Matthews Congregation Pastor, Heath Krueger, had the opportunity recently to visit Kenya with our ministry partner, The Timothy Initiative. Through Here, Near, & Far, New City is working with TTI in East Africa to help them plant over 2,000 churches. When Heath returned, we asked him to share about his experience with New City. He wrote the following:

During the first couple days of my trip, I attended The Timothy Initiative global summit in Nairobi, Kenya. There were 200 TTI staff participating from all over the world—from countries like Brazil, Sri Lanka, Congo, India, and Pakistan. We worshipped together, prayed together, and learned about what it means to build a healthy disciple and a healthy church.

During the final few days, I traveled to Malindi, Kenya—a coastal town—with 12 church leaders from the US.Each day, we visited church plants out in rural areas, worshipping together with the locals and hearing powerful testimonies of God’s love.

We met a woman who thought witch doctors could heal her cancerous tumor but to no avail. She was invited to church by her born-again husband and went forward in response to the gospel message, receiving Jesus as her Lord and Savior, and she was healed of her disease. We also met a man named Jackson, a murderer. He heard and received the gospel and, as a result, left his gang life for good!

The Timothy Initiative’s strategy to plant churches and spread the gospel is inspiring and straight out of the early church discipleship model—the believers in their church plants are truly helping people find and follow Jesus. We saw a line of seven people standing—each one had shared Jesus with the one in front of them, and so on. In one year and one set of relationships, the gospel had seen seven generations of faith! There is urgency and passion to share the gospel and invite others to find and follow Jesus. 

I will never forget how pure, exuberant, and unfiltered the worship and community are among the people I met in Kenya. There’s a laser focus on Jesus and no fear to share his love with others. And there’s nothing added on! Jesus +nothing = everything.

I was struck by the truth that the gospel alone has the power to save lives. It made me ask, Who am I discipling? Where are the Tituses and Timothys in my life? I will never forget how intentional and bold the people I met were in their faith—and how joyful their worship and hearing of God’s Word.

In the end, God taught me that he is enough! My role is just to keep preaching and teaching the Good News—and he will take care of the rest. Also, he qualifies people with his spirit—never doubt who he can use to build his church. His love and grace change lives!

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