Letters from the President - International Samaritan

A Garbage Dump in Galilee?

If there were a garbage dump in Galilee 2,000 years ago, I’m confident that Jesus would have gone to it. If you want to know what that would look like in today’s world, please watch the video below. It captures Esther Muhia, the leader of our freshly-established mission in Kenya, looking for children with the most need or the most promise to include in our first round of 50 scholarships this fall.

Esther meeting potential scholarship students in Kenya.

As you watch it, please keep in mind how much Esther resembles the people who did the same:

Angelica Cancinos, in Guatemala City, Guatemala in 2007.
Selam Terefe, in Ethiopia in 2014.
Erika Cuevas, in San Pedro Sula, Honduras in 2016.
Tavian Jones, in Kingston, Jamaica in 2019.
Ronia Romero, in Tegucigalpa, Honduras in 2019.
David Kafambe, in Kampala, Uganda in 2023.

All of these extraordinary people are still leading our mission, and all of them started the same way. In each community, they walk the streets to meet with the parents, grandparents, school principals, health officials and others who have established themselves as leaders in the community. The success of your investments depends on these selfless people too.

Esther speaking with a woman at the Dandora Dumping Site in Kenya.

Also, as you watch it, please know that the children you see in it today are likely to become the stars you read about years from now. An encounter just like the ones you will see also happened to:

Akalnesh in Ethiopia who became an industrial engineer.
Elias in San Pedro Sula who became a mechanic.
Elmer in Nicaragua who became a nurse.
Micashane in Jamaica who became a doctor.
Yoselyn in Guatemala who became an accountant.

You can read about all of our graduates from the last year on our pretty spectacular new website by clicking here.

Please take one minute to watch this video. You don’t even have to watch all seven minutes, but please watch at least one, and please pray for the children in them as you do, that they will come to discover and achieve the calling that God has on their lives far outside of the hopelessness that surrounds them now.

Watch the video here here to learn more about Esther and our mission in Kenya.

Mike Tenbusch, IntSam President

Mike joined IntSam in 2018 after two decades of leading social change in his hometown of Detroit, Michigan. He’s a University of Michigan Law grad and author of The Jonathan Effect: Helping Kids and Schools Win the Battle Against Poverty. He and his wife, Maritza, have three children who keep them young.