Christians in Eldoret, Kenya, a city of over 300,000, have seen a large harvest following an evangelism outreach led by partner ministry African Enterprise (AE). The mission theme was: ‘It is time’ mobilise the Eldoret churches to stand up and take responsibility for their city’.
Over 1500 people attended the commissioning service led by the pastors of Eldoret. From there, hundreds of mission volunteers descended on the centre of Eldoret to clean the gutters and the
rubbish heaps in a symbolic and physical act of cleansing. “A man stopped to ask us what we were doing,” said one volunteer. “I told him it was because I once was dirty like all this rubbish, but when God came into my life he made me clean and we want to share that with others. He decided to accept Christ right there on the sidewalk!” Nearly 200 churches and 1400 mission volunteers were involved.
The city was strategically divided into five zones – North, South, East, West and Central – so that the Christians could effectively reach each portion of the city. On the first day in the central zone alone, 700 people accepted Christ. Teams were sent to nearly every school in every zone to run programs for students. AE’s stratified evangelistic approach means that people are reached wherever they are, whether in prison, at the hospitals, at the market or in the slums.
Thousands of doors were knocked on with the message of the Gospel. Even in the evenings the mission work did not stop. One of the local teams went into the pubs and brothels to preach the Gospel and were shown that God still works in surprising and unexpected ways. One evening, the police conducted a raid on prostitutes. Two of the women fled, looking for somewhere to hide and found themselves on the doorstep of some of the mission volunteers. The volunteers welcomed the prostitutes, gave them a meal and shared the Gospel with them.
“One morning during door to door evangelism, a man saw us coming and began running to us,” said Joseph, another volunteer. “He knelt down with tears in his eyes and said, ‘I want to receive
salvation.’ We didn’t even preach to him! Another woman was about to go to the hospital to try and sell her kidney because she had nothing to eat.
As she prayed with us to accept Christ she became so excited she burst from her house declaring it to everyone that was around, ‘I have been saved today!’ She will no longer try to sell
her kidney as she knows that God will provide for her every need.” The mission culminated at the stadium in Eldoret for one final huge rally. Although it was raining, a chorus of voices rose from all around the stadium singing praise to God. During the 10 day mission 8,672 people accepted Christ!
Source: Joel News International
Bible Study: Psalm 100
PRAISE God that the Eldoret churches are taking responsibility for their city and seeing fruit.
PRAY that they may continue to do so until the city is full of the knowledge of God, and that Christians in other cities will do likewise.
