“Now finish the work …” 2 Corinthians 8:11
The Nairobi church in the Kenyan capital Nairobi celebrated an exciting and emotional milestone last year when it fulfilled a long cherished dream and started meeting on its own property. Now the Nairobi church is holding a fundraiser in order to finish the project. One of the key aims is to complete the classrooms and bathrooms for the church’s 950 children, to ensure that not only is their Sunday experience solidly spiritual but that their Sunday environment is safe, secure, spacious and sanitary. Nothing fancy, just healthy.
(Parents are pictured lining up their children for class at the Kids Kingdom block, which is in the background.)
The Kids Kingdom block, pictured left and below, has no electricity. The upper floor, which is cordoned off to prevent access and accidents, has gaping spaces where there should be doors and windows, and the upper structure is supported by temporary wooden poles.
Additionally, funds are aimed towards the completion of the main sanctuary and to offset arrears incurred on earlier construction and land purchase.
The fundraiser is scheduled for this Sunday December 4, with the goal of raising US dollars 96,000 (Kenya Shillings 9.6 million). The beautiful church building thus far was funded largely by magnanimous donations from the Triangle church and also by funds raised locally by members.
The Nairobi church is indebtedly grateful to the New York, Charlotte, Triangle, Greensboro and San Francisco congregations which have generously and sacrificially supported the East Africa family of churches at various points over the years. Nairobi’s goal, in this light, is to become self-supporting, a key element of which is the completion of the church premises.
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As the fundraiser date approaches, one brother in Nairobi, Gilbert Wandera, shared the following about how God incredibly opened doors for his wife, Gertrude, and him to raise donations for the church project:
“What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’
“‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.
“Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go.
“Which of the two did what his father wanted?” “The first,” they answered.
Matthew 21:28-31
When the announcement for the church fund-raiser was made two and half months ago, I was not so fired up about the opportunity to give to God. Like the first son in the passage above, I felt a sort of rebellion and my heart was hardened to a point that I did not even want to hear the messages about the contribution during Sunday services. I used to just close my heart and even declined to attend any of the committee meetings even though my wife and I had accepted to be in the committee by making a considerable financial pledge.
Surprisingly, my wife was really fired up about the fundraiser, and she went out with her pledge-cards to collect cash from friends. I had no cards as I had not bothered to take any due to the condition of my heart. After a few weeks maintaining this attitude, I began to pray for my heart. As the days went by my heart began to be a bit positive, coupled with messages at church, I began to mellow and saw the sense in giving to God.
The first thing I did was to write down the names of 15 of my friends that I would go to for the money to meet my pledge. After a couple of days of dilly-dallying because I was afraid of rejection, I began making the calls. The first two people that I talked to gave me a total that exceeded my entire pledge!
This gave me a lot of impetus and I began to set daily goals on how much I wanted to raise, and I had a lot of fun doing it. It became a daily challenge to overcome and God led me to very generous people.
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Then after that the money began to flow in and within one week God had helped us to raise five times my pledge! The money included an amount double my pledge from one individual alone. In total, I talked to just five people and we had hit our target and goal.
On the day that I we hit this target, I went to bank the money immediately and I felt a great sense of joy coupled with increased faith. I am now convinced that God can do anything with a heart that is willing to obey him. The spiritual benefits of working for God are tremendous for my wife and me, and we can’t wait for December 4th to see him glory himself in the fundraiser.
Kindly lend your energy to the effort by praying for the Nairobi saints’ sanctuary fundraiser.
For more information about the project, contact Samson Monda: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or John Maleya: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
For more from our East Africa family of churches, click here.