Singer-songwriter Meme Stephens took the first step toward a tour of East Africa while she was driving her car.

“I was driving in my car, and I was thinking about what it was like to be an orphan in Africa, being all alone,” Stephens said. “It really broke my heart.”

While driving, she started to put together a song, which would become “In Africa Tonight.”

“By the time I got where I was going, the song was finished,” she said.

Stephens said the song was produced, but she needed to hear something else in it. She knew what it was missing: an African chant in the background.

“I knew what I wanted, but I didn’t know how to find an African in Manchester or in Bedford,” she said.

A friend, though, had seen Rwandan singer Jean Paul Samputu speak at Harvard University, and suggested that Stephens contact him. So, she sent along a rough copy of the song to Samputu.

Stephens said Samputu promptly called her from Kenya.

“He told me, ‘I would like to do it live in Rwanda, and I want to have children sing in a choir behind it.’ And it just broke my heart again,” Stephens said.

So, during December, Stephens will travel first to London, then to Africa to tour with Samputu.

She will sing at concerts in Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi. Also, as Samputu suggested, she will record “In Africa Tonight” with an African children’s choir and Samputu.

Stephens has lived in Bedford with her husband, Scott, for almost seven years. He will join her for the tour, she said.

They have three children, Hannah, 13, Andrew, 11, and Abby, 5. Stephens was born in Gainsville, Fla., and moved to Newton, Mass., when she was 7 years old.

She met Scott during college at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Stephens said she sometimes practices singing around the house and her children have different reactions to her music.

“I don’t know if I’m quite cool enough for my daughter, but my sons think I’m pretty cool,” she said.

She has been writing and singing songs since she was 12 years old, and all of her songs are Christian songs. Along with her music, Stephens will be spreading Christmas presents around East Africa. She has named her tour the “Honoring orphans and other vulnerable children of all people in East Africa” tour.

She has so far raised about $4,500 for blankets and clothing to give to African orphans and children, and she said her goal is about $5,000. Almost 30 percent of the children in Rwanda are orphans, she said.

Stephens will leave on Dec. 9 and return Dec. 31. She also has a CD, “Believe” available at www.memestephens.com.