During the month of June, our main teachers and evangelists, Lazarus and Wafula, have been actively engaged in sharing the gospel with the lost, leading them to repentance, baptizing those who surrendered, encouraging many of our existing churches, organizing church meetings and laying strategies of planting more churches in different villages of East Africa, especially Kenya and Uganda.
Both Lazarus and Wafula have been attending weekly wazee (church elders) meetings every Tuesday. Following that meeting, they participate in a leadership meeting of a handful of wazee who are being trained as indigenous leaders for our church network. The two men actively oversee our churches, participate in solving problems, and encourage their brethren with the Word of God. Through their weekly Discovery Bible Studies with the wazee, they have been able to identify men who are capable of sharing the Gospel with others and setthem apart for more training on evangelism and church planting.
On their separate missions, Lazarus has been preaching at different places in town and the villages in our county, as well as West Pokot county here in Kenya. He has also recently started a discipleship program with football players whom he used to coach before he surrendered to Christ; we are looking forward to reaping a harvest from these young people, and we pray that the Lord will strengthen him more in this ministry.
Lazarus and his wife, together, have been sharing the Gospel with different families in different places. During the month of June, they visited more than five families, looking for “men of peace” with the aim of planting new house churches. They have established strong rapport with the families and will continue to minister to them in coming months.
Also brother Lazarus went for a mission trip to Uganda for about a week, to strengthen and encourage the saints in the church plant that has blossomed in recent months. While there, he shared the Gospel with people of a new village near Lake Victoria, where he baptized one man by the name of Patrick. He also visited the saints in two other villages and encouraged them to hold firm to the faith and the cross.
Several people have also been baptized in our local Kenya fellowships as Lazarus has shared the Gospel of the Kingdom and led them to surrender to Christ, repentance, and baptism:
- Eunice – Bidii church
- Peter – Birunda church
- The couple Gladys and Patrick – Birunda church
On the other hand, brother Wafula has been laboring in training more evangelists by taking them out for field work and showing them how to go through this ministry of evangelism. Among those disciples that he took to the field to train on two-by-two evangelism were Silas and Mzee Maurice (from our local fellowship). We are so glad to report that they, too, have been successful in the ministry and a couple of new saints have been baptized and added to the flock of Christ as a result of their efforts.
Wafula, being a former imam, had resolved to minister to the Islamic community, especially starting with his own household. This month he had been sharing the Gospel with his father and encouraging his mother in the faith (she was recently baptized with permission from his father). Wafula’s father testified at the wazee meeting that he visited, that he is ready to repent and surrender to Christ; however, his is a polygamous man with three wives and understands that repentance involves becoming the husband of his first wife only. He asked for some time to put his household in order: finding places for the other two women and figuring out the logistics for their continued provision. We pray and hope that the Spirit of truth will convict him and lead him in the way he should go. Please pray with us!
Wafula has also been active in organizing and coordinating church meetings and helping in church discipline affairs. Visiting churches and the sick in the fellowships has been part of his routine this month.
Please pray earnestly with us that the Lord will continue to strengthen and empower His servants for the glory of His kingdom.