A NOBLE WORK AMONG THE DAASANACH IN NORTHERN KENYA

“For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But how are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news” Romans 10:13-15.

When Stephen Mugiira, an alumnus of 2014 left DPTC, his call was to be a missionary. He had been doing this in Isiolo, but he felt that God wanted him to move to another place. He however was not sure where, as it often happens when God is calling anyone to leave for another place. But as time went by, Stephen and his family devoted themselves to prayer in seeking to know where God wanted them to go, and to what He wanted them to do.

“In February, the lord opened a door for us through a friend in another church. He told me that there was a group of students from East Africa School of Theology that were going to the north for a short term missionary trip. He suggested that I join them” says Stephen. “After this trip, it was clear that God wanted my family to move to Ileret and become a light among the Daasanach.”

The Daasanach people live in the north, bordering Ethiopia and Sudan. They are among the least reached tribes in Kenya, if they are reached at all. They are traditionally pastoralists.

When Mugiira came back from the mission and it was clear that God was calling him to go preach to the Daasanach, he and his family obeyed God’s call and left for the mission field. They left on February 2nd, but arrived in Ileret on 6th. They spent about four days in Marsabit, waiting for a lorry to ferry them to Ileret. There are public transport vehicles going that direction. The only means of transport available are trucks that carry fish from Lake Turkana. Somehow by God’s design they finally found a vehicle and they got to Ileret.

There the group of students that had brought Mugiira with then had erected a building. It only had the roof and frames, without anything on the sides. That was to be the Church. Under that roof they now meet Sunday after Sunday, trusting that the God who sent them there will bring a flock to himself and will also bless them what to finish the rest of the building with. In all that, God is gathering a crop for himself, even among the Daasanach, even to eternal life.

His wife being a primary school teacher, she would join the available school around and minister to children through teaching. It is their hope that they will with time be able to start a good school where pupils will get quality education.

Their children joined a school nearby, Ileret Primary School, where his wife Fradinah Kagwiria teaches, though it does not have as quality education as one would find in Isiolo.

“It is not easy leaving the place we had become used to and had made friends to come out here. When we are here, there is not internet. Even phone connections are weak, and most of the time altogether absent. It is kind of cut from the rest of the world. But we thank God who counted us worthy to share this gospel of salvation. Pray with us that the sharing of the gospel may be effective” says Mugiira.

Communities may be transformed by the presence of internet, water, food, infrastructure, but that does not change anybody’s heart. These though they may be vital, there is a nobler call, a nobler treasure to seek after, THE GOSPEL OF SALVATION.

Yes, there is some noble work happening among the Daasanach, Stephen Mugiira, a graduate of DPTC is being used of God to bring in the harvest to eternal life, to bring the other sheep into the fold.