Before coming to Samford in 2011, Katherine Rodgers knew little about life outside of Clarksdale, Mississippi. Her high school graduation class had 30 students, and she jokes about never having driven on the interstate until she left for college.
Then the Lord led Rodgers to attend Samford, the first in a string of callings that culminated in her launching Purposefully Made Ministries, which provides resources for children with disabilities in rural Kenya.
For a girl who was too shy to imagine herself as a public speaker, Rodgers never imagined she would one day be the founder and chief fundraiser of a global organization stretching into Africa.
She now spends most of the year working at a rented, six-room facility that serves 19 children from villages surrounding the city of Kitale, about eight hours from the Nairobi capital. The facility sometimes endures days without electrical power, yet it powers hope for the families of disabled youth in the area. Many of the children are coping with cerebral palsy following home birth complications—their villages too isolated and their finances too meager for them to seek hospital treatment. The center provides physical therapy and occupational therapy for the children, Christian counseling for the families, as well as prenatal and postnatal education.
“Unfortunately, in rural Africa, most children with disabilities are seen as a curse. They are abandoned and locked away,” Rodgers said. “The people are not taught that children with disabilities are a gift from God, that they have a purpose. They are seen as punishment for something that the mom did wrong or something the village did wrong.”
The Purposefully Made Ministries center also offers a nutrition program, supplying crucial supplements and proteins for children who tend to be malnourished. Trained teachers provide educational classes customized to each child’s developmental milestones. “It doesn’t feel like going to work every day, because these babies are our babies,” Rodgers said.
Her path to Kenya set aside career ambitions and seemed to defy common sense to many around her. It was a journey waged purely upon conviction.
As a 19-year-old sophomore, she took her first mission trip to the Dominican Republic and was changed. After earning a bachelor’s degree in early childhood special education and a master’s in elementary education, she began teaching in Mississippi. It felt like the perfect job for Rodgers until she joined a summer mission trip to Kenya. Absorbing the plight of disabled children there, she sensed the pull: “I knew I had to come back and do something.”
During the following school year as she taught back home, thoughts of Kenya consumed her. God kept rousting her in the middle of the night, “putting it in my heart,” she said.
“My sister and I were living together, and the nightly routine was that I’d wake up, we’d pray together, journal, have a cup of tea and ask the Lord for clarity.”
God called Rodgers so fervently that when it came time to renew her Mississippi teaching contract, she declined. Her focus turned to Kenya, though she wasn’t sure where to begin.
“I stepped out of the boat in faith. My family was worried, and everyone thought I was having a midlife crisis, even though I was only 25 at the time. They asked me about giving up a government job, my pension and insurance to go to Africa with no real plan. All God was telling me was, ‘Go to Kenya and work with these children.’” she said. “The rest is history. He has been so faithful every step of the way, showing me where to go.”
“(My family) asked me about giving up a government job, my pension and insurance to go to Africa with no real plan. All God was telling me was, ‘Go to Kenya and work with these children.’”
Since founding the ministry in 2020, Rodgers has built a nine-person staff of teachers, counselors, cooks and drivers. Some staffers came from the missionary community and others were recommended through word of mouth. “I didn’t know who to trust or who to call, but God’s timing has been perfect,” she said. “One person would fall into my lap, and then they would know someone else. We’re small, but we’re growing as God leads us.”
Rodgers beams about the Kenyan families, whose faith-on-fire approach to enduring hardships emboldened her own sense of gratitude.
“They have every reason to be upset with God over their conditions, but they actually have the strongest faith, because God is the only one who has been faithful to them,” Rodgers said. “He gives them breath in their lungs and He gives them energy to search for food for one more day. When I see them, I see faith truly lived out. It has been tested and persevered.”
Donations from Rodgers’ tiny hometown provide most of the revenue for Purposefully Made Ministries.Though fundraising initially was outside her comfort zone, she returns to the U.S. for a few weeks each year—visiting churches within the Mississippi Delta and tapping into the Samford network in Birmingham.
“Some days I ask, ‘Lord, are you sure you’ve got the right person?' I'm shy and feel so inadequate. But the Lord equips you when He calls you, and I've seen God give me the words to say during these times.” she said. “Speaking events have become one of my favorite things. They are an opportunity to share God's miracle-working power on display, for this is His story and all for His glory.”
Rodgers carries a special warmth for the Samford professors and mentors who poured into her.
“I always knew God was my Father, that He loved me and I loved Him, but I didn’t understand what that looked like on a day-to-day basis until building those friendships and mentorships with people at Samford,” she said. “They have seen a shy Mississippi girl with a small voice become a teacher who’s in command of her classroom. And now they’ve seen her move to another side of the world. I pray that they know it’s a credit to them. I wouldn’t be the woman I am today without their motivation.”
HUMANITARIAN OF THE YEAR: KATHERINE RODGERS
Samford: BA 2015, MSE 2017
Founded: Purposefully Made Ministries
Quote: "We see a lot of cerebral palsy here due to home birth complications, because they don’t have the funds to go to a hospital or they’re in a village that's too rural. We believe a lot of this could be solved with proper education, more access to hospitals, and pre-natal and post-natal care. That’s one of our passions as well as the ministry. One of our biggest prayer requests is that our center is full of the love of Jesus, and that these families feel safe and willing to share and open up."
