Missionary profile – a Kenyan in the Sahel region

By Mercy Kambura

One month into my stay in the mission field in Burundi, tragedy struck. I was only a few weeks pregnant with our first baby, and then we had a miscarriage. This experience crushed me beyond measure. I didn’t know it then, but that was just the beginning of a horrendous journey with my health. A journey that brought me to the brink of death. I grew up very religious, but not born again. I read the Bible regularly to defend myself against those planning to preach to me. I was a good girl, and to me, that was enough. I had a friend who was born again, and she always asked me to get saved. After rejecting her preaching for a long time, one day, I felt like it was time. I got saved and was baptized. After growing up in the faith, I heard God asking me to be a missionary. I didn’t know what missions was about, but I knew I was called to serve. I left my job and volunteered to work in the church. When I shared my passion to be a missionary with a friend, she reminded me that it was not a rosy affair. I’d be sent to dangerous places, work without pay, and probably get killed on the job. Then I met a Nigerian couple who were missionaries with CAPRO. I shared my heart with them, and they confirmed that all the above was true. But I still wanted to go. I studied cross-cultural missions at the Christ Mission to the Unreached. We have been missionaries in Kenya, Burundi and the Sahel region. My time in Burundi was one of the hardest due to the health problems we experienced. There were many questions at one point; I hoped in God but was also ready to die because of pain and grief. Great moments and valuable life lessons were born out of that dark season. What does a missionary do when tragedy strikes in the mission field? How do you navigate that when the person sent to give hope faces a crisis of faith and almost loses hope?

God told Abraham that through Abraham, all the nations of the world would be blessed. God has blessed the African Church—we need to bless other unreached communities by praying, giving, and going. God is healing his people and giving them hope—the hope we all need. One woman told us after miraculous healing, “Your God is very big! I love your God because your God answers prayers.”

#Pray:

For God to give us people that he has prepared for Himself.
For the peace of this land.
For the people in this land, they are blindfolded not to see God.
For God to keep us healthy.