Sammy Mbote was in his final year of studies at the college and enrolled in two of Anthony’s classes — Missions and Evangelism and Theology of Development. The two men formed a good relationship and Anthony enjoyed teaching Sammy. Sammy’s accomplishments after his graduation reflect the learning he did with Reverend Sytsma at Berea Theological College. 

After completing his studies, Sammy went back to St. Augustine Parish, his home church in Nairobi. And although not yet ordained, he has had a large impact there. Sammy took what he learned about church planting at Berea and is spearheading an effort to plant a church in a nearby community that has no church at all. To do so, he is helping St. Augustine Parish form an evangelism team and, using a suggestion from Anthony’s class, has started a community football ministry to engage with youth, shown above. Soon Sammy’s church will ordain him as an evangelist.

At Berea, Sammy also came to a new understanding about the role of the church in community development. Anthony had given an assignment in development class that asked each student to write up policies to guide their home church’s benevolence, using principles from the class. Sammy was quite touched by this and told Anthony he was really sad that his church did not even have a benevolence ministry. Sammy said that he used to think of development as a money issue alone and something to be accomplished by NGOs. But, in Anthony’s classes, he learned about the crucial role of the church in development and began to view development more wholistically, having to do with people’s relationship to God, self, others, and the environment. He now believes that people need to use their own resources for development, rather than depending on the government and Western donors to take care of materially poor people.

With this new belief, Sammy suggested that his home church start a benevolence ministry — and the leadership listened! St. Augustine Parish has now started a ministry to reach out to orphans connected to the church. To start, they have focused on helping to pay for the school fees of these orphans with Sammy suggesting good written policies to guide the ministry.

Anthony calls it a privilege to teach Sammy and to see him put into practical effect what he has learned. They ask you to pray for Sammy and his church. Sammy says, “Please pray for God’s provision of finances to support this ministry and my further education. Pray for the church to support these ministries. And pray for my heart, because this is not easy work. Thank you.”

Please pray for Kenya

We give thanks to God for:

  • relatively peaceful elections in Kenya this month
  • a year of great favor from different stakeholders — we are excited about the new financial year and the opportunities it promises for World Renew and its local partners

We appreciate your prayers for:

  • calm, perspective, and peace to prevail in Kenya
  • wisdom for all the World Renew Kenya staff as work on plans for this new financial year, that our plans may be strategic, realistic, and have impact

Blessings,

Stephan Lutz

Program Consultant
World Renew Kenya