Primitive Baptist Kenya Trip: Experiences & Lessons

Thank you all for your prayers, encouragement and many other acts of love and support for my trip to preach the gospel to God’s children in Kenya. Thank you also for your support to Linda and your faithfulness to God’s service while I was away. I am working on a journal that will detail day-to-day events and experiences. We are also putting together a slide presentation from the 400+ pictures we took during the trip.

We were in Bible study sessions and church services almost everyday. In the mornings we studied scripture with the brothers who are leaders in the fellowships. Each afternoon we visited a different fellowship and also went to the refugee camps. There are seven fellowships in Kenya, most of which are near Kisii Town. The fellowships are located at Keburunga, Nyarenda, Nyachenge, Etanda, and two new fellowships at Kiorena and Nairobi. The total membership is around 200. They are members of First Primitive Baptist Church of Tanzania where Elder Obey Ndalima is pastor. Elder Obey is a former member of Vestavia Primitive Baptist Church in Birmingham, AL where he was ordained as a Primitive Baptist minister of the gospel.

The journey to Kenya with Elder Vernon Johnson was a truly profound experience for me. It challenged me on several levels. The trip was physically demanding. We awoke each morning before 6:00 and didn’t stop until well into the evening. We walked up and down steep mountain trails almost everyday. There were torrential rainstorms, terrible roads and incredible traffic jams. It also challenged my thinking about the necessities of life. Things I’ve always thought are necessary for a happy existence I now realize are really not necessities. We observed women fetching heavy containers of water from rivers and streams for cooking and cleaning. They gather wood to boil the water and for cooking. Men plow fields with a single plow pulled by a cow or oxen. Most homes have no running water or electricity. People mostly walk, sometimes great distances, to where they need to go, including to church. The Kisii diet is very basic, and without much variety. Their normal diet consists of rice, beans, a vegetable porridge, a few bread dishes and collards; with very little meat and no desserts. (The only time I saw them eat meat was when they served it to us; and then only the men ate it.) The government does little to make life easier for the people of Kisii. Roads are mostly unpaved, or else in disrepair with huge potholes. The police openly demand bribes from motorists. There are high tariffs on imports. The school system is so ill equipped and inept that parents who can afford the cost send their children to private schools. A significant number of children, especially in more rural areas, don’t attend school at all. Unemployment is very high and typical wages average about $0.50/hour. Malaria is common. (Brother Martin suffered a bout with it while we were there.) The overall life expectancy in Kisii is the mid-fifties. A typical fifty-year-old Kisii, by our standards, looks much older. They expressed amazement at the appearance of Elder Johnson and I when we told them our ages. However, the most profound impact the trip had on me was despite the hardships, injustice and deprivation, the Lord is blessing His saints in Kisii and they understand He is blessing them. This is evident from their expressions of hope and joy in the Lord despite the difficulty of life and in the absence of hope for improvement and assistance from institutions of government. It caused me to realize that many of the conveniences I’ve come to expect and associate with happiness, are not really necessary in order to experience peace, comfort and joy. I witnessed God’s saints displaying attitudes of peace, joy and happiness in the Lord in the midst of great difficulty and many hardships.

It is apparent God is blessing our brothers and sisters in Kenya. He has blest them with a hunger for the true Gospel of Christ Jesus. I’ll give just a few instances where the Lord made this apparent to Elder Johnson and myself. The first morning in Kisii a woman approached Elder Johnson and I as we returned to our room after breakfast. Someone had pointed us out as the Primitive Baptist Ministers from America. She explained she was an internally displaced person (IDP) who lost all her possessions and home in the post election violence. She said she was staying at the Kyoko Refugee Camp. (This camp is about a forty-five minute drive from our hotel. I don’t know how long it takes to walk from the camp to the hotel.) My first thought, as I typically think when a homeless person here approaches me, was to expect her to ask for money. She didn’t. She asked if Elder Johnson and I would come to the camp and preach the gospel to them! When I realized what she was asking I was stunned. Despite the fact we were in Kenya to preach the gospel, and having been led by the Spirit of God to do so, I was so tuned into how things usually happen here that I was unprepared for her request to go to the camp and do what the Lord sent us to Kenya to do, preach the word! We went to the camp at Kyoko and also visited the camp at Munga. At both we attempted to preach a message of comfort and consolation, that nothing can separate God’s children from His love for them, and that Jesus has gone to prepare a place for us where there is room for all the elect; and, which cannot be taken away by any means nor for any reason, not by violence nor because of greed.

Circumstances in the camp at Munga were particularly heart wrenching. For reasons never explained to us, the government is trying to close this camp. They are using cruel and heavy-handed tactics to force the people to leave. A few days before we went there government officials confiscated all their tents. The timing of removing the tents coincides with the onset of the rainy season, when torrential rains are an almost daily occurrence. At the time, there were almost 400 people in the camp including 85 orphaned children and about 100 widows, all victims of the post election violence. Their only shelter was a small building the women and children slept in. The building is so small they do not have room to even lie down on the concrete to sleep. When we visited Munga a second time the population had grown to almost 600. This occurred despite reports from the government claiming post election violence had ended and it was safe for people to return to their homes. After our first meeting the leaders asked to speak to us. Again I was prepared to hear them ask for financial assistance. They thanked us for the help the Primitive Baptists have provided to the camp. They said the Primitive Baptists are supplying most of their food thru Brother Martin and the other Kisii brethren. (Brother Martin is using the funds our church sends him together with donations from other Primitive Baptists to buy food for this camp.) They went on to explain that most of the people in the camp were severely traumatized by the violence. They lost family members and possessions during the violence. They asked if we could do one more thing for them. They explained in fleeing for their lives they lost all their possessions including their Bibles. The Munga Camp leaders then asked if we could supply the refugees with Swahili language Bibles. We assured them we would work on getting Bibles to replace the ones destroyed by the violence.

Another profound experience of the journey involved a brother named Peter. Brother Peter lives near the village of Etanda, about five miles from Kisii. For many years he has served as pastor of the Missionary Baptist Church in Etanda. At our first service with the fellowship at Nyachenge he walked about six miles to attend. After service he had many questions about Primitive Baptist practice and the doctrines of grace. Elder Johnson spent some time explaining in great detail, with many scriptural proofs, what the Bible teaches about God’s plan for salvation. Bother Peter raised questions about verses that seemed to him to indicate one must hear the gospel and ask Jesus to save before a person is born again. Elder Johnson explained how the Bible distinguishes between our eternal salvation, which is wholly a work of God on us and in us, and gospel, or time salvation, which is conditional and affords the children of God opportunities for great joy in fellowship with Christ if he is faithful to the duties of discipleship. He cited many verses that distinguish eternal salvation in sonship from time salvation thru discipleship. Brother Peter seemed satisfied with Elder Johnson’s explanation and asked what he should do to become a Primitive Baptist. We explained he would need to be baptized. We told him he would not come to us as a preacher and explained the church would have to be satisfied he is doctrinally sound and is called by God before he could be a preacher with the Primitive Baptists. A few days later he came to the services at Etanda Fellowship near his home. When an invitation for members was made Brother Peter along with two others came forward asking to be baptized. He had his preaching credential with him and offered to surrender it to the church; saying he had resigned his pastorship with the Missionary Baptist. He later stated it would not be proper for him to preach to them what he now believes since they believe a different gospel; and, he could not preach what they believe because he now knows the truth. He said for many years he had known there was something wrong with the message he was preaching because certain scriptures seem to teach that eternal salvation is wholly the work of God; and yet, other scriptures teach man must do something to be saved. He went on to say when Elder Johnson showed him how the Bible teaches two salvations the problem went away. He said God has shown him the truth. When asked why he wanted to become a Primitive Baptist Brother Peter simply replied, “because salvation is by grace alone.”

One of the truly great blessings of my life was Sunday worship and Communion Service with all the Fellowships together. I suppose this was the first time they had all gathered in one place. There were around 300 in attendance. We started late as some had to travel as far as twenty kilometers to attend. After a short song service Elder Obey, who is the pastor over this arm of First Primitive Baptist Church of Tanzania, preached a short message of comfort and encouragement. I followed Elder Obey and tried to bring a message about the power of the resurrection and how it can be applied to the struggles and challenges we face in this life thru faithful discipleship. Elder Johnson followed with a message on the Covenant of Grace as presented in Romans 8:29-30. At the conclusion of services an invitation for new members was made. Several came forward asking to be baptized. We proceeded to the river about 300 yards down the mountain where 29 were baptized by Elder Obey and Elder Johnson. Immediately after the baptizing we assembled for Communion service. Elder Johnson explained the significance of communion and the symbolism of the bread and wine as Christ’s body and blood. He explained what it meant to partake of communion unworthily and what our proper attitude should be up to and during the service. The congregation had never participated nor even seen the feetwashing portion of the service. (At their only other Communion Service a heavy rain forced them to leave off feetwashing.) I explained the importance of this part of Communion and told them exactly what I was about to do with Elder Obey and how they should follow our example. I knelt down before Elder Obey and as I began washing his feet I heard gasps. They were astonished to see me kneeling and washing Elder Obey’s feet. Then, some began to laugh. At first, I was concerned about their reaction. Then I remembered Elder Johnson telling me that Africans do not cry when they are happy and that when he first cried for joy in front of them they became quite disturbed, thinking he was sad or hurt. In their culture happiness and joy are expressed with laughter and sometimes with clapping. I realized they were laughing with joy. They then washed each other’s feet, all-the-while smiling, sometimes laughing and with words and other expressions of love and encouragement for one another.

The last Sunday we were there we held services again with all the fellowships, this time at Nyachenge. After services Elder Johnson and I together with Elder Obey and the other brothers who lead the fellowships were invited to dinner in Brother Martin’s home. After a delicious meal served by Brother Martins’ wife, Sister Anna, and his mother and sister, a couple arrived who had heard about the Primitive Baptist. The husband was the pastor of a nearby Pentecostal Church. We spent considerable time discussing the doctrines of grace with them. They had questions about election, regeneration, justification, etc. I tried to explain the covenant of redemption presented in Romans 8:29-30. They also asked about Baptism. We used Galatians 1:6-7 to show how the person of Christ and His work on Calvary cannot be separated; that unless one has a gospel that accurately depicts the works of Christ he cannot have an accurate portrayal of the person Christ. We also cited Acts 19:1-5 to show the precedent for baptizing people again who have been baptized with an incorrect understanding of the person and work of Christ. Shortly after this discussion we left to preach for the last time at the Munga Refugee Camp. The next morning I asked Brother Martin if he thought the couple would follow-up with their interest in the Primitive Baptist Church. He said yes and explained they had called him later that evening to say they had discussed and studied what we told them and are convinced the Primitive Baptists have the truth. They indicated they want to be baptized and join the Primitive Baptist Church.

We experienced even more evidences of God’s presence and power during our stay. These are only a few of the many blessings the Lord allowed us to experience in Kenya. Please join me in asking our Almighty God to continue to pour out his blessings on His saints in Kenya by bringing the true Gospel of Jesus Christ to His children there. Also, ask God to similarly open a door of utterance for us here in the United States and our community in and around Lewisville.

In hope,
Michael Ivey,
Pastor, Lewisville Primitive Baptist Church

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