pastor Lucy has a ministry dedicated to helping women gain employment and self-sufficiency. Here you see Lucy sharing with the women. They are working to create a self help group and want to be self supporting. The women voted for the officers of their group. Each pays about $4/ month to participate and to collectively save.”

Here is a letter from one of our survivors that came through Discover Recovery and is now helping others to gain their freedom.

My heart was so filled after seeing these words from Gad written about his “disciple” Isaac.

“I just wanted to share something that really encouraged me today. I had lunch with Isaac, a young man I’ve been walking with through his recovery journey — and he’s about to hit 9 months of sobriety. At some point during our talk, he looked at me and said, ‘Thank you for not giving up on me.’ That really stayed with me.

I’ve walked with many — maybe 10 or 12 — and not everyone stays the course. Some drift, some fall back. But when even one makes it this far, it’s a real milestone. It reminds me that no one should be left behind.

This journey takes time, courage, grace, and even financial sacrifice sometimes. But it’s always worth it — not just for those we support, but for us too. Helping Isaac has helped me. I’m still learning, healing, growing… just like the people I walk with.

So I just want to say — let’s never give up on anyone. Even if one person recovers, heaven rejoices. And so should we. 🕊🔥 Keep the faith. Keep showing up. Freedom is possible.” … Gad

Here, two Discover Recovery survivors (e.g., members who are free from addiction) meet with a local police supervisor. Discovery Recovery “graduates” are encouraged and trained to meet with community leaders (chiefs, police officers, and prison staff) to launch new Discover Recovery support groups.

Meet Steve. He helps Shari with Discover Recovery outreach. Here, Steve sings ‘the fruits of the spirit’, a song he learned from his childhood and now uses to show addicts the powerful tools we can trust God to give us when we need power from the Holy Spirit to make choices that lead to life and peace. Steve was raised by his grandmother and had a serious problem with ENTITLEMENT. He came to Work for a Living training and was transformed when he realized he needed a biblical world view. Since then, he has been an active volunteer with Discover Recovery.

Discover Recovery seeks partnerships with community, church, and civic leaders to effectively reach those in greatest need. We are excited that so many others share in our vision to offer powerful, life changing solutions to people facing life without hope. Pray that God will open doors and multiply the work of Discover Recovery across East Africa. Thank you!

UPDATE: Answer to Prayer! We recently returned to visit the two prison officers who were addicts but had completed the Discover Recovery program. We found the first officer fully sober and so full of enthusiasm for Discover Recovery that he brought us into the prison to meet with him, some of the prisoners and a few of the guards. The next officer, at another prison, was also fully sober and equally enthusiastic. They both had their personal stories of wanting to take their drug of choice but were encouraged by our visit . One officer said that when he and other workmates went out for a meal together they were shocked that he took a soda instead of alcohol. The other officer talked about choosing personal care (tending to clothes and bedding washing) over his normal ritual of getting high. We are so excited to see these transformations and God’s amazing grace.

Our Discover Recovery team got new boots for our friend today. He was encouraged by this act of love. Just the day before he was washing his hair in the drainage ditch.

Former drug addicts become business owners, gambling and porn are replaced with art and dance, and recovery groups are multiplying throughout Nairobi. Through simple Discovery Bible Studies and proven job skills training, we’re seeing high levels of  sobriety  and employment.

We visited two police stations and got to continue are discover recovery support group meetings with the guards, chiefs and prisoners.

This is “Coaches” – he was a star footballer until he got into drugs and alcohol. The Discover Recovery program helped him overcome his addictions and turn to faith in Jesus Christ. He now uses football to evangelize and disciple. He goes directly into the drug dens and puts on youth camps to help kids turn to Jesus before they get into drugs. Discover Recovery has been in partnership with Coaches for several years. He is humble. He needs our prayers.

“This is how we discover to recover through discipleship. It’s fun reading the bible and hearing their views. I try to make it easy for them to understand” … Coaches

Coaches praying with a Kenyan youth