Missionary profile – Ezekiel Jako
By Mercy Kambura
Ezekiel Jako
Missions Trainer & Missionary from Kenya to Canada
While on a trip to the USA, a church in Canada invited me to go over and speak. I applied for a five-day visa – and instead, I got a 10-year visa! A friend and fellow missionary quipped, “Ezekiel, you have a Canadian 10-year visa; go serve the Lord!”
But I didn’t feel called to be a missionary in Canada. Besides, I didn’t know anyone who’d host me. So I took my pre-planned five-day trip and returned home. But the Lord worked in my heart and confirmed my calling through other brethren. Two years later, I embarked on my journey as a missionary in Canada. I have been serving as the City Director with International Students Ministry for three years now.
But my journey as a missionary started many years ago as a teenager when I accepted the Lord as my Saviour during a Christian Union weekend rally. I knew I wanted to serve God,but I didn’t know how or where.
After my secondary education, I went to the Pan-Africa Christian College in Kenya (now Pan-Africa Christian University), where I trained in theology and leadership.
I served as a Bible translator for the Bible Society of Kenya and later as a pastor. Then I went for further studies at Bethany International University, Singapore. It’s here that I first heard about cross-cultural missions.
Unknown to me, a few years before, a team of Kenyan church leaders had attended a conference in South Africa. They were handed a list of unreached people groups in their country. Kenya is known to be 80 per cent Christian, but out of 42 tribes on the list, 22 were unreached!
They vowed to do something about it, went back to Kenya, and formed the Finish the Task Movement. They also started Africa Center for Missions. While studying to be a missionary in Singapore, I met one of the leaders, and he asked me to help train missionaries.
We started mobilizing the church; they’d send us the individuals who wanted to be missionaries and we would train them. We trained over 36 Kenyans, 60 per cent of whom are still serving in cross-cultural missions.
My 34 years in ministry have been a journey of walking in blind faith. Raising support for upkeep has been difficult, but the Lord has been faithful. A couple made a house available for me for six months when I first landed in Canada. I never lacked anything. A small church with only 50 members in rural Kenya supports me faithfully every month.
We need to work together as a Kingdom people. We need to develop a way for the local church to work with the mission agencies. I’m still eager to train more Kenyans for missions.
For more Christians to walk with me in my ministry, especially financially.
For the African Church to catch the vision for missions and not lose it.
For safety in my travels.
Copyright AfriGO 2022
