Over the past three years, we have paid great attention to pastors of churches in very large areas. Many of the pastors have never been to any particular denomination, doctrine, or senior spiritual leadership instruction. But God blessed us during this time to touch more than 230 churches in the territories of Mount Elgon, Pakot and Turkana Desert. God has also blessed us to see the active growth of many of these churches. In many of them, the number of parishioners has at least doubled. Many churches became family-based: fathers and children, mothers and grandparents repented and started to attend churches. Many families, even pastor families, have re-established relationships after breakups and divorces.
And this is all team work. Thanks to Yuri Shcheglov, Eduard Denisyuk with his wife Natasha, pastor Vera Login from Chicago. They believed us, came and ministered to the pastors, and became part of missions in Kenya.
Сovid intervened in our plans, but despite all the difficulties, rising prices and the closure of cities, we are starting a new, important, bold project in the Turkana Desert — to train pastors to READ and WRITE. In main time we know about 150 pastors from different parts of the desert and part of the Pokot tribe who cannot read, write; none of them even know the alphabet, they do not have the Bible, but they lead the church.
Each course is a 30 days intensive training. The classrooms are ready, the building is equipped, the desks are ready, the teacher is there.
You can see more detailed information and updates on the project on our website GoWithChrist.org or via Facebook Instagram #GoWithChrist #GoWithMission
Within two months we completed the construction of a building in the village of John Power. A year before that, our ministry started a church here. The community gathered in the open air for a whole year. At the first services there were only a few adults and about a hundred children. Within a year, the church grew. From 60 to 70 adult parishioners attend the meeting, and the Sunday school recruits more than 200 children.
This building serves as a church and a school at the same time.
Saturday and Sunday — this building is used for church services.
We brought school desks and now during the working days children and some of the parents will learn to read and write.
This is the second project of the opening schools in church buildings.
The first project of the school was in the village of Nahosi in early 2020.
We would like to express our gratitude to all our sponsors. Without your sacrifice, these projects would be impossible.
Two years ago, in 2018, we saw a great need for Christian educational materials. A large number of urban pastors cannot read or speak English fluently, much less rural pastors and parishioners. Their language is Swahili. But the main problem is that there are no Swahili books on sale, there are no materials for the education of pastors on the Swahili.
God gave us a bold and truly desperate idea. We started translating materials, books, and sermons. During this time, in total, we have translated about 1500 thematic sermons and 14 books.
We opened the RAHISI.ORG web resource, all translated materials are posted on the RAHISI.ORG . And they are absolutely free for all users in all Swahili countries.
The next step is printing books. Not everyone has access to the Internet. People do not have smartphones and computers. This is especially evident in the villages, where the main population of these countries lives.
We need books. We need financial sponsors to make practical christian education real.
Write to us, ask questions, and become our partner to the international mission.
Mission is discipleship. Discipleship is inconceivable without education, transfer of experience and books for education.
In 2019, we opened a library in our missionary home for everyone who can read English. People from Kitale town and the surrounding villages began to come for reading. We saw a great thirst for education and a desire to read in locals.
Immediately it became apparent that this was a small part of the solution to a huge problem. Many pastors from distant villages began looking for opportunities to borrow books to begin the process of self-education. But due to the fact that they live far in the villages, it was extremely inconvenient to travel to the town. The lack of communication only made the situation worse, when someone would come to the library during the hours we are not there.
Therefore, one year later, in 2020, we began to open small libraries in different locations of our ministry in the homes of bishops. Within 3 months we opened 5 libraries, and one library in the Kitale town and one in men’s prison. More than 300 books quickly found their readers.
With help of our friends, we were able to transfer books to Somalia for the underground churches there.
