World Mission’s Greg Kelley says they are reaching out to the Pokot people in northern Kenya with the Gospel. Kenya is just coming out of a major locust infestation and is still in the midst of a years-long drought. The people are struggling. What’s more, the Pokot are often in conflict with their rivals, the Turkana people, for resources like land and cattle.

(Photo courtesy of World Mission)

“They say it’s a ‘No Man’s Zone,’” Kelley says. “You go through military and police checkpoints, and they’re like, ‘Are you sure you want to go down this road?’ But we know where we’re going — places where the Gospel needs to get to. That’s why we go there. Our national partners are working in these very particularly high tension areas.

Particularly in the Pokot region, Kelley says, “There’s not a Christian. There’s not a church. There’s nothing going on there.”

In December, World Mission will launch a campaign with Jesus Film Project to share the story of Jesus in northern Kenya. World Mission will be distributing their solar-powered audio Bibles called “Treasures” and providing clean water.

“Recently, we were doing some evangelism in a village near this area and we were demonstrating our water filter. A Pokot warrior who was carrying an AK-47, when he saw the clean water that came out of this filter after seeing how dirty it was going into it, he said, ‘If your God can do this to me, I want to know Him.'”

Kelley says, “It’s those kind of encounters that we have with people because they just see the love and concern for their physical conditions, and that just opens their heart up to the Gospel. So we need to pray that God would open the hearts of the Pokot and the Turkana in these hostile areas.”

(Photo courtesy of World Mission)

You can also give to support the “Treasure” audio Bible going into Kenya with World Mission. Click here to donate to World Mission!

Header photo courtesy of World Mission.

Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta (Photo courtesy of MAKE IT KENYA PHOTO / STUART PRICE via Wikimedia Commons)

The Kenyan government responded to Odinga’s mock swearing-in ceremony with arrests and media shutdowns. Odinga’s advisor, Miguna Miguna, was also deported by the government. Court orders demanded the Kenyan government reinstate media outlets and hand over Miguna to appear before a judge and be released on bail, but the government ignored the court orders.

International figures were not impressed. On Sunday, eleven Western envoys urged Odinga to recognize Uhuru as the nation’s legitimately elected president and for the government to submit to court orders. But with both sides of Kenyan politics staunchly holding their ground, international exhortations have fallen on deaf ears so far.

To further complicate matters, tribal allegiance often dictates political party loyalty in Kenya. The current national context of political disunity has the potential to further agitate tribal rivalries and power struggles.

However, it’s in this context that Global Disciples says Kenyan Christians are setting a different example.

Remarkable Unity

We shared yesterday how Global Disciples’ Annual Equipping Event (AEE) recently gathered and encouraged Christian directors in India. The ministry equips these directors to train indigenous church planters in leadership development, discipleship missions, and small business development.

Global Disciples also recently held an AEE for their directors in Kenya, and they were moved by the unity they witnessed in the Body of Christ.

Tim* with Global Disciples was at the AEE in Kenya and says, “One of the exciting things for me was there were a couple tribes at this gathering. Trainers come from different tribes and backgrounds. Some came from the Pokot tribe and some came from a Turkana tribe, and historically, those tribes have not gotten along very well. In later years, they’re doing much better. But it was so encouraging to see the two tribes gather together, hold arms, actually, they locked arms shoulder-to-shoulder and spent time praying for one another.

“Even one of the Turkana brothers is mentoring one of the Pokot brothers. So we see things like that and it’s really encouraging to bring change to communities, to see Jesus changing people’s lives, and we’re excited to be a part of that.”

(Photo courtesy of Global Disciples)

Directors at the three-day AEE spent time praying and fasting together. One night, they broke into nine groups and every group took an hour to pray throughout the whole night.

“During this time, we pay attention to what God is saying to us and cry out to the Lord that he would send workers into the harvest and that there would be people who would come to know Jesus. During that night of prayer, people are writing down prayer requests and so we walk around and pray for the prayer requests, pray for healing, pray for many different things, and it’s in those times that you really develop relationship,” shares Tim.

“One of the brothers that came to the AEE gave his testimony that he sees the unity we bring when we come together from different denominations and backgrounds. He was convicted by that and he said that he’s going to go back and make changes in his own denomination.”

Small Business Development Advances

Besides encouragement, the AEEs with Global Disciples are opportunities for the local directors to touch base with the ministry and share what is working with their training, who they have trained, and how they are seeing God move.

Tim explains, “This year was extra special for us because we’ve turned a little bit of a different corner in small business development. As we’ve seen small business development grow, we have more trainers on the field. So this year was pretty exciting for us to meet with them and hear some of their stories.

(Photo courtesy of Global Disciples)

“One of the testimonies that I hear often is that the small business development is a great evangelistic tool for them to go into a community with an identity, to go into a community with a purpose and then in a quiet way, they’re able to reach out into their community with the Gospel.”

One story Global Disciples heard was from a director in western Kenya who trained 15 church planters in small business development.

“All of them went to the mission field and he reported back that they started six fellowships. He sent them to a mountainous region and the people they trained then went and started businesses. As they began their business, they also were reaching out to these people in this area. We were really excited to hear they had started six fellowships!”

Tim shares, “One of the things that was interesting about this testimony was one of the persons they trained in small business development had already engaged himself in a small business. He, in turn, shared this small business with some of the other participants and they joined in the same small business and went out and began planting churches and working in this small business.”

Unity in the Global Body of Christ

Just as our Kenyan brothers and sisters in Christ strive for unity, we can all strive for unity as the global Body of Christ through mutual encouragement and support. Tim says there are several ways you can come alongside believers in Kenya!

(Photo courtesy of Global Disciples)

“If people want to be involved, we need people to help sponsor our gatherings, to help work with the trainings we have, and most of all, to pray. We really believe that praying pushes back the darkness as we gather together. Our enemy is always trying to cause division and we are trying to bring unity to people.”

You can sign up to join Global Disciples’ prayer team here! Please pray for the directors with Global Disciples in Kenya to persist in their faithful training of church planters. Pray for the Lord to send workers into the harvest of the least-reached throughout Kenya.

*Last name withheld for security purposes.

(Photo courtesy Joshua Project)

Kenya (MNN) — The Pokot tribe of northwestern Kenya is a deeply spiritual people group.

Many of their religious beliefs are connected to their lives. Travelogues show that their animism has a deep root in sacrifice. According to their mythology, the universe consists of two plains: the above refers to the sun and the rain. The below consists of the humans, animals, and plants. The Pokot are proud of their culture and heritage, and every ritual instills that meaning into the next generation. World Mission CEO Greg Kelley says they recently visited North-Central Kenya where about 130,000 Pokot live.

Throughout the region, less than 10,000 people are followers of Jesus. The story of the Gospel makes sense to a people already used to sacrifice, so World Mission teams distributed the Treasure–a solar-powered audio Bible, and they saw immediate impact. “We were just told about a village just down into the valley that had not a single Christian among them,” says Kelley. A couple of years later, because of Treasure distributions and the Word of God, there are now 70 people worshipping Jesus in a new Church.”

(Map of Pokot region courtesy Joshua Project)

More than that, the hope of the Gospel equips the followers of Christ to deal with the challenges of survival. According to National Geographic, the group is nomadic, splitting into the Hill Pokot who practice both farming and pastoralism, and the Plains Pokot who living in dry and infertile plains, herd cows, goats, and sheep.

Kelley explains, “Currently, they’re enduring the worst drought conditions since the 1980s, so it’s having an enormous effect on these pastoralist people who have goats, and cows, and some camels, as well.”

The area where the Pokot live is neglected, with no roads, medical facilities, or schools. It’s also violent because of issues with rival tribes, says Kelley. “There’s a lot of battling back and forth and raiding. It’s like the Wild, Wild West,  where people are taking property and they’re taking animals from one another; unfortunately there are fatalities involved in many of those instances.” A lack of education keeps people so poor that the elders are now sharing concerns about a survivable future for their young people. World Mission and several other holistic ministries are trying to turn that around, physically and spiritually.

Pokot kids with Greg Kelley. (Photo courtesy Facebook)

For the Pokot, hope goes a long way. With a small group of 70 followers of Christ in a new Church, it’s a seed that is bound to grow quickly. Since the people group has an inclination toward spiritual thinking, Kelley closes with this last thought: “Please pray for the Pokot people of Northern Kenya, that the Gospel would get entrenched here, that there would be revival in the land, and there would be peace among the neighboring people groups.”

“The Treasure is making a tremendous impact in Kenya. Churches are being strengthened. Unbelievers are hearing the Gospel for the first time. Lives are being changed.” (Photo and caption by World Mission via Facebook)

Kenya (MNN) — Throughout the Bible, we can see how often God has used unexpected people to do His work. Remember David, the youngest son who killed a giant and became king? What about Paul, once a persecutor of the Christian church who became the church’s biggest advocate?

God is still doing this today. Take the Turkana people in northern Kenya. World Mission is witnessing their desire to go out and reach neighboring people groups with the story of Jesus.

Greg Kelley, CEO of World Mission, says, “I’m here in northern Kenya among the Turkana people at a gathering with their 30 Turkana pastors. And this is one of the under-reached people groups in all of Northern Kenya.

“I always thought, as an organization, that we would see the church in Nairobi mobilized to impact the North because there are so many Christians down in southern Kenya. But what I am learning today is that God is raising up among the minority Christians, even in the Turkana, a calling, a missionary call to go and reach their brothers and sisters among the Borana, and among the Pokot, and among the Samburu, and even into the country of Somalia.”

Joshua Project profiles all of these people groups. According to them, the Turkana are 48% Christians. The rest of the people follow ethnic religions. Joshua Project says their devotion to ethnic religions isn’t usually strong, and so there is little hostile resistance to Gospel.

Among the people groups the Turkana wants to reach with the Gospel, the Borana are 80% Muslim, the Pokot follow mainly ethnic religions, and so do the Samburu.

A group in a northern Kenya desert listening to the ‘Treasure.’ (Photo courtesy of World Mission via Facebook)

“Missionaries are being mobilized from northern Kenya, and it’s so exciting. They’re taking the solar-powered Treasure, our audio Bible in the Turkana language,” says Kelley. “They’re taking it in the Somali language, and God is using the minority groups of Christians in northern Kenya to reach their own. It’s so exciting!”

Pray for God’s Word to continue to be spread and for it to change northern Kenya.