WE ARE FROM THE TRIBE OF HALLELUJAH!

Praise the Lord rings out in church in the native language of 7 tribes. How does God top giving the gift of salvation to over 20 souls on a Sunday morning? By calling out new missionaries from within the slum to reach the toughest and fastest growing people group in the town of Kitale.

As the invitation closed, the new believers had been prayed over and escorted to meet with pastors
and counselors for immediate follow-up and Bible distribution, Pastor Richard took the podium one
last time. He asked for the young boys from the Kipsongo slum to come forward so the church
could pray over them. As the young men walked to the front, there were no “boys” in the group. The shortest young man was over 6 feet tall. Muscles rippling on every one of them. They looked like they had just unloaded from a university team bus and were getting ready to whip any and all comers.

Kipsongo is the slum near the Seeds Feeding Station and School. It was our first major partnership venture with Pastor Richard and Hellen. Kipsongo is filled with bootleggers, drunks, prostitutes, and bandits. In other words, it is an evangelistically target rich environment!

The problem is, the people of Kipsongo don’t take kindly to outsiders in their slum. Nothing legal, moral, or good takes place in this slum. Death, disease, and danger thrive in the sewage and filth of this hellish place to live. Seeing 9 sober young men from Kipsongo in church is a miracle in itself. Seeing 9 young Kipsongo dwellers standing in an altar to be commissioned as missionaries to a new evangelistic enterprise—that stretches even my understanding of an omnipotent God!

The young men are friends with the Boda Boda community in Kitale. Boda Boda is Kenyan for motorcycle taxi. The city crawls with them like fire ants pouring from a just stepped on mound. It’s a tough crew. Lots of gang activity. Lots of illegal stuff linked to this crowd. And overall, they just have the look of the type of guys you want to avoid if possible.

But they love their motorbikes! They take great pride in the tool of their trade. Seldom will you see
a motorbike with dirt or mud on it. The roadside “carwashes” stay jammed 24/7. And the roadside
carwash is exactly the tool these 9 young men are going to use to spread the gospel to their Boda
Boda peers. God crafted these Kipsongo evangelists in their mother’s wombs, kept them alive
through the nourishment of the feeding station, ripped their bodies with muscles,, let them grow up surrounded by death, disease, and trouble. In short…there ain’t much that is going to make
these 9 Kipsongo Slum evangelists flinch or run.

While your motorbike is being washed, it is customary to catch up on all the current street gossip.
Crowds of sboda boda drivers fill the shoulders of every road in Kitale. The Kipsongo evangelist’s
plan is to have two members of their car wash team sharing the Gospel with each Boda Boda driver
that is having their motorbike washed. It’s a captive audience with a willing witness on hand.
That is just a genius God design!!!

These unemployed slum boys become young entrepreneurs. They make a living. They generate
pride in their accomplishment of being self-sustaining. And, they preach the Gospel while working.
Jeff Moser’s East Africa Ministry is designed to partner with just these types of micro-enterprise
ministries. I sat in the back seat of Richard’s car and eavesdropped on the 3 minute conversation
about this new ministry.

Richard: These Kipsongo boys are ready to begin their carwash ministry as soon as God provides
the machine (power washer) they need to get started. I want to buy them the machine, but I don’t
have funds budgeted for this new ministry enterprise.

Jeff: How much does the power washer cost? Richard: _ _ _ _ _ Kenyan Shillings.
Jeff: Our ministry would love to do that. We’ll buy the machine.
Richard: I will order it from Eldoret. It can be here Tuesday.
Done deal!

God put the right person with the right resources in the right place at the right time to bring about
one of the most amazing evangelistic outreach enterprises I have seen in Kenya.

We are talking hundreds…no, thousands of Boda Boda drivers across Kenya. This ministry model
is easily duplicated. All you need are some converted, spirit-filled slum tough guys who are called
to hard work and sharing the Gospel with dangerous men. Piece of cake!…FOR GOD and the
disciples that ministries like Pastor Richard’s are raising up.

Today, God raised the bar of my expectations once again. I am reminded of how limited my ministry
imagination is compared to God’s plans and desires to see His Gospel preached to every tribe and
tongue. Unlikely people doing unimaginable ministry in uniquely dangerous but fertile Gospel soil. I
expect these Gospel seeds to grow quickly. I guess I better get busy training some more pastors.

Looks like we’ll need more churches soon. I’ll get on that first thing in the morning. The
LandCruiser pulls out for Mt. Elgon training center just after sunrise.

It rained hard today. In Arkansas we call it a “frog-strangler.” The streets in Kitale were rivers. We
waded them to get to the hotel conference room for the men’s conference this afternoon. When I
got back to the guesthouse tonight, the dark clouds were sitting on Mt. Elgon and the thunder
echoed through the valley. Looks like a winch and tractor day getting to Mt. Elgon in the morning.
That kind of day is right down this old redneck preacher’s alley. But just in case…it wouldn’t hurt for
you to pray us up the mountain.

Thanks for sending me. I would not have wanted to miss today.

Your prayers = my fuel.
By, grace, your brother,
Mike Curry
Eph. 6:19-20