Adili Kea, SERV International, Generosity, Financial Finish Line Podcast
Finish Line Podcast Episode 28

Adili Kea, COO of SERV International, on Using Food as a Platform to Share Christ

You may want your giving to meet urgent physical needs without creating long-term dependence, while also wondering how practical aid can open meaningful doors for the gospel.

How can generosity provide food today while strengthening local communities, empowering indigenous leaders, and helping people build a more sustainable future?


Apple Podcasts →

Spotify →

All Episodes →

Apple

Spotify

Episodes

Meet your guide

Adili Kea, COO of SERV International, brings a deeply personal perspective to global hunger and missions. Growing up in Kenya, Adili experienced hunger, received food and resources from nonprofit organizations, and watched his father serve refugees fleeing war in South Sudan. After moving to Atlanta, experiences with homelessness, human trafficking, and local ministry eventually drew him back toward serving communities like the one that shaped him.

SERV International uses food as a platform to share Christ while building sustainable local systems. Adili explains how SERV produces its fortified food in Kenya, purchases crops from local farmers, employs hundreds of widows, and partners with indigenous pastors who already understand the language and culture of the communities they serve. Their long-term model combines food relief, discipleship, local churches, and economic development rather than creating permanent dependence on outside aid.

By the end, you may see generosity less as simply delivering resources and more as investing in local people, sustainable solutions, collaboration, and relationships that can continue long after outside support is gone.

What you’ll gain

  • How humanitarian aid can create sustainability instead of dependence
  • Why local production can transform the impact of food relief
  • How indigenous pastors strengthen long-term gospel ministry
  • Why meeting physical needs can open doors for discipleship
  • How ministry collaboration can accomplish more than organizational competition
  • Why generosity should prepare the next generation to serve

Inspired? Take your next step

Try the Game of Life Simulator

Step into a four-minute interactive experience and see what unfolds as you decide how to manage your resources.

Start the Game
Game of Life Simulator Mobile Screenshot
Game of Life Simulator Mobile Screenshot

Inspired? Learn how to partner with ministries well.

A compelling ministry story can inspire you to respond. But wise partnership often begins with better questions.

Applied Generosity Intervention Partnership Focus

What is the ministry really seeking to restore?

Learn to look beyond visible needs toward people, context, relationships, and flourishing.

Applied Generosity Intervention Partnership Fruitfulness

How do you recognize meaningful impact?

Consider how ministries learn, evaluate their work, and pursue lasting change.

Applied Generosity Intervention Partnership Faithfulness

What does genuine ministry partnership look like?

Explore how to foster trust, alignment, and shared mission in your giving.

In our Intervention Series on the Applied Generosity Podcast, we’ll help you become a more thoughtful, discerning, and faithful partner.

Start the Series

Quotes to Remember

  • “Money amplifies what is in your heart.”
  • “Ministry is a lifestyle for me. It’s not going to serve. It’s not going to church.”
  • “For 15 years, SERV did not fundraise. As God continued to bless Steve’s business, he continued to take his money and pour it into SERV International.
  • “If you go in with Jesus as the good news, then people get attached to Jesus, not the resources that you’re bringing.”
  • “Food is key to our success, but it’s not the reason we go out every day.”
  • “We need to trust God’s vision more than our own.”
  • “If we genuinely want to share Christ, then we should all be on the same team.”
  • “I don’t need you to partner with us. I just need you to partner with somebody.”

Links from the Show

Use Our
Free Guide

Have you considered the ways you are uniquely called into generosity? We’re not all called into the same adventure.

Enter your information below and we’ll send you our free PDF guide to explore the specific adventure you were called into.

Generosity Profile Image

Use Our
Free Guide

Have you considered the ways you are uniquely called into generosity? We’re not all called into the same adventure.
Generosity Profile Image
Enter your information below and we’ll send you our free PDF guide to explore the specific adventure you were called into.
Generosity Profile Image

See Other Episodes