Tonny is the pastor of Grace Baptist Church, Kisumu, Kenya. He replaces Sam Oluoch, who was sent by GBC Kisumu to plant a church in Nairobi. Tonny came to Kisumu from Trinity Baptist Church, the ‘mother’ Reformed Baptist church in Kenya, where he studied at their Trinity Pastors’ College.

Testimony of Conversion

I professed faith in the Lord Jesus Christ in 2004 through the preaching of one of the Charismatic church leaders. A year later, I joined another Charismatic church where I served in the church’s mission department before joining Kenyatta University in 2007 to pursue a degree in Mechanical Engineering. During my time in the university, I served with one of the Christian Union’s outreach teams as the mission’s chairman. In 2011 while still at the university, I joined a non-Reformed Baptist Church in Nairobi where I served together with a church planter until 2014.

I came to grasp the Doctrines of Grace through personal interaction with Keith Underhill, a missionary from the UK, during our providential meeting at the Aga Khan Hospital Nairobi. He had been admitted a few days before my wife and I were involved in a terrorist bomb attack on May 4^th 2014. During my time at the hospital, he would join me at my bed for devotions because I was immobile, having sustained orthopedic fractures in both legs.

This was the turning point in my life. He spoke to me, simply but profoundly, the truths of God’s word. God used him to help me understand the mystery of God’s Sovereignty in Providence as he expounded 2 Cor. 12:1-10 next to my bed. This is the time I really understood what the gospel really is. My eyes were opened and I saw the grandeur and radiance of the Gospel of Christ against the dark background of my sins. Since that time, he has always played the role of a father, pastor, and teacher to me. He continued visiting to teach us God’s word even after my wife and I were discharged 2 weeks later. Because I would spend a long time in a wheelchair, he encouraged me to read quite a lot of books and listen to sermons that he often would bring to me every time he visited. In 2017, he encouraged me to join Trinity Pastors’ College, where he teaches, to be theologically equipped for ministry.

Call to Ministry

My call to ministry began in 2005 when the church that I attended identified God’s gift in me. The man who was then my pastor encouraged me into ministry, having identified this gift by creating many opportunities for me to preach, including evangelistic outreach. However, since I really desired to practice engineering after college, I planned to join ministry only as a bi-vocational minister. It is only later, after the accident in 2014, that the Lord convicted me that He had called me to be a full-time minister. For 2 years, the Lord led me to pray about it as I also consulted those who He had used to nurture me in the true gospel. Having been fully persuaded that it was God’s call, I enrolled for a 3-year theological training at Trinity Pastor’s College in 2017 to be thoroughly equipped for the task.

My name is Olivia Karwa. I am thankful to the Lord for granting me His grace unto salvation through faith in the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The Lord saved me in the year 2015 when I was totally lost in sin. The Holy Spirit convicted me of how seriously I needed the Lord Jesus Christ in my life to save me from my sins. I was at that time involved with a Charismatic church where I was deceived to think that I was saved. I even thought that I was truly serving our Lord Jesus Christ.

I met a Kenyan-based missionary from the UK, Keith Under-hill, who preached the gospel to me. The Holy Spirit convicted me of my sins and I repented and turned to the Lord who was gracious to forgive and save me. Since then I have been relying on the Lord Jesus Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit, to work out my salvation with fear and trembling as I wait to meet our Lord Jesus Christ on that final day when He will come for His church. I have put my hope only in the Lord Jesus Christ who is able to save and keep me till the last day.