Emmanuel serves as an elder with Sam Oluoch in Grace Baptist Church Nairobi. He started helping in Sam’s earliest efforts to establish a new church in Nairobi, while working long hours as an Uber driver trying to support himself and his new wife. Now that he is able to devote himself full-time to the work of the church, this will be a huge help in discipling new members of the quickly growing church, as well as evangelizing on university campuses and elsewhere in the city. Sam hopes to eventually send Emmanuel out to start another church in Nairobi.

Testimony of Salvation

I was born and raised in a religious family in the western part of Kenya. We used to go to Salvation Army church as a family. During my high school years, God started a work in my heart that helped me to see the need for godliness. This led to a change of churches in search of truth. After high school I relocated to Nairobi, and, living in the city, my priorities changed.

My pursuit of truth took a pause, and I went into business. I made money to satisfy my fleshly desires and cravings. I lived as a slave to the passions of this world, my master was the prince of this world, and at his command I could do anything to my own destruction. I was indeed dead in my sins. Behold the Lamb of God, who was slain for our transgressions, and while we were yet sinners Christ died for us! It was here in the business world that the Lord showed His grace towards me, a chief sinner. He closed all the avenues of cash flow and all the wells ran dry. One evening in 2012, I went home and cried to God to have mercy on me a sinner.

I shared this with a local Baptist pastor. He was excited and he would call me to go with him for evangelism regularly. While on one of those evangelism trips, I shared with him the desire to learn the Scriptures in-depth and asked if he knew of anywhere I could be helped. He gave me the contacts to his former Bible school, and directed me on how to get there and who to talk to. 

It was at Nairobi Baptist Bible College that I finally understood the Gospel through the lectures and interacting with the Scriptures more regularly. One day when I was doing my devotions in Romans 3, I came under strong conviction of my sins. I couldn’t hold my tears as I beheld the Holy God and how wicked and depraved I was. I repented of my sins and prayed that God would extend His grace towards me.Since then there has been a change within of hating sin and a great love for God and His word. He indeed showed His grace to me, and I was later baptized. He has been supplying the grace that has helped me to look to Him more than before, and through His sanctifying work, there is no longer the love for the world and its things. Through the means of grace – prayer, Bible reading, fellowship – the Lord has helped me to grow in grace and I am still growing.

Call to Ministry

While at Bible college, God was gracious to help me come across the ‘doctrines of grace.’ This shaped my faith and my convictions greatly. I looked around and saw no church that believed or taught the faith that was handed down by our forefathers. It was around this time that a burden was laid on me for souls, and I was troubled when I watched preachers work people’s emotions to repeat a prayer. More disturbing, I saw that those who repeated those prayers held on to that ‘prayer’ as a reason for their conversion, but in observing their lives, you could tell that they are still slaves to this world and its passions.

This was terrifying to me. I knew what this meant and tried to fight it; I wanted to go back to business, but the urge was too strong. The pastor who I used to go with for evangelism gave me opportunities to share the Gospel, and out of this he encouraged me that the Lord was calling me to ministry. After his departure to be with the Lord, another pastor took the responsibility of walking with me. Our regular meetings of prayer and Scripture reading were a great blessing and comfort.

Four years ago, the Lord was gracious to make my path cross with Pastor Sam Oluoch. He helped me to see so many Biblical truths practically, in both personal life and church. We have regular weekly meetings, and this has helped me to grow in my faith so much, and also in how to biblically carry myself as an elder. Sitting under his preaching and leadership has helped me grow more in presenting the gospel, while I’m learning how a biblical church is planted, conducted, and finally constituted. 

The burning desire within to know God and make Him known has been unquenchable. I desire that truth will thunder in this country that people may turn away from believing a lie, from corruption, from syncretism, from wickedness, to the biblical truth. I pray that the Lord will cause a great wind of truth to blow someday in our land.