Gateway East Africa Ministries
Update from Nairobi
January 11, 2017
This was such an awesome trip!
There were 12 of us including 9 students from Criswell College, Bobby
Worthington, Kevin Warstler, and myself. This is Bobby’s 3rd trip to
Kenya and he always does such a wonderful job. That guy has such a huge heart
for getting the gospel to others. He has the gift of harvest evangelism. He
just begins to speak and people come to Jesus. Kevin has now been to east
Africa four times and is such a blessing. His heart to disciple others is
evident and his biblical scholarship is beyond excellent. Both of these men
have become two of my best friends. All 9 of the students worked so hard and we
never heard one complaint among the entire group. They are Jacob Griffin, Kyle Wisdom, Wes Barnett, Cory Terrell, David Newman, Derek Ruhl, Chris Garner, Martin Dorsey, and Keith Martin. There was a little bit of
sickness but these men pushed hard and worked through it. They knew the work
was much too important. Everyone of these guys are choice servants in the
kingdom.
We had 45 pastors from 30 different
tribes in Kenya and Tanzania who participated in the pastoral training
sessions. It is so wonderful to see these faithful men of God growing in their
studies and ministries. They work so hard in various vocations while
shepherding God’s people. These guys are my heroes. Kevin taught the books of
Amos and Hosea while I focused on Eschatology and Homiletics. Bobby spent some
time with them focusing on the subject of Biblical Evangelism. We had some of
the best conversations ever and Kevin and I ended up really spending much time
on justification and sanctification. There was so much of a works-based
mentality that we replaced with the more biblical, grace-filled understanding
of salvation. We worked through an expositional approach to Romans 5-8 to
clarify God’s saving work. Everyone was incredibly responsive and great liberty
was discovered by many in the richness of God’s benevolent work.
Bobby
mostly led the students out in the communities sharing the gospel. There were
382 professions of faith among three different areas. Our group spent the first
few days witnessing in Ruiru. This is the Nairobi suburb in which Samson Kisia’s
church resides. It is a rapidly growing area and so there were many people
needing the gospel and FBC Ruiru will be discipling these new believers. The
next few days were spent in another community where we helped start Criswell
Baptist Church 2 years ago. Pius Nato is pastoring this new church and doing a
great job in a growing area. It was great to continue our relationship with
this new church and strengthen them through these evangelistic efforts. The
third area is called Canaan and this is where we helped start a new church.
Ibrahim Odino is the pastor of this new work. He began as a student of mine
four years ago and has grown tremendously. He is smart, kind, respectful, and
committed to the work. I’m so excited for him to now have a church to pastor.
It is called Canaan Baptist Church. They are now meeting in a small rented
space and had 25 people for the first worship service on January 8. He will be following
up with every single profession of faith and cultivating a gospel witness in
this new area.
I am currently
working with the Moderator and other leadership of the Baptist Convention of
Kenya to begin the training sessions all across the nation of Kenya. We will
soon be bringing together the leaders from all 23 regions with some of their
key leaders for these sessions. Our hope is that these leaders will then go
back to the pastors in their regions with great excitement. We will soon begin
our journey of taking sound theological training to each of the 23 regions.
This will take at least 3-5 years but it is so needed. We are also currently
working on securing the right location for the Dr. Lamar Cooper Theological
Library in Nairobi. We are discussing details for the best location and waiting
on information from some others regarding land deeds so that everything is in
order. We will begin soon. This library will be the first of its kind in Kenya.
It will provide theological material for the common man. Any of our pastors and
church members will have access. We currently have a few thousand volumes and
are collecting more. It will also house the W.A. Criswell Ministry Center which
will be filled with Dr. Criswell’s sermon library and copies of all his books.
This will be such an incredible resource. The library will also have a small
guest room to accommodate visiting professors while we are there teaching.
I thank God for allowing me to be
part of this most wonderful work. I thank you for your faithful prayers and
support. You can keep up with us at: gatewayeastafrica.org
and
on Facebook.
Onward and Upward,
Richmond
