Awhile back, I asked Jimmy if he could write-out his testimony for us. I appreciate very much that he took "write-to-it" and sent me the testimony of his spiritual journey. Having read this, I also appreciate even more God"s grace and mercy in his life. To watch this miracle unfold and develop in his life before my eyes was something I shall always remember. I now know that our Lord put certain thoughts in my heart that I didn't think much of at the time but I now recognize as God's amazing providence. I also learned something about the amazing power of "encouragement." There are times Jesus lays it on our hearts to encourage someone in some way and in so doing, what we thought was such a little thing can sometimes have enormous benefit regarding the kingdom of God in that person's life. Here's Jimmy's testimony:
My story
I was born almost 34 years ago in the little village called Kibingei on the Eastern slopes of Mount Elgon, near the Kenya-Uganda border. My father was a pastor in the Pentecostal church, and therefore like any minister’s son, my early life was in the church. I gave my life to Christ at the age of 9 and preached my first sermon at the age of 14. My gift in music and oration endeared me to all, making me an admirable young star. This came with the need to be responsible and be a role model to peers, both at school and home. I was to be more mature than the rest, speak in a given style, walk with a certain type of friends and do everything for others, and not me. In the process I was missing something as a child, being denied a chance to grow up like other kids.
Soon, I would be in the company of pastors. Increasingly, I would get to know the inside story about pastors and their families. Amazingly, I would get to know that money meant for the “work of God” was being misused by pastors. From my own home, I saw faces that my mother had to put up to keep her marriage life high-up and adorable. But behind the scenes, she wasn’t all that she meant others to believe about her marriage life. Then there arose a leadership tussle among pastors and one pastor told me, “Jim, I know you’re young and the hand of the Lord is with you. How I wish you would get your own universe to nurture this that the Lord has put in you, because my fellow pastors will destroy it if the Lord cannot protect it. Please, pray for me because I might be killed by a fellow pastor.” He was an anointed good man, so filled with love and compassion. I did not understand what he was trying to say. Well, three days later the pastors had to attend a conference in Nairobi, 500 kilometres away. The bus had to travel overnight. They took some drinks that evening before setting off. This pastor was poisoned by someone that evening and travelled with poison in his system the whole night. They would not stop because they were to be in Nairobi the following morning. This had been carefully arranged. On reaching Nairobi, he was taken to hospital but it was too late; he died!
I was terribly devastated. I wished I had told more people what he had told me before this happened to him. During this funeral, a sister who was my age, another pastor’s daughter confided in me that she was pregnant and would not join the nursing college because of her condition. She confided that her mother was trying to procure an abortion for her but she wasn’t for the idea. I remember that day so well. We sat in a maize plantation until it rained heavily on us, just discussing the issue. We decided that I should let her parents know that people were already aware of her status. That evening I gained courage and went to let her father know that Gillian was pregnant. To my surprise, he chased me with a machete and almost slashed my feet off. I ran fast for my dear life. Two days later, Gillian fell so sick after taking drugs to get the foetus killed. Her father was not around, so I had an opportunity to help her to the nearest health centre. She told me that her mother wanted the foetus dead by the time her father came back. I led her through repentance (I am sure how I did that) and that evening at 8:00 p.m. Gillian slipped through to the next life.
Later that year, a national youth convention for the church was held in the coastal town of Mombasa. Elections were to be held and my name was floated for national youth chairmanship. A close friend, whose father was a pastor, accompanied us to Mombasa. He had wanted his son to be the chairman and I stepped down for him, but the delegates would not agree; they knew I had been arm-twisted. My name was forced on the contestants’ list and I won. My friend, Sammy, sincerely had no qualms with that, but his father, a close friend to my father, was not very impressed. He started witch-hunting me, sending ladies to me to make me fall in sin so that he could blackmail me. I also learned that he had elaborate plans to even have me killed. But on the surface he showed a lot of love.
As a national youth leader, representing over half a million youths in Kenya, I got to know more about pastors, leadership in the institutional church among other games that are played by pastors to manipulate people and remain on top. Perhaps it was too early to be exposed to this. Above all, emptiness started growing in me. I did not see the Love of Christ in the church. Every effort to make a difference was met with opposition from the clergy, who would always call me “young and inexperienced”. I ultimately went through a burn-out and simply quit my position eight months later.
After quitting the position, woes were turned over to my father who got an impromptu transfer from a prosperous church to a far place, to go and plant a church. My father was an obedient man. It was hard but he went and I was with him. Favour from heaven followed us and within six months, the church had over 350 members, with a good percentage crossing the border from the neighbouring Uganda. It was unbelievable when he was transferred again to a more remote village under mysterious circumstances. I was unhappy and decided to leave the church and simply stay at home.
But Hebrews 10v25 kept bugging me. I needed fellowship and to get it I started searching for a ‘good church’, therefore moved to different churches. I read the Koran, and went to a mosque but my void remained unfilled. I read the Watchtower literature and books written by William Branham but did not get what I was looking for. I read the Book of Mormon and joined the LDS church, but still emptiness engulfed my soul.
When I was posted by the teachers’ service commission of Kenya to teach in a boys’ high school in Western Kenya, I tried to keep a low profile with regards to my beliefs. I wanted to remain very private and to myself. The Lord had kept me safe from going so astray even at that point of great darkness in my life. In the school (Anglican sponsored), there was a boy who was demon possessed and would wake up in the night, run around and smear his body with mud and sometimes faeces. The school administration maintained that he had psychological problems and kept taking him out for counselling. I knew exactly where the problem was but I kept off, never wanted to step in and help, for fear of getting out of my little self-made closet. Within no time, the young man was found by a neighbour who was not informed about his condition. The old man drove a spear through the boy’s neck and he died on his way to hospital. In my heart I knew my pride and negligence had caused this death. I simply couldn’t run away from this thought that kept taunting me.
The following Sunday I decided to go to church. A brother worshipped the Lord so well and while enjoying the Lord’s presence in the midst of it, getting what I had missed for a long time, the pastor steps right inside and stops the worship, asking people to give “while the anointing of the Holy Ghost is still around to get the greatest blessing”. I entered my wallet and emptied it all and walked toward the huge heavy white collection basket. Seeing how smartly dressed I was and how much money I gave, he stops me, to anoint me with olive oil. He has seen a good ‘customer’. Just before he lays his olive oil littered fingers on me, I hear a voice so loud and clear commanding me, “Stop him!” I stretched forth my hand and stopped his arm in the air before he touched my brow with the anointing oil. I stepped back and started walking away. His men followed me, jeering at the ‘demon’ in me. When one charged towards me, I clenched my fist ready to fight. They got scared and left me alone. I walked outside and went straight home.
Now I got even more confused. I was sure something was terribly wrong with me. Perhaps they were right, I had a demon; I thought to myself. But what about the voice that had commanded me to stop him? I lost all peace within me and went without food, and without prayer, into spiritual oblivion. The following day, while sitting in the staffroom at 10:00 a.m. with my colleagues, watching TV, there came an advert on the screen. A prominent bishop had lost his wife and there was an account number to send money to. The moment I saw that account information the previous day’s indignation overshadowed me again and I left my seat and walked fast to my apartment. Two colleagues, Mr. Simon Sitati and Francis Walukana followed me quickly. I felt it was time to share my feelings with somebody. So we sat in my bedroom and I told them what I was going through.
Amazingly they, especially Mr. Sitati, had experienced a similar crisis for a good number of years and had stopped going to church for years now because he had failed to meet the living Saviour in the church. Like me, Simon had moved from church to church seeking out something that no church would give. We talked the whole day and did not attend to our duties. And as we talked, I saw a light shine above my head. Finally, solace started coming to my soul. We resolved to start a fellowship for the three of us in my house. As we held hands to pray, the power of God came upon me. I felt the love of Christ all over my body, and tapped into something very new and special- the living presence of the Lord in fellowship. We started meeting on Fridays. Other teachers started joining us and soon, we were 20 people, with some teachers from the neighbouring schools also coming. A revival was happening in the school even among students, even when we hadn’t involved them in the new found thing that we were unable to explain even ourselves.
I started reading the Bible once more from Matthew chapter 1. By the time I read John 21v25, I had discovered so many things about the life and workings of the Lord that never crossed my mind before. I went back and read the four gospels again, making notes in my Bible. When I read these books the third time, I felt permitted by the Spirit to enter the book of Acts of the Apostles. I remember the night I read Acts chapter two. I was with my neighbour, Priscah and her three daughters. The power of the Holy Spirit came upon us. We worshipped through the night, and it was such a short night. Those young girls worshipped without stopping for eight hours. The Holy Spirit was working through them. I continued in study and Brother Simon, who stayed far from us and would not join us in the night started a fellowship at his house. When I visited with them, the power of God was so strong in the house that a man who was sick got healed. The Lord was starting to open his grace in an amazing way as I uncovered truths about His person and His New Testament church as opposed to what was being practised in the name of “church.”
One evening I was reading Acts 15v36- And some days after Paul said unto Barnabas, let us go again and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord, and see how they do. After reading these words I went to my computer and connected it to the internet, and googled “The New Testament Church”. There and then entered a new world. I discovered that we have others outside practising what I had just been discovering. I saw the site www.simplechurch.com and when I entered there and read the things that were being written. Sleep left me for almost two weeks, and each night I dug and dug deep into the revelations that were found in the organic church movement. The Lord started linking me up with friends that I connected and webbed well with. Among the very fast people to connect so tightly with was Brother Clark Wade. And immediately, with all the naivety, I felt the need to go out and tell others and start simple churches in homes like it had happened in the New Testament time.
Luckily, schools were soon going on holiday and I would have a whole month to do what the Spirit had tasked me to do. Notable among the people that continued offering spiritual support, guidance and prayer were Brother Clark Wade from the Crescent City, California and Sister Rebecca Whetstine and her husband Mel. Brother Clark introduced me to Jack Fortenberry, who had written a book The Corinthian Elders which he sent me for free. When I read that little book, I got an illumination to the revelation of leadership in the New Testament church. I started going out and starting simple churches in homes, and everywhere we started a fellowship, the Holy Spirit was so fully present. Signs and wonders were being experienced, with people getting healed, prophesies being decreed about the marvellous work that the Holy Ghost was about to perform in Africa. In just one month, I helped start 14 fellowships across the country and all of them were on fire for the Lord.
I kept daily correspondence with Clark alive and his prayers and counsel were of great importance. Clark introduced me to Roger Thoman, a church planter who had already been to Africa. Later that year, I met Roger in Kitale with my wife and had three days’ training together. We felt more equipped for the work of the ministry but I felt directed to strengthen the existing fellowships and not plant more. For a space of two years I have worked with these home churches, learning leadership through experience, patience, prayer for the brethren, dealing with falling away, having faith for healing of those who are sick and afflicted, finance management etc. There was a recent addition and now they are 23 fellowships, all immersed in the living truths that come from the Holy Spirit.
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