An off-the-map village with a stunning view overlooking Lake Victoria in Western Kenya held the key to a destiny I couldn’t have imagined back in 2005. Something began inside of me that continues to grow and multiply at the core of who I am.

Let’s go back to early 2005. A couple in our church I barely knew at the time, Mandy and Paul Swilley, asked if I’d join them on a trip to Kenya. Their work had focused for years on helping rural pastors and churches meet the needs of orphaned children in their communities. I agreed to go and took my 16-year old son, Michael, with us. Among the nine of us was a couple whose wedding took place the day before we left for Africa. This mission trip was their honeymoon. Who does that? Billie and Mark! You don’t want to know what the bridal suite at the New East View Hotel in Kisumu, Kenya was like. A Motel 6 would have been a major upgrade.

Over the span of about eight days we engaged with pastors, churches and orphans in several rural communities as well sharing the Gospel in local elementary and high schools where it’s still legal, even encouraged. We conducted Vacation Bible School and outdoor activities with hundreds and hundreds of kids. Sadly, orphaned children were everywhere – so many that we couldn’t imagine how these rural pastors and their impoverished congregations could possibly care for them. We took with us what we could, used it all to the best of our ability, and left what we could to meet their needs.

Over the years, I’ve taken up to 21 volunteers on each trip who focused on building/improving orphanages, working with the kids, starting up sewing ministries for widows, ministering with the homeless, and other worthy projects, especially sharing the Gospel of redemption. Many have come to know Christ.

What I didn’t know then was that experience would plant the seed in me that, over the next 14 years, would lead to the birth of ACTS: African Continental Transformation Society. The Swilley’s told me in our first conversation, “We’ve never had a pastor go with us who could mentor the rural pastors who need encouragement and discipleship training themselves.” So, I went ill-prepared in the “what” but with a heart eager to be led by the Holy Spirit for the “whatever.”

Michael Rushing with Ragen Kids

Some of these photos depict the reality of my first encounter with rural pastors and church leaders who just showed up to spend time with the American pastor. At Ragen, the village with the view, about 20 pastors and I spent two days walking together in the Word, prayer, worship and seeking God’s guidance to be the most effective servants we could be where God had put us. It humbled me, yet magnified the purpose as to the “why” I was there.

That was 2005. In 2007, I returned to lead a discipleship conference for pastors in Webuye, Kenya with over 300 in attendance. That has been the “why” for me on the five trips since. as of 2019. That will continue to be the why going forward. Why? Changed lives, change lives!