In 1994, after a trip to Kenya with InterVarsity’s summer Global Projects, Pastor Samwel Kaaleng (a Turkana Kenyan) and Emily Huff began a partnership out of a desire to help Kenyan children in need, particularly those in the Turkana region of northwestern Kenya. Children of the Kingdom was established that year as an organization through which caring people could sponsor these children and begin to build relationships with them. In turn, those children would be provided benefits, including food and clothing, education, shelter, health care, and Christian training.
In 2003, Children of the Kingdom merged with Share International, Inc., founded by Sammy & Mary Murimi (Kenyan nationals), to further the children’s ministry under their vision to “share the gospel and our very lives” (1 Thessalonians 2:8), and to provide more educational benefits to the children in Turkana.
The ministry grew to meet the needs of orphans by helping to launch New Hope Children, an outreach to street children in Lodwar in 2009. Children of the Kingdom also expanded to India in 2010 alongside the Messiah Gospel Ministry in Rajahmundry in southeast India with the help of Ratnakar Thota and his family. Children of the Kingdom began partnering with the Caleb Hope Foundation in 2014 under their vision to empower the poor and the oppressed in India and to create a culture of education, justice, mercy, and hope.
Since our humble beginnings, over 500 children have been served through this outreach, with 300 who are currently in our programs in Kenya and in India. Over the years, the graduates of this program in Kenya founded the Children of the Kingdom Alumni Association, and over 10 of them have helped to sponsor other Turkana children to assist them in their education and to enable them to have a bright future as well.
In 2018, Children of the Kingdom returned to its original status as an independent nonprofit - 501(c)(3) - organization in an effort to focus our work on better serving children and their families in Kenya and India while continuing to flourish in partnership relationships with Share International and with the Caleb Hope Foundation.