History

Sam's Place began first as an outreach of a small church on a corner in Abilene, Texas.  The project grew rapidly to an effort to rescue and save deaf orphans in East Africa, supported by a variety of people across the United States.  The coalition included church people, foundations, businesses, and a host of people not connected to any church or organization--people who just wanted to save deaf orphans and give them a life that would make a different in the world.  This story is an unlikely one, one that began in a small place in an Abilene, Texas neighborhood to one that reached across America to the far western bush country of Kenya.  From the very beginning of the Sam's Place Project, the effort to buy the land, build the buildings, find the deaf orphans, and build a curriculum and living plan for the long term future was a daunting task.  How does a small group of people accomplish such a overwhelming goal over the long term?  This is the story of Sam's Place.

 

A Coalition for Sam's Place

Vernon Williams, who had designed and built museum projects during his career--projects that involved capital campaigns and local and national fundraising-- advised Willis congregation that it was possible to accomplish the Sam's Place Dream, but it would take a coalition.   The Sam's Place Dream was too large a project for Willis.  This coalition would be made up of partners in the United States and Kenya who would join Willis along the way to develop the financial and human resources needed to build and operate Sam's Place 9,000 miles from Abilene, Texas.  This coalition was have to be innovative and develop an extraordinary network of people and institutions who would make Sam's Place and its deaf orphans a primary focus for their work in support of the church of Christ and its mission to reach to people in distress who live in darkness in the world.  To make Sam's Place possible, this coalition would be required to include people, families, businesses, churches, foundations, and and institutions.

The Coalition

It was a daunting task, complicated and difficult journey to accomplish.  Many times it seems that the coalition was impossible and beyond our abilities to build a network that would satisfy all of these criteria necessary to accomplish our task.  Jerry Drennan often said along the way, when difficulties and lack of funds seemed to crop up and threaten the work , that if God wanted Sam's Place to grow and develop, He would deal with the problems and setbacks.  Jerry was correct.  We have seen God at work all along the way, in spite of the weaknesses of our human leadership or the seemingly endless problems and setbacks that occur everyday.

One example of how God is at work, even when we think we have reached a brick wall and can not see how to proceed to the next step.  Early in the project, Jerry Drennan and Vernon Williams went to Park Plaza in Tulsa, Oklahoma to speak about Sam's Place during the Sunday night worship service. Willis Missions needed to build the main dormitory building and the first classrooms and had very little funding to do that.   Vernon showed a short film clip about the Sam's Place Dream and told the congregation what was needed and how the deaf orphans in Kenya suffered from abuse and hopelessness.  Jerry finished up with a discussion of the ways the families at Park Plaza could be a part of the coalition. 

After the Willis presentations and the invitation song, Jerry and Vernon gathered down front to answer questions and hopefully receive offers to support.  A man who had responded to the invitation was there with some of the leaders of Park Plaza.  This man handed Vernon a dollar bill for Sam's Place.  A few minutes later, an elder standing there, asked Jerry and Vernon if they knew what that dollar was?  It was the widow's mite, he said.  This man, the elder explained, lived under a bridge and was homeless.  He had just given the dollar to Sam's Place, all the money that he had in the world.  It was the only donation that Jerry and Vernon received on that trip.

 

 

On the plane flying back to Abilene, Jerry pulled out the dollar and said, "I don't know what we can do with this dollar.  Maybe we can buy a coke with it."  Vernon replied, "Jerry, we can't buy a coke with that dollar.  A coke costs more than a dollar!"  Little did Jerry and Vernon know, God was still working on Park Plaza and the people who had listened and watched the story of Sam's Place.

Later that evening back in Abilene, Vernon received an email from someone at Park Plaza.  He said that he and his wife wanted to be a part of Sam's Place.  They pledged a challenge gift of $50,000, if Willis Missions could match it.  Mission Emphasis Week at Willis was scheduled about three weeks later.  When the Willis congregation learned of the challenge gift, they contributed enough in the Missions Sunday special offering to match the gift.  A week later a check arrived from Tulsa for $50,000.   With the special offering at Willis and the Tulsa gift, Sam's Place had $100,000 plus the one dollar from the homeless man--$100,001.   Construction on the dormitory was about to begin and soon the deaf orphans would follow!

 

 

 

Over the years since that first talk to the Willis congregation, the coalition has formed.  Families, churches, foundations, and individual donors have come together from across America.  In Kenya a special group of Kenyan caregivers, teachers, and staff have found their way to Sam's Place--all led by Simeon Ongiri, our director.   God has organized the coalition and today, it is a living and breathing group of people who have followed God's directions and built Sam's Place. 

 

The Dream and the Plan

When Sam McReynolds left us a charge to use his bequest to help children in the world, we wondered where we would find the children who were the most in need, the ones where were the most desperate, the ones who had no hope.  We found our answer in the far western bush country of Kenya.  The children that we were looking for were the deaf children who had been orphaned by the AIDS virus.  Our research confirmed these these children were discarded by Kenya society, viewed as infected by evil spirit and who had no value as human being.  It was an attitude that shocked us.  Surely these little ones were the most in need, the ones Jesus was pointing to in a most profound way.

We knew immediately that to solve the problem of the deaf orphan in Kenya, we had to do more than just save them from abuse and starving.  We had to show them the light of Jesus and the life that He wanted for them.  In Kenya, it was not enough to house deaf orphans in a facility where they could grow up safe and healthy.   We had to create a system of education that would allow them to maximize the talents that God had given them and allow them to grow up to make a place in their world.  We knew that technology-based education was the key.  They could learn about Jesus and the Cross, but they could learn to communicate with both the hearing and the deaf world.  They would demonstrate the extraordinary talents that they have and at the same time, dispel the myths about deafness in their superstitious world of East Africa. 

We knew immediately that God was pointing the way to the bush country of western Kenya, and it was here that we began our work and our mission over a decade ago. 

 

 2010 and the Road Leads to Children

It wasn't before the first children arrived at Sam's Place.  We sent Simeon Ongiri, our director, out into the villages in search of deaf orphans.  The first seven children arrive and they are soon followed by twenty-two more.  Watch this video presentation and see the first children who came in November 2010.  It was just the beginning.  Soon the forty beds in the dormitory would be full up, and life at Sam's Place became a living, breathing place.

 

 

New Computer Labs

You have read that the key to our children's future is the technology-based educational curriculum that has been established at Sam's Place.  Click below and see how the technology platform began to make a difference in the classrooms at Sam's Place.

 

A Miracle Comes to Sam's Place

Eight years ago Charles Kimani was a street boy, living in the slums of Eastleigh in Nairobi.  Addicted to glue and living in a war zone, Charles did not have much hope—until Willis missionary Larry Conway found him one day.  Charles’ best friend, Titus, was not so lucky.  He was killed before he could be rescued.  Charles prospered at Made in the Streets in Eastleigh, learned about Jesus and found his way to the Kumulu Farm where Charles grew up as a strong Christian man, educated for serving the Lord in Kenya.

Today Charles is a respected Christian vocational teacher at Sam’s Place.  He is bringing a Christ-centered program to our deaf children in the carpentry classroom and throughout the Sam’s Place campus.   Click on the film below and see the extraordinary transformation take Charles from a street boy in Nairobi to his future at Sam's Place.

 

 

Hannah's House

How can we provide transition for our older children who have never lived on their own.  They have never had to cook for themselves, never shopped or used money.   Hannah Hunt designed and implemented a transition problem to do just that--teach our children how to live in the world as adults.  We built a new building of apartments on campus that old children who achieved their educational goals were allowed to move into Hannah's House.  There they live independent lives under the supervision of staff and learn the basics of living for themselves. Watch and listen to Hannah's story and see our students taking the next step in their Sam's Place journey.

 

 

In Ten Years Time

Looking back over a decade to where things stand at Sam's Place today, this film produced for our Celebration Dinner in April 2019 gives us a glimpse of our children and where they are today.