By Sue Sprenkle

NAIROBI, Kenya - What started as a way to save money has turned out to be a full-fledged ministry, reaching missionaries from various organizations as well as Kenyans.

 When International Mission Board missionary Dr. Debbie Stephens and her family first arrived in Kenya, most missionary families ordered their own homeschool curriculum. Every year, the family ordered new material and threw the old in a trunk back in the storage room. Stephens immediately saw a way to help and use her background in education.

 The former Birmingham, Alabama resident convinced leaders that if families shared curriculum - they could save "Lottie Moon" dollars as well as have better resources. Missionaries returned old curriculum books and even donated some of their own personal libraries. By keeping the resources in one location, Stephens said the curriculum could be recycled from one family to the next - just like curriculum books are done in public schools in the United States.

 "Who knew it would turn out this big," Stephens said as she glanced around an entire building dedicated to homeschooling. The Homeschool Resource Center, made out of corrugated tin, doesn't look like much on the outside - but once you step through the door, you are transformed back to a library in the States.

 "We have more than 14,000 items in our resource center," Stephens said. "The missionary families were thrilled about all of this. Previously, their budgets only allowed for the basic curriculum. Now that we combined resources, we can get the 'extras' like microscopes for science projects."

 Stephens uses experiences from homeschooling her own children to help new missionaries just starting out. Stephens said that her job as a Missionary Kid Consultant provides encouragement as well as tips for teaching and meeting the requirements of the different curriculums. She also consults and finds resources for those missionary kids who need extra help with learning disabilities. Sometimes, Stephens even helps families in the process of sending their children to boarding school.

 The Homeschool Resource Center started out as a ministry for IMB missionaries, but it didn’t take long for Stephens to realize how far reaching this ministry was going to be. There are very few libraries in Kenya and as word spread about the resource center, missionaries from other organizations came knocking. To Stephens' surprise, more than ex-patriots were interested in the resources.

 "We have about 35-40 Kenyan families that use the resource center," she said. "Homeschooling is a new thing here for middle class families. I've met a lot of people through this. I feel like it is really a rather large ministry. I minister in ways that I didn't set out to. This is meeting a big need in our area - not only for missionaries, but for others as well."

 Kitty Odeng brings her children to the resource center to play with the educational toys and to check out books. While her three children are busy, the Kenyan mother sits chatting with Stephens about different teaching techniques and how to get her oldest daughter, Bambi, interested in reading.

 This is Odeng's first year homeschooling.  She said with the Kenyan government's decision to make primary school education free to everyone, classes became overcrowded. Like most middle-class parents, Odeng and her husband did not have enough money to send their children to private school. The Kenyan mother said she heard about homeschooling from one of her friends and decided to try it.

 "I saw that my friend got to spend more time with her kids and to make sure they were learning," Odeng said. "Then, she told me about this place and the wonderful library and how Debbie helps. This place is like something I read about in books as a child. I'm so blessed that my children have a library they can go to."

 Stephens said the growing trend in homeschooling among Kenyans is one way to disciple couples in being Godly parents, as well as young missionaries. All of the curriculum at the resource center is Bible based.

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