Brian, Kristin, Isaiah, and Hope

Our journey to ELI was one of many twist and turns, but as we look over our shoulder at the road behind us, we see God’s hand so clearly guiding our lives. We first heard of ELI in 1998 when Brian started working for the Office of World Missions at Azusa Pacific University. APU had been sending short-term teams of students to Africa with ELI since 1996, and Kenya was always the most popular trip. In 2000, Brian visited ELI’s ministry in Kenya for the first time to see what all the “fuss” was about. Like so many others, his heart was broken by the poverty he saw, but a desire began to grow in him to do something about it. We went back together with a team in 2001.

Our growing passion for Africa and her people resulted in the adoption of our son Isaiah (11/10/2002) from South Africa in 2003. At the same time, we felt the Lord leading us to commit to a longer period of service than the short-term trips we had been leading. In all our encounters with ELI, we saw that God’s hand was on this ministry in a profound way and we really agreed with ELI’s philosophies of ministry, so joining ELI was a natural choice for us. In June of 2004 we took the plunge and moved our family to Kenya.

As soon as we arrived, we jumped into helping the Kenyan staff get the first Empowering Lives Children’s Home up and running. Several months later, Brian transitioned into a new role: Director of Kenya Operations, working in the areas of administration, finances, budgeting, and staff training. Kristin assisted with orphan sponsorship, grant writing, and hosting short-term teams. In the summer of 2005, we had the joy of adopting our Kenyan daughter, Hope (9/28/2004).

After two and a half years on the field, we felt the need for our gifts shifting from the ministry in Kenya to supporting operations in the United States. So in November of 2006 we returned home. We feel so blessed to be able to offer our gifts of administration to the ministry of ELI – taking care of “behind the scenes” tasks so that the programs that are offering hope and life to the hurting and lost in Africa can continue on effectively and successfully!

We covet your prayers and would love to hear from you. Please contact us at:

brianalbright@empoweringlives.org kristinalbright@empoweringlives.org