Celebrating success in Kenya

George Matimbai, board president of relief organization WorldCOMP Kenya, recalls a day in 2015 when a certain woman came to one of WorldCOMP’s pop-up medical camps. The woman had been to many doctors and had tests run before, but still had absolutely no answers about what could be causing her symptoms, he explained.
After a few screenings at WorldCOMP’s medical camp, the doctors diagnosed her with cerebral cancer. She was immediately given free access to treatment and was able defeat her cancer.
“To her, that was a breakthrough. That sticks in my mind,” said Matimbai.
Matimbai is the WorldCOMP Kenya’s board president, and the “WorldCOMP Kenya Benefit Banquet,” held on Nov. 4 in Upper Gwinn, was his first time outside of Kenya.

At the banquet, he explained that WorldCOMP’s medical camps were his dream.
After the death of his parents by disease, he was inspired to provide healthcare to those who desperately needed it in Kenya. Others, he learned, shared that dream.
“One doctor in particular I was talking to was saying, ‘it is so fulfilling to know that I can come see these patients and know that, when I diagnose them, they are going to go get for free the medication they need to be healed,’” said the Rev. Jeremiah Siers, a local pastor and WorldCOMP board member.
WorldCOMP Kenya CEO Osborne Obayo also spoke with gratitude about the way God is working in Kenya, stating, “Our focus has been on God, our trust has been in him, and he has never failed us for a minute”
Obayo relayed his thanks to the Lord, and those seated before him, for the success of WorldCOMP’s projects in Kenya. The guests were primarily board members and friends of the organization.
WoldCOMP has snowballed in the best way possible, explained Corbett Stubbert, a board member who has been to Kenya twice with WorldCOMP.
“We started with just a few kids, in the slums in Kibera and Nairobi, and now we’re feeding over 700 kids a couple meals a day,” he said.
The organization has been successful since it got off the ground 12 years ago; it has worked to provide free education to ‘slum kids’ in Kenya, start feeding programs for hundreds of kids, provide support to widows, build orphanages and more.
“WorldCOMP is about helping somebody make it. It is about saving a life and not just saving a life. It is about the call of God,” Matimbai added.
The hundreds of children that WorldCOMP works with are receiving meals and homes due to the generosity of the organization’s workers, sponsors and donors.
Richard McNair, another WorldCOMP board member, updated the audience on the progress of their newest project: a new Home of Grace Children’s Home. It has taken almost two years of daily work thus far to build the large home, because the government will not allow the team to use any power tools in the interest of providing jobs to more Kenyans.
McNair and his wife, Valerie, have been to Kenya several times, and are referred to as “Papa Richard” and “Mama Valerie” by many of the people there.
“My wife and I will tell you that we have been tricked by the Lord on many occasions,” McNair continued with a laugh.
There have been many projects, such as the 60,000 square foot Home of Grace Children’s Home, that have seemed far too big only to somehow come to fruition by what can only be explained as the provision of the Lord, he explained.
Former schoolteacher and current nonpartisan member of the King County Council Kathy Lambert has taken many trips with WorldCOMP, and she told powerful stories of her experiences with the Kenyans she met who live “so close to God.” She emphasized her gratitude for every donation, gift, sponsor and volunteer, and stressed how much they mattered to the people WorldCOMP works to serve.
“When you meet these people, you become part of their family. You become part of their heart, and you can go home, but you never leave,” she said.