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Geoffrey Thomas visit 2016
This is a report of Pastor Geoffrey Thomas who visited Nairobi May 2016 to teach in the PTC.
Gospel Missions Agency
APC South Africa
Report by Murungi Igweta, Pastor of Trinity Baptist Church, Nairobi
South African Trip
Between 29th January and 9th February I spent the time in South Africa. I was invited by Irving Steggles, pastor of Birchleigh Baptist Church, Kempton Park and director of African Pastors’ Conferences. I preached Sunday 31st both morning (Mark 15:33-41 on the Mission Accomplished) and evening (James 1:2-4, Perfect Faith is produced by Trials), as well as the evening of the Lord’s Day on 7th (Titus 3:4-7, Have you met Grace?).
As for the conferences, this year’s theme is ‘Christ Building His Church in Africa’. I had six sessions in each conference under the following titles:
1. What is Christ’s church? (Matthew 16: 18; Ephesians 3:10 and 1 Timothy 3:15)
2. The centrality of the preaching in the church of Christ (2 Tim. 4:1-2)
3. Preaching that builds the church (Acts 20:19-21,26-27; 2 Timothy 2:15)
4. The government of the church (1Tim 3:1-12)
5. The life and work of a healthy church(Acts 2:41-47)
6. Christ’s church in Africa today (Matthew 28;19-20)
On Saturday 30th, I spoke six times at Eldorado Park, near Soweto. It was a blessing to see many men grapple with the fact that the church belongs to Christ; the blue print of running Christ’s church is the Bible and those who run the church of Christ are servants who are dispensable.
Between Monday 1st to 3rd we had the second conference at the Reformed Church of Tembisa. Tembisa is a huge township with millions of people. The high point of this conference was a man who at first objected when he was registered by Gayle Staegemann as a pastor because he thought that he was a prophet! However after the 8 sessions (together with Rod Wilton’s, who is acting as the conference manager of APC) this man was convinced that the prophetic gift just as the apostolic gift, is a foundational gift (Eph. 2:20) and this foundation has been laid. We are to enjoy this revelatory gifts now without requiring any other men to speak from God for the message given is sufficient for teaching, reproof, correction and training in righteousness so that we are complete equipped for every good work.
The same blast was sounded in Welkom from 5th to 6th, a town 3 hours from Jo’burg. The pastor who hosted us at Welkom Baptist Church, Joshua Bolaji is a man who is fired up for the gospel. He is a Nigerian, raised in Britain.
Sadly the fourth conference in Pretoria was cancelled by the organizer even if there was such a great excitement.
Kindly pray for the next leg of conferences in Bostwana (Gaberone), Zambia (Livingstone) and Zimbabwe (Bulawayo, Kwekwe and Harare). Please remember Irving in your prayers because he is unwell.
Pokot North
It has been quite a while since I visited, 21st. – 30th. October 2014. The main event was a wedding on the Saturday of two members of the church in Kasei. We tried to make it as simple as possible, but outside influences inevitably get in, especially the PA system and its accompaniments. It had to be performed in a building set aside for worship and the church in Kasei could only hold a tiny fraction of the crowd. For the reception we moved to the recently completed science laboratory in the High School which still could not accommodate the vast crowds. Gifts were given outside, each one being accompanied by singing and dancing Pokot style. Nicholas is a radiologist in a faraway Mission Hospital to where he has taken his new bride Claudina. This invariable happens in rural areas where there are few jobs for educated people.
There are many encouragements in this work in Pokot North:
Kapterema – the church is finally growing. With a new leader David, where we have only been able to gather a few women, there are now 8 families, some of whom having been recently saved. This is the most populated part of Pokot North up in the hills.
Wasat & Kwirir – Peter Nalunyit is the leader and he is going to rejoin the PTC this month. We are building a house for him at Wasat, but he gets no support from us (something we must wisely rectify). The people in these newer centres are not relying on us for everything, as is so often the case. At both places we gave money for corrugated iron roofed buildings and the people are doing the rest – poles, roof trusses, mudding of walls.
This is the new building at Kwirir which will serve for a meeting place on Sundays, and for teaching the ECD children weekdays. The walls and floor are of mud, and the roof of corrugated iron. Note the logs that presently serve as seating arrangements.
Apur – A community of about 25 households surrounded by hills on 3 sides.
Inside the mud building the congregation are sitting on log benches. It is the custom that after a meeting a circle of attendees is slowly formed by everyone greeting those who have already exited, to the accompaniment of their distinctive singing.
Kamketo – The Girls’ High School classroom is now almost complete, and we are still hoping that the first class of around 30 girls will start by February. This is another great opportunity for us to minister, this time to the girls of the area. We have a well-established church here under the leadership of Thomas Lokerisa. With the Primary Boarding School, now the High School (also boarding) as well as the church at Kasepa which is under their care, there is need for another labourer here and a good means of transport.
Schools – After many years of developing Primary Schools, so that 6 of them have all the classes from Early Childhood Development (ECD) to Class 8, there are now some Head-Teachers and other teachers who are very cooperative with the church. For example, the Principal at Kasei Boys would welcome us twice termly for ‘weekends’, where we could preach to the boys for 3 successive days.
As we give thanks to the Lord for these things, there are the following needs to pray for:
(1) The 4 trained men need to be formally set aside as church leaders. There has been a reluctance until at least two men can be set aside in each church, but we do not have such qualified men, except in Kasei.
(2) There is a great need for labourers, immediately for men to come and labour from outside, then for men from the area to be trained. With the High School in Kamketo, Thomas Lokerisa needs help in order to take full advantage of the opportunity to minister in the schools. Sadly the man whom we had sent there to help left abruptly last year. Andrew Chemolok in Chepkinagh needs help as he has a large primary boarding school and 7 churches to care for.
(3) Completion of the new church building in Kasei, needed because of the students from both Primary and High School are in attendance.
(4) Salary increases for faithful workers and teachers, and salaries for at least 2 teachers at the Kamketo Girls’ School. Presently we must find £1,200/$1,900 monthly for their support.
If you would like to watch videos from Pokot (and Rendille), please enter TrainKenya in YouTube, and you will find 55 videos!