Partnership Ref.:	KEN05a
Commenced:	25/04/2025
Funding Status:	Fully Funded until 31/03/2026
Partnership Type:	Evangelism / Church Planting
Funding Size:	$8,000 - $14,999
Annual Budget:	US$ 8,800
Connected To:	KEN05 , KEN13 , KEN13a , KEN13b

Partnership Overview

Bob Abdalla pastors a church on the outskirts of Kisumu, Lake Victoria, and invests much of his time helping the vulnerable in his community. The church is in a medium to low-income area with many needy and vulnerable people, especially widows and children.

In 2005 he was introduced by BHW to Harvest Partnership NZ who trained him and his leaders to plant multiple churches based in houses. Following this training he began a number of churches in houses such that he now leaves the main church in Kisumu for most of the month and travels to train other leaders and to share his experience about multiplying churches through home outreach and discipleship centres.   

History of Partnership

BHW's New Partnership Facilitator has known Bob and Lillian Abdalla since 2005 when Bob was part of the team at MCO-OCC (KEN01b) and a church planter and pastor with them in Kisumu. He first met Bob when BHW introduced MCO-OCC to Harvest Partnership (INT05) and we were involved in training their people. Since that time, he has caught up with Bob on numerous occasions and in 2009 BHW provided funds to enable them to re-establish their tailoring and materials business after it was destroyed in the post-election violence (KEN05).  

We remained in contact and during a visit to Kenya in 2016 Pastor Bob alerted us to the needs of vulnerable women and children in the Kisumi Village. In May 2017 a partnership was commenced to run training courses in tailoring and small business development for vulnerable women (KEN13).  

Due to our long-term relationship with Pastor Bob, when Harvest Partnership (who was previously providing personal financial support for him) closed down in March 2025 due to the death of its founder, BHW committed to providing ongoing personal financial support for Bob and his family. 

Beneficiaries

Pastor Bob Abdalla and his family are the direct beneficiaries here, but many people benefit indirectly as providing this financial support enables Bob to spend more time ministering to people and church planting. 

What We Like About The Partnership

We have known Bob for a long time now and have been impressed with his holistic understanding of ministry. 

Bob is very active in training and is keen to get out as much as he can to train others. He sees this as a very effective tool for growing healthy groups of believers. 

 

Key People

Bob and Lilian Abdalla 

Bob and Lilian have three children, one girl and two boys. Bob is a pastor and a church planter. In 2005 he was trained in church planting movement (CPM) although had planted a number of formal churches including the church in Kisumu prior to that. Following the training he began a number of churches in houses as a means of reaching out from the formal church. The progress has been such that he leaves the main church for most of the month and travels to train other leaders and to share his experience about multiplying churches through home outreach and discipleship centres. His work takes him to churches around Kenya and neighbouring countries.

Lilian lost her mother before her marriage and was exposed to the practical experience of loss of parental love. She saw the widows in the church and the community struggling to survive and developed a passion for holistic development, both spiritual and physical. She mostly works with women who are despised by society making them more desperate, especially at times when they lose their husbands. Lillian and Bob mobilize and train them with skills, and they are encouraged to establish small enterprises and income generating activities.

 

Vision And Annual Strategy

Bob's vision is to see hundreds of existing churches become involved in training and releasing their people to become actively involved in leading their families and friends into a relationship with God. 

The strategy is for Bob to spend as much time as he can visiting churches and training them to develop the concept of Bible reading groups in homes to which neighbours are invited. They are taught to use the Discovery Bible Study method of reading the Bible. The participants are given the questions which are asked every time they meet and this allows for the Bible to teach them. It is particularly good when there is no experienced or trained Christian in the group. 

Bob wants to develop this more in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda as he has been invited by several churches to come and train them. 

 

Annual Budget

The annual budget here is US$8,800 - $6,600/year personal support for Bob Abdalla and $2,200/year for ministry related costs (printing etc).