How The Coronavirus Led One Kenyan Journalist To Love In The Time Of Quarantine

Carole Wambui, a member of The Media Project and a former intern at ReligionUnplugged.com, became stuck in Indiana during the Coronavirus outbreak. The extended quarantine led her to become part of a new church community and to become engaged and married.

By Ella Gibson

The young journalist Carole Wambui’s path during the Coronavirus pandemic took her through unusual circumstances from Nairobi to New York to Indiana, where she found new connections that changed the course of her own life story.

Wambui traveled from her home in Nairobi, Kenya to attend the NYC Semester in Journalism (NYCJ) program as a recipient of The Media Project’s Arne Fjeldstad Scholarship. Carole first learned about the opportunity from Stella Oigo while attending a journalism program in Kenya. Oigo, who is a TMP member and alumna of the Africa Film Project and the TMP Leadership program at Poynter, encouraged Carole to apply for the scholarship. As a recipient, Wambui moved to New York City in the late winter of 2019. The program consisted of an internship at ReligionUnplugged.com and attendance of three classes at The King’s College with other NYCJ students. 

Among the NYCJ attendees was Amalia Arms — a student from Anderson University and Carole’s paired roommate for the semester. The women sparked an immediate friendship living in New York for the first time and sharing a passion for investigative reporting.

Amalia invited Carole to travel to her hometown of Crown Point, Ind., to visit family and see a new area of the states for spring break in March 2020. One day after arriving in Crown Point, COVID-19 struck the United States. King’s College classes were soon moved online and New York businesses shut down. As the virus continued to spread, Kenya halted flights into the country. Carole finished her internship and courses at King’s virtually. She continued her stay after spring semester.

“Within spring break is when New York became a hot spot,” Carole said. “Things just took a whole turn that no one had ever thought about.”

Pastor Charlie Arms, Amalia’s father, is the pastor at Momentum Church, located in Crown Point. Momentum is affiliated with the Church of God, consisting of approximately 7,000 congregations with headquarters in Anderson, Ind. Leading as a pastor for 30 years, Arms launched Momentum in November 2014. 

Arms offered Carole a part time media job for Momentum. Her role focused on expanding the congregation’s online presence. Wambui began the position immediately, seeing it as an opportunity to earn money while living through the unknown of the pandemic. She also worked in the church’s daycare. While working in the church, she applied for a work visa to continue her stay.

“After living here and meeting people, I learned a lot of things that really made this feel like my new home,” Wambui shared. “After I got my job, I thought why not try to change my student visa into a work visa?”

And COVID-19 presented obstacles that only brought Carole closer to the Arms family. “We laughed and cried together as we were all experiencing the difficulties of the pandemic. We spent time sharing and learning more about each other. After a few months, it just felt like Carole was part of the family,” Pastor Arms said.

Wambui began searching for more people that she could form friendships with while beginning her life in the states. As one of the few young adults at Momentum Church, Wambui took time to reach out to others on Christian dating and social media sites. After a few months she received a message from her now-husband Joseph Kendrick. 

Kendrick and Wambui sparked an immediate friendship. In October, the two began dating and three months later they were engaged. 

A Bride In The Time of Covid

“It was a wild thing. The pandemic hit and months later I am now married”

“When I left my country, I was going to the states for my career. I knew it was a platform to learn and to put my feet on the ground for my career. It was a wild thing. The pandemic hit and months later I am now married” Carole explained. 

It was through this relationship that the Arms family further connected with Carole’s Kenyan family. Carole’s Uncle, Jimmy Macharia, has filled a fatherly role for Carole throughout her upbringing. Macharia has served as Senior Pastor of Harvest Family Church for 12 years. Harvest Family has a congregation of more than 1,000 people and seven branches. During the pandemic, services continued online as the country faced the economic destabilization that came along with country-wide lockdowns. 

“We were concerned about Carole’s well-being, but when she was invited to Pastor Charlie Arms’ home, we were at peace. She got a family and a place to call home,” Macharia said. “We kept her in prayer as well.”

As Carole’s relationship with Joseph was progressing, Pastor Arms informed Pastor Macharia of their family’s support for the relationship. Building a foundation of trust between the two families, their care for Carole brought peace to Macharia, his wife and Carole’s biological mother.

“I thank God for connecting us with Pastor Charlie Arms and believe the best is yet to come,” Pastor Macharia said.

Wambui and Kendrick were married in March 2021 after two months of engagement. The wedding brought together Carole’s loved ones from across the globe. The ceremony was non-traditional with dozens of friends and family on Zoom from Kenya. Pastor Arms shared that he now has hundreds of Facebook friends from Nairobi. He is grateful to have had a role in Carole’s experience over the past year.

“Since March of 2020, we survived a pandemic, celebrated her graduation, watched her meet someone and fall in love, and I had the honor of walking her down the aisle at her wedding in March of this year,” Pastor Arms explained. “She calls us mama and papa and we call her daughter. We know she has family back home, but we love her and consider ourselves her family here.”

The end result — through the unfamiliarity of COVID-19, individuals and churches from 8,000 miles apart planted bonds as strong as family. In the case of Carole Wambui, the pandemic revealed that difficult seasons can lead to the strongest relationships.

Ella Gibson, an intern with The Media Project, is a journalism student at Texas Christian University.