A Kenya pastor and a Texas deacon drove through Tharaka County northeast of Nairobi and realized there was only one Baptist church to serve the county of almost 400,000 people.
Twelve years later there are 47 Baptist churches in the county, and 25 of them have buildings in which to meet. The Texas deacon has led in building all 25 structures, and more are needed.
The Kenya Challenge, as the church-building effort is called, is this year’s Texas Royal Ambassadors mission project. Boys attending RA camps around the state this summer will learn about the effort and raise money for building more churches, concluding at the annual RA Campout and Missions Mania Nov. 8-10.
Sam Dunkin, a deacon from McDade Baptist Church who also preaches, began going to Kenya in 1995 as part of a Southern Baptist International Mission Board effort. He continued to go and build churches after IMB stepped away.
The Kenya Challenge is not an official nonprofit or formal organization. It’s an effort centered around Dunkin’s commitment to a group of Baptist churches led by Linus Ngaine, the Kenyan pastor who in 2013 identified the need in Tharaka County.
Dunkin, who gives his age as “just 82,” plans to build seven church structures in Kenya this year, and each will cost about $4,000. Money raised by Texas RAs and their churches will go toward those costs, which will continue into 2026.
Savion Lee, Texas RA coordinator, said he chose The Kenya Challenge as this year’s mission project because God “just kind of laid it on my heart. Sam has been a faithful servant there in Kenya over these past number of years” and shares about the progress with RA and Challengers groups throughout the year.
In the early days of Dunkin’s work in Kenya, three RA camp “state staffers’ went on mission projects to the East Africa country, Lee said. Now, those men are missionaries serving overseas.
Dunkin also has maintained consistent yearly involvement in Alto Frio Baptist Camp, which is about 200 miles from Dunkin’s residence and church in McDade, which is east of Austin. He also leads training in varied outdoor skills at state RA Wilderness Camp and Leadership Training Camp.
As Dunkin talks about the varied things he does in Texas and Kenya it becomes obvious that he likes to work with people. There are the camp staffers and attendees in Texas, and in Kenya there are Ngaine, other pastors and a team of workers who build the church structures.
“I now have a crew that can put up one (church) in two days,” Dunkin said. The tin buildings are all the same — 20 feet by 40 feet, roofed and walled with a double door, single door and five windows.
“It’s plum. It’s square. It’s beautiful,” Dunkin said.
Each building also has a dirt floor. Dunkin leaves the floor for church members to finish because the process of pouring and finishing the concrete creates a sense of ownership.
“I do not name the churches and don’t finish them,” he said. “I want them to take possession. … It will be their building.”
Lee said Dunkin’s church-building effort fits into the pledge all RA boys learn. One phrase of the pledge says they will “learn how to carry the message of Christ around the world,” and another says RAs will “work with others in sharing Christ.”
Those two lines of the pledge point RAs toward opportunities through their local churches and missionaries, “which help further the Gospel of Christ around the world,” Lee said. “Sam is working with others to share Christ in Kenya, and Texas RAs are working with Sam in that effort to carry the message of Christ around the world.”
Sam Dunkin (l-r), Peter Kaliki, a local pastor and David (pastor of Maasai Church) prepare to lead worship in Kenya.