My Top 5 Experiences in Kenya
Experiencing OMS' VCP Firsthand
Despite being squished in the middle seat between two linebacker-like fellows for the 17-hour flight to Nairobi, Kenya, and being denied a fourth cup of water, resulting in dehydration, my excitement for the upcoming trip could not be quenched. My anticipation for the next 11 days of ministry grew exponentially over those many near-sleepless hours.
As a longtime missionary, I had traveled to 27 countries but had never ventured to the African continent or to any of its 54 nations.One Mission Society’s Africa leadership team invited me and my Communications Department coworker Ryan to attend the annual OMS Village Church Planting supervisors meetings in mid-October 2023. They wanted us to train our national supervisors to better share their stories, photos, and videos of God working in their regions.
We successfully presented our workshops and are reaping the benefits today by receiving great God-driven stories from our African leaders. I also caught the vision for what the Lord is doing in this beautiful, contrast-filled land, which helps me share these stories with passion.
I could tell you many instances of God at work in Africa, but I will share my top five experiences.
- I participated on a Nairobi National Park safari, which is the only safari in the world located within a capital city. This (most likely) once-in-a-lifetime experience is one I will never forget. We saw lions, rhinos, hippos, giraffe, Cape buffalo, and so much more.
- The safari was an incredible extracurricular activity but not the only highlight of the trip. I also attended a Sunday morning OMS village church service. At the beginning of the service, I didn’t know how closely tied to OMS it was, so when they began thanking God for OMS during the worship service, I cried. I cried again when they asked me to share a word from the Lord. Before heading to Kenya, I had just begun to work on the 2023 Give Hope This Christmas campaign. One of the regularly featured projects is Bibles for African church planters. God was about to bless my socks off! I shared about Give Hope and what I do in Communications. One by one, people stood up with Bibles in hand to say, “I got my first Bible from OMS. I use my Bible to share the Good News with neighbors. I am now a church planter in training.” I was overwhelmed that I had played a small role in their lives and ministry!
- I was thrilled when OMS Africa leader, Dean Davis, invited me to the Africa headquarters of the JESUS Film Project. We learned all about how they ensure each JESUS film backpack (which contains the film, a projector, a solar panel that can recharge the battery and connects to the projector, screens, poles, cable chords, and speakers that reach an audience of up to 200 people) functions well before they distribute them throughout Africa. OMS has partnered with the JESUS Film Project ministry for the past several years and received many of these backpacks with much fruit as a result! OMS workers have distributed 54 JESUS film backpacks over the years. What an honor to pray over the new backpacks with the JESUS film team before gifting the backpacks to our area supervisors. Showing this movie has inspired thousands upon thousands of decisions for Christ over the years.
- Getting to meet, eat with, and interview our African national leaders was a joy. God has truly blessed OMS with impressive leadership, both African and North American. Special thanks to Chuck Rapp, Africa regional director, and Claude Douti, director of Village Church Planting, for making this experience so impactful. Our African supervisors are hardworking, smart, resourceful … and the statistics in the 32 nations where we serve continue to improve and grow. We know these numbers represent ministry multiplication and people giving their lives to Christ!
- And finally, OMS missionary, Jon Stone, introduced us to digital mapping. Last year, our leaders were trained in how to send the locations of our nearly 800 training centers through their phones, using latitude and longitude coordinates. Through digital pins on a map, Jon demonstrated where all of our current training centers are located then used a different color to show all the unreached people group areas and overlaid them. It visualized how OMS’ goal of having a church in every African village by 2050 is a true possibility, with God’s continued blessing. Incredible!
Would you pray for our Village Church Planting ministry and the eight area supervisors (Boopolo, Mathieu, Henoc, Peter, Lackson, Thierry, Wolf, and Brice) as they lead their respective teams? To God be the glory!
Respond for Impact
Would you like to give to help ministry among our VCP workers? You can give toward a Bible here: https://onemissionsociety.org/Projects/detail/bibles-for-africa-1
and for a bicycle here: https://onemissionsociety.org/Projects/detail/transportation-for-vcp-workers
By Susan Loobie, Director of Communications, One Mission Society