Missionary profile – Brother *S

By Mercy Kambura

Missionary in North Eastern Kenya

I lost my dad when I was ten years old. We had lived a typical middle-class life, but when he passed, life changed for the worse. I was ashamed of where and how we lived. I’d dream of him returning to life and improving things. He didn’t. However, my heavenly Father was always there. He found me and claimed me as His child. Now, I serve as a missionary helping other lost young people find themselves in Christ. I also help them go as missionaries to bring others to Christ.

As a young Anglican, I attended church services and went through all the traditions expected of me. However, when I became a teenager, I stopped going to church. I felt lost—too old for Sunday school, too young for the grown-up service, and too poor to afford church shoes.

I eventually went to University with one goal—to get girls. I was chasing after joy and life, but the girls weren’t as readily available as I had hoped. My roommates and I prayed that God would help us get girls. The Lord didn’t give us girls; instead, He sent a young man to our room to preach to us!

I said, “Thanks for the sermon, but I’ll not follow Jesus.” The young man prayed and left.

However, turmoil started in my heart. I asked, “Who am I, and why am I here?”

I went into a full soul-searching mode for a year. I steered clear of the young man who had preached to us all this time.

In 2007, post-election violence rocked the country, and I felt like I needed to go to church to pray for the country. The young man who had preached to me was there too! In the middle of the sermon, I was filled with thoughts about my life. When the service ended, I asked him if I could talk to him. He had forgotten me, but the seed he had planted in me had bothered me all this time. I gave my life to Christ that day, and He gave me unspeakable joy.

I got into evangelism and even went among the unreached Pokomo of Kenya. I couldn’t believe the Gospel could be so inaccessible to a community in my country, yet I heard about Jesus almost daily.

We started having short-term missions to the region, but I needed to forgive my own extended family for the pain they had taken me through after my dad died. That helped me see God’s mission of reconciliation.

I got more training in missions and continued serving the communities in northeastern Kenya. I also mobilize young people, train them and send them to the mission field.

Young people want to go into missions when they’re older and more ‘settled.’ The time to serve God is now. Engage young people early.

#Pray:

For young men to get into missions and be intentional.
For sound ministry to propagate the Gospel among the unreached. That the false Gospel shall not penetrate the mission field.
For faithfulness to Jesus as we serve.
For the Church going through persecution.

*Name concealed for security purposes.