Heart of Light Fellowship Church; Kisii, Kenya

Years ago, we attended a Willow Creek-type church for a while. We had been hurt by a church split and needed a place to attend while we sorted out what exactly had happened and where to go from there. It was a “seeker-sensitive” church, and following the lead of Willow Creek, it was not biblically deep. Those attending were predominantly made up of younger people, and the members seemed excited about the church. We were a bit surprised, though, when several approached us and asked if we would teach a small-group class on the Bible. They liked to be part of a church where they could invite their friends to hear the gospel, but they felt they weren’t learning much about the Scriptures, and they wanted to know how to read, understand, and apply what it taught. How could we say no? Although we are many years from those days and all of us in the group now attend different churches, some of them still call us occasionally to ask questions about Bible passages or certain claims others, perhaps their pastors, have made about the Bible. They just want to know what the meaning of the passage is.

Often, when we have the opportunity to lead someone out of a cult, one of the very first things we have to do is address how to read the Bible in its historical-grammatical context. Many of the Bible-based cults (and these days, too often churches) pick and choose verses from the Bible and use them out of context to support a spurious teaching that “needs” a bible verse to lend it credibility. Cults like Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, and others, as well as false teachers in the church like the New Apostolic Reformation, are masters at that. As we unknot these issues of context, they are often surprised at what they find in Scripture and are strengthened by the word of God.

But what happens to someone who has very little access to the word of God? A few weeks ago in What is Spiritual A.I.D.S.?, and referenced an interesting passage in Nehemiah 8. The context was the return of the Israelites from captivity in Babylon and the people’s subsequent rebuilding of the wall around Jerusalem. The people were hungry for some real spiritual understanding since they had lived in a deeply pagan society for so long. In Nehemiah 8:1 we read:

And all the people gathered as one man into the square before the Water Gate. And they told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses that the Lord had commanded Israel. 

The people were hungry and ached to know their God and His word. Here is how Ezra and the priests approached the reading in verse 8:

They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading. (Nehemiah 8:8)

On July 25, 2024, we received a message on the MCOI Facebook page:

I am pastor Danson, I have been going through your ministry page, and I am here to request you to teach my church members and children the word of God, through a Whatsapp video call or zoom meeting.

I was a little taken aback. We, like many ministries, receive many contacts from overseas, most of them asking for money. This, however, was a first. A pastor contacted us with the sole request to teach his “church members and children the word of God.” I was a little unsure about this and asked for a bit more information. His response was helpful:

Thanks so much for your response and inquiry. I appreciate it so much. I have a young ministry church located in Kenya at Kisii. The church’s name is Heart of Light Fellowship Church. My father started the ministry as the founder, but he died after a few years, and then I took over the leadership after my father.

This intrigued me, but naturally, there was the issue of translation on my mind, which I related to the Pastor. Pastor Danson responded:

I will do the translation for them so that they have no problem, as well let us keep praying over the same for God’s guidance.

We scheduled a time to meet over the Internet to talk and get a better feel for what he was looking for. To my surprise, half of the congregation was there. They wanted to learn. The pastor is concerned about false teachers and his people’s lack of sufficient biblical grounding to defend themselves against them. So, I started the teaching by stressing the importance of context and what exactly it is. I used the story of Nehemiah and how Ezra and the priests “read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense so that the people understood the reading.” We officially started the teaching venture last Saturday. It was and will be 8:00 AM Central time here and 4:00 PM there. I took them through a brief overview of the Old Testament, pointing out important highlights that will come up in the New Testament.

It is a poor area, and except for the Pastor, the congregation doesn’t currently have Bibles. The church has about seventy members, and we are working to get them Bibles in their own language. Most can read, and those who cannot want to learn.

This is all very different from serving in ministry in the United States, where, as our Senior Researcher Ron Henzel says, “We have an embarrassment of riches in all of the resources we have at our fingertips,” but too few Christians invest the time to use them in gaining a better understanding of the word of God for themselves. As we pointed out a few weeks ago, many Westerners have, sadly, come to believe the Bible is not enough to meet their needs, and they are on a spiritual search for “something more.” Ironically, they are turning to false teachers to teach them falsehoods. In Kisii, Kenya, people are hungry for the word of God; the Christians in Kisii, at least at Heart of Light Fellowship Church, want to know what the Bible says and how they can apply it to their lives. We do not know where exactly this is going to go, but we are excited and happy about the opportunity – it is a breath of fresh air. Please pray for us and for the congregation in Kenya.Ω

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