AFROCKA
Changes.

Happy February from the AFROCKA Team!

Hope you all are doing well!

We just wanted to let you know about a few changes that have taken place within the AFROCKA team; we know that this is a season of transition and growth within the team, and just wanted to keep you up to date on all of it J

Our Assistant Director, Kevin Thomas, and his wife Carrie, have officially moved to Kenya! We are SO excited for them and encourage you to keep them in your prayers as this is a very new experience for them, thus adjusting can be overwhelming at times. They’ll be continuing to work with Afrocka while on the ground in Kenya, figuring out more ways we can help there, sending us prayer requests, etc. and we’ll keep you up to date on all of that!:)

Also, we wanted to inform everyone that Alixx Nott and Roman Randall have resigned from their positions on the AFROCKA team…

Alixx, has been with Afrocka since the beginning, she has poured her heart into her work with the ministry; she is what made everything look good, she was the creative one. When you would come to Afrocka, the decorations, signs, layout, etc. of the WHOLE night were there because of her and her extremely giftedness in creativity. J We were so blessed to have had her on the team for this period of time, and are sad to see her leave, however, we know she is being led by God in this. She knows that her mission field is in her every day life, in the cosmetology school that she attends and in the theater classes she teaches, and we fully support her in this. We are so thankful for her and can’t express our gratitude enough in how much she has helped to propel this ministry to the heights that it has reached J

Roman Randall, has also recently needed to resign his position on the Afrocka team, he has been offered a position in Colorado as a social media marketing intern with the author David Cook and has decided to accept it. He will be moving there this summer, as this has become one of his biggest passions. We are so excited for him, but also sad to see him go. Roman was our social networking guru, he helped thru  blogging, tweeting, facebooking, and all other forms of networking, he brought a creative business mind to the team and we are so incredibly thankful for everything he has done to bless and grow this ministry.

We are excited to see what God has next for Afrocka and will keep you up to date with all of it, in the meantime, we encourage you to keep the people of Kenya in your thoughts and prayers. Thank you!

God Bless!

-The Afrocka Team

AFROCKA Live blog

AFROCKA Live Blog

Welcome to the AFROCKA Live Blog! We’ll be streaming live starting at 6:00pm, with a few updates here and there before then. We’ll be posting videos, photos, and updates all night long! Feel free to follow along all night, and join us on Twitter and Facebook. Use hashtag #AFROCKA in your tweets.

3:00pm - Jimmy Needham is sound checking! 

Read More

The most traditional formulation of evangelical doctrine, rightly understood, should lead its proponents to a life of doing justice in the world.
Timothy Keller (From his book, Generous Justice.)

Hear from out Director, Benji Block, about why he’s involved with AFROCKA! You can hear from the rest of our team as well about why they’re involved with AFROCKA in previous blog posts. 

Why I’m Involved with AFROCKA: part 6 (by Barbara Budach)

Barbara Budach
Finance and Fundraising Coordinator
AFROCKA


“What do you want to be when you grow up?”

Its funny how one question can shape your life in more ways than you could imagine. When I was in Kindergarten, my teacher asked me this, which is completely normal. I answered,

“ I want to be a missionary”.

Now, the point of that conversation is not that I’ve known what I’ve wanted to be for this long, but that God has been growing in me a passion for justice, compassion for others, and a desire to spread His love from a very young age.

Little did I know how he would continue to use this question to shape my life.

In March of 2010 I had the privilege of going to Kenya for 2 weeks. I sat down in a small, dark, one room school house on the edges of the Mathare Valley slum, and I began to talk to the children there. I asked them,

Read More

Why I’m Involved with AFROCKA: part 5 (by Kevin Thomas)

Kevin Thomas
Assistant Director


Give A Man A Fish…

There’s a popular quote that people say that goes a little something like this…

“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” - Chinese Proverb

It blows my mind that we’ve known for thousands of years that teaching people to be self-sufficient is the key to solving the world hunger issue, yet it is still so prevalent in our world . Giving someone food will satisfy them temporarily, which is necessary, but by continually giving them food they will become reliant on you. Teaching self-sufficiency will build an impact big enough to change the world.

Read More

If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.
Henry Ford 
Our purpose is to bring heaven to earth in the micro as well as the macro. In every detail of our lives, we should be trying to bring heaven to earth.
Bono
Why I’m Involved with AFROCKA: part 4 (by Ben Wagner)

May God bless you with discomfort
At easy answers, half truths, and superficial relationships,
So that you may live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger
At injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people,
So that you may work for justice, freedom, and peace.

May God bless you with tears
To shed for those who suffer pain, rejection, hunger, and war,
So that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and to turn their pain to joy.

And may God bless you with enough foolishness
To believe that you can make a difference in the world,

So that you can do what others claim cannot be done,

To bring justice and kindness to all our children and the poor.


I first read these words while in Haiti in November of 2010. It was eleven months after the tragic earthquake that I had the opportunity to return to Haiti (having been there once before in July of 2009) to help in the disaster relief.

Read More

Why I’m Involved with AFROCKA: part 3 (by Natalie Barlow)

Natalie Barlow
AFROCKA
Administrator and Events Coordinator 
@NatalieJoyB

If you had asked me two years ago what I thought the next several years of my life would look like, I would have said everything but the fact that I would be playing a role in running a nonprofit organization, working to help people on the other side of the world.

But, as we all know, things and plans change, and in my case they changed for the better.

Two years ago, my friend Benji Block decided to go to Africa with his friend Kevin to serve the people there for 4 months. I heard they were putting on a benefit concert called “AFROCKA”, and thought it was super cool, so I volunteered my help. The concert came and went, and I helped in a pretty minimal way. However, it was cool to help in a small way, while still getting to enjoy the night and see what these guys’ vision was all about.

Read More