one thing I know is that you have a reason for it and you are sending me there because there’s a mission ahead of me you want me to do.’” Wasike moved to Waco to begin her degree in Baylor University’s Global Mission Leadership program with a special emphasis in child poverty. She worked hard on her coursework and finished in May 2015.


It’s clear Wasike loves Baylor – she has T-shirts in almost every color and wears them with pride. The day of graduation, she was filled with pride and constantly smiled. Two years of hard work had finally paid off. Before returning to Kenya, Wasike visited Buckner programs in the Rio Grande Valley to shadow staff and see practical ways to implement what she learned at Baylor with real families. Buckner staff thought that since issues faced by families in the Rio


Grande Valley were similar to Kenya, and because they have such a strong Family Hope Center model, Wasike could learn a lot and


40 BUCKNER TODAY • Spring 2016


implement it once she went back to Kenya. “One thing I’ve seen that is similar is the aspect of poverty,”


Wasike says. “In Kenya, poverty is at a very high level. Out of our population of about 46 million, about 38 million people are living under the poverty line, and poverty is on a very high level like the Rio Grande Valley.” Wasike spent four days shadowing Buckner staff along the U.S.


border. She visited families, saw home builds in progress and saw first-hand the effective model of family coaching used to bring families to self-sufficiency. “Social work is a service to others,” Wasike explains. “Social work basically involves you putting yourself out there to work with individuals and improve their wellbeing, and also it involves the relationship building, which is critical, building rapport with people that you are going to work with so that you can help them.” Ten days after graduation, Waiske finally traveled home to Ke-


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