Biblical Reformation in Kenya has a long history. Our gratitude will forever be to God and to the missionaries whom he has used over thirty-plus years to introduce and propel the Reformed Faith this far. This is no small or mean chapter.
December 6th to 8th 2011 will remain engraved in our hearts and minds as yet the beginning of another chapter. For the first time, we, as Kenyan Reformed brethren, held a Family Conference. During the preparation, there were moments when the reality of holding the conference became seriously doubtful as we faced numerous challenges. These challenges drove us back to God in prayer and he graciously and mercifully answered and energised us to move on. The official registered number of participants stood at 85. These men (including many pastors), women, boys, girls, and babies came from different parts of the country and from various church backgrounds.
The main conference speaker was Pastor Victor Kanyense of Mt. Makulu Baptist Church, Chilanga, Lusaka, Zambia. We are sincerely grateful for the brethren who facilitated his trip. The conference theme was “Your Family God’s Way” from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. This is a very urgent issue since the Christian family is under serious attack. There were six main sessions and all these were seasoned with plenty of relevant illustrations.
Pastor Michael Otieno of Bethesda Baptist Church, Nairobi, delivered the keynote address. He spoke of “The foundation for godly living” from Paul’s letter to Titus chapter 2 verses 11 to 15. He called our attention to four points: 1) manifestation of God’s grace, 2) training of God’s grace, 3) expectation of Christ’s return, and 4) reason of Christ’s return.
There were three workshop groups: Adults were divided into two groups. One group was led by Pastor Sam Oluoch of Grace Baptist Church (Kisumu), who handled the topic, “How to succeed as a Christian.” The aim was to dissuade our people from the unbiblical view, which charismatics have propagated, which measures success in worldly terms. The point was driven home that if a family lives in the fear of God, there will be “success” in this world. Our focus must be to seek to live not for our own but for God’s glory alone.
Pastor Naphtally Ogallo of Grace Baptist Church (Eldoret) led the second group on the topic, “Living godly in a sinful world.” Temptation to compromise our Christian faith is a daily reality. So often Christians give in to sin and later wonder why they couldn’t stand. The group learned that it is only by constant practice of saying “No!” to “little temptations” that we will dare to defiantly stand against greater temptations. The book of Daniel chapter 6 provided the basis of the discussion.
Brother Lawrence Muiruri of Injili Bible Church (Kawangware, Nairobi) led the third group. It was specially designed for our young people (up to college level) in attendance and dealt with a very relevant issue of “How to choose your celebrity.” Lawrence is exceptionally good with issues affecting the youth. Christ was commended as the ultimate celebrity. The younger children in attendance were also given special attention by a group of very able ladies.
All who commented spoke of how delighted they were to have been present and how much God’s word was shown to be relevant to their family life. However, their only regret was that the conference days were very few!
It is our sincere prayer that though these are the days of little things, the Lord may be pleased to open the windows of heaven and shower us with many more blessings. It is fitting to loosely quote from the “father of modern missions”, William Carey: “We will attempt great things for God for we expect great things from God.” So, we hope to make the Reformed Family Conference an annual event.
Finally, brethren, many of you have been sacrificially involved in the spread of Biblical Reformation in our needy country; we beseech you by the mercies of God to rejoice with us at what God has done and to stand with us in this vision and mission. We thank all who made this conference a success. Please, pray on.
Naphtally Ogallo
Grace Baptist Church, Eldoret, Kenya
