Mathare Valley is reffered to as the oldest and the worst slum in Africa . This shanty village is 5 kilometers (3.2 miles) from the Kenya's Capital Nairobi City Center. It is a place for criminals, drug addicts, the unemployed, and prostitutes. Many people are afraid to visit here because the crime is so high. Few people are employed and others are doing small businesses. Most of those employed work as watchmen, messengers and laborers in building construction. Those doing business are selling vegetables, smoking fish, selling charcoal, and trading in second-hand clothes.
The area is very densely populated with almost 500,000 people living in a very small area of 2 kilometers  by 300 meters (1.2 miles by .2 miles). Housing  is therefore inadequate with most houses measuring around 8 by 6 feet and holding around 10 people. The single room is divided into different areas where the kitchen, bedroom, living room, and storage areas are located. Many children have to sleep on the floor because there is no space to share the one bed with the parents. There are very few bathrooms and toilets in Mathare, and you have to pay to use them. Most people can't afford this, so the open gutters outside their houses are often turned into sewers.

The Nairobi River flows through the heart of the slum, having collected  all kinds of garbage and sewage on it's journey through the city. There is therefore no alternative source of safe drinking water. Along the river, youth and women make "chang'aa"- a local brew using the same water. Doing laundry, washing dishes, and bathing are luxuries because there is no running water in the houses. Water has to be collected from a common tap, and when there are shortages, the residents are forced to buy their water from local vendors.

Attempts by Christian churches to penetrate Mathare with the Gospel have often been met with stern resistance and hostility from the brewers and drug dealers. The Mathare Community Outreach Church has therefore adopted a home based church concept, to ensure that the members of the community take full responsibility for their neighbors' spiritual lives. It has established the New Life Celebration Center as  the weekly meeting point for the celebration of what Christ can do.