Our Story

When Kendall was 17, she took her first trip to East Africa and felt God say that she'd one day serve there with her future family. She came home and told Elisha, whom she'd been dating for a year, "If you're in this with me for the long haul, you're moving!" Over the next several years, God worked in Elisha's heart and planted a desire for missions as well. Right before our wedding, Kendall spent a month in Kenya serving with an organization called Love Africa. She felt God say "Here it is! This is where you'll be!" Soon after, we got married, graduated college (Elisha with a degree in accounting and Kendall with a degree in child development), and had our daughter, Madeline! 

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Since Maddie was born, we've been praying for an opportunity to join the international mission field to arise. At the beginning of 2024, we felt a nudge to reach out to a ministry contact that Kendall met in Kenya.  A week later, Kendall misread a restaurant name as "Naomi" and the name stuck out for some reason. She thought, "Are we meant to name our next child this?" That afternoon, Kendall's contact in Kenya responded that an organization called Naomi's Village was needing help. We were quickly put in touch with the founders of Naomi's Village, Bob and Julie, who miraculously had asked their home church in Texas to pray for an American accountant to come serve with their ministry in Kenya right around the time that we felt that it was time to start looking for opportunities! 

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On our first Zoom call, they detailed how Elisha might work with the Kenyan accounting staff to facilitate communications with the US staff and ensure accuracy and fluidity between the two teams. Elisha and I started laughing out loud on the call, because strangely he has experience doing those exact things with a team of East African bookkeepers! A few years ago, a previous boss outsourced some bookkeeping work to a team of Ugandans and tasked Elisha with training them and overseeing their work. Elisha spent a year having daily Zoom calls with this team and learned how to be a bridge between the Ugandan team and the bookkeeping team in the US. What seemed like a really random experience for a 22 year old working in Memphis, TN has now shown itself to be God's hand in our lives! 

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Kendall has enjoyed being at home with Madeline for the past 2 years! For the first year in Kenya, Kendall plans to be at home full time with Madeline, working on language acquisition, cultural immersion, and building relationships within the Maai Mahiu community. She plans on bringing Maddie to visit with the ministry and help where needed regularly.

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We are so grateful for the opportunity to serve with Naomi's Village and would love to have you as a partner in prayer, friendship, and financial support! Thank you for taking the time to read our story, and may the God who has worked every piece of our story to lead us to where He's called us to be do the same in your life in abundance and joy! 

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We love you and God does too! 

The McFarlins