Meet Paul Omondi… Paul’s life story is amazing and more than we can post in a single blog entry, but take a minute and read the following story of how God introduced us to Paul. We couldn’t make it up if we had to…
In 2005, before The 410 Bridge was even an idea, our founder (Lanny Donoho) was visiting Kenya and found himself all alone in Dandora. Dandora is an urban community of several hundred thousand people in the heart of Nairobi. Lanny’s team of U.S. college students had disbursed to do home visits and he found himself alone. He met a young man named Michael… a former Compassion International sponsored child, a recent graduate from Daystar University and Compassion’s Leadership Development Program (LDP). Lanny asked Michael if he would take him to a woman Lanny had met on a previous trip and Michael agreed. The woman had started a small business that supports 30 family members and Lanny wanted to see her again. While walking through the streets of Dandora, everyone knew Michael. He was clearly popular and well-known in his community.
Fast forward to the summer of 2006… As Lanny and I were discussing our plans to start The 410 Bridge, we knew that one of our first objectives was to find a Kenyan employee. Lanny told me about Michael… how outgoing, smart, and relational he was. Lanny called Compassion and asked if they could find the LDP student from Dandora named Michael. A few weeks later, he learned that they couldn’t find anyone by that name. They asked us why we wanted to find Michael and we explained our plans to start an office in Nairobi and our need for our first employee. They agreed to keep searching, but they had a list of other LDP students that they thought would do well. In fact, one of those LDP graduates was currently touring the U.S. and could come to Atlanta to interview if necessary. We agreed and were looking forward to meeting him.
Meanwhile… the young man (Paul) who was touring the U.S. was in Chicago and heard that he might come to Atlanta for an interview. When he heard the news, he told his Compassion contact that he just HAD to find time to find Lanny Donoho during the visit. When asked why, he said; “I met Lanny in 2005. He asked me to walk him through Dandora and I want to see him again.”
So Paul was in-fact Michael. Lanny just had his name wrong.
Even more amazing… Paul earned a degree in Community Development and was perfect for the role. We hired Paul and he was our very first employee in Kenya.
Many of you know Paul and what a strong man of God he is. Friendly… full of love for his people and for his new American friends. We are blessed to have him on staff.
