Missionary profile – Missionary *J

By Mercy Kambura

Cushitic Missionary working in Northern Kenya

An Ethiopian missionary took a few of us from the village for discipleship training. I was raised a staunch Catholic, and some were Muslim-background believers. We returned to the village vibrant for the Lord, denouncing sin and preaching Christ. To our shock, we faced a lot of persecution from both the Catholics and the Muslims. Many didn’t understand why we were even persecuted by ‘Christians’. The Muslims all returned to Islam. Me and one other young man stood our ground in faith and evangelized. Years later, I’m a missionary among the unreached people groups in northeastern Kenya.

After the Ethiopian missionary helped us see the Gospel light, the Lord touched a teacher’s heart and sent him to the desert town to raise some youths. He obeyed the call and used the time there to evangelize and disciple us. We continued preaching and even managed to plant a church—we now have six Cushitic churches in this region.

I later joined Daystar University, a Christian University in Kenya, with one resolve: to be a missionary when I finished.

I worked with an organization in Wajir, another Muslim-dominated town in northern Kenya. After I left, I met a missionary who was serving in the same place.

“How can he work in there, yet he wasn’t a Cushite, and he didn’t know Somali?” I wondered. I had only wanted to go where I was being paid. I had to choose between money, work, and being a missionary.

The missionary took me to their office, and the words of Matthew 28:19-20 were on a wall hanging in the office. It was the word God had kept in my heart, yet when I read those words that day; they were new to me.

“I’m in!” I decided.

I did a short-term Christian Volunteer Service (CVS) in CAPRO, and I was exposed to the real life of a missionary—living by faith and laying down my life. I loved it!

I was trained in Muslim evangelism and joined a missions organization as a missionary. Eventually, the Lord sent me back to my hometown in northern Kenya. I’m serving with my wife as a missionary and a missions trainer.

A church that doesn’t do missions is a dead church. I get stopped in Nairobi because I look like a Muslim. Cushites are getting stereotyped and being claimed for Islam. Jesus is saving everyone, even the Cushites.

Many people don’t understand missions; they use the Gospel for selfish desires. We need indigenous African missionaries who will reach out to other Africans. Through prayer, we will be moved and have the Lord’s heart for the lost people.

#Pray:

For the Lord to help the Cushites to go to the Muslim world and reach out to their ‘cousins’.
To be a good dad to my nine-month-old son.

*Name concealed for security purposes.