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PASTOR DAVID NDEGWA

Church Location: Kayole

Description:

Christian Missions Fellowship Church Kayole was a venture of faith from the word go. When God gave Dr. Joe the call to go to Kayole, he did not know the place or anybody who lived here. With a band of 5 musicians (Tazama) they conducted a 5 day crusade and started meeting in a goat shed. Thank God for George Williamson, a former missionary and friend of the ministry who preached in some of the initial crusades. By the grace of God, the church has grown from the humble beginnings of meeting in a goat shed to a wonderful cathedral which also houses a church school. When it was time for Dr. Joe and his family to move to the United States for further studies, God graciously raised Pastor David Ndegwa to lead the ministry. Even while away in the U.S., Dr. Joe and First Lady Antoninah Wamutitu continue to give oversight to the churches and other associated ministries in Kenya; including Africa Hope Center and C.M.F. Excellent Education Center. Every year Dr. Joe travels to Kenya to train leaders and to cast the vision of missions, church planting and holistic empowerment.

THE PASTOR’S ACCOUNT

I joined Christian Missions Fellowship through my wife’s invitation.

I was working for African Retail Traders (A.R.T.) was based in Mombasa while my wife operated a business in Kayole Estate. At the time we resided and attended fellowship in Dandora Estate whenever I came to Nairobi every end of the month.

After some time, my wife begun to find it difficult to commute from Dandora every day. One weekend, when I came back to Nairobi on my usual end-of –the-month trips, we shifted from Dandora to Kayole Estate. We also talked to our Pastor in Dandora to allow my wife to change the church because it was burdensome to be commuting to Dandora for fellowship every Sunday with two young children.

The Pastor never objected. In fact he directed us to a church that he believed will be a blessing to us. It was difficult for my wife to adapt to the new church but she had to due to the circumstances at the time.

In that same period, Rev. Dr. Joseph Wamutitu had just shifted from Kibra and started a vibrant church in Kayole, just a stone-throw away from where our house was. When my wife went to find out what kind of church it was, she became a member and has been to-date. She shared with the new Pastor (Rev. Dr. Joe Wamutitu) about her family predicament and the church started praying for our family.

When I came to Nairobi as usual at the end of the month, she invited me to her new church where I was warmly welcome. Definitely this was a good church. I enjoyed the worship, the preaching and the evening service. I was given an opportunity to greet the people and to say something about myself, which I did gladly.

Later, Rev. Dr. Joe shared with us and we shared with him our needs and he promised that he, together with the church, will commit themselves to pray for our family, first for my transfer back to Nairobi, then for our family’s spiritual and financial needs. Because of the burden that Reverend Joe took on behalf of my family, I was instantly won over by the love. I decided that as a family, we shall henceforth be worshiping at Christian Missions Fellowship (C.M.F.) church.

In the month of July 1995, our prayers were answered and I got a transfer to the company’s Thika branch. I decided that I would not rent a house in Thika but instead opted to be commute from Kayole every day. This went on for three years and I got a transfer to Nairobi. I became an active member of the Christian Missions Fellowship church and occasionally the Pastor called upon me to preach.

I did not know what God had in store for me. I was called upon to serve in the church’s executive board and later to lead the men’s fellowship as the chairman. I had a strong desire and zeal to serve God but was not aware that God had His plans set out for me.

As I continued to serve God diligently and obediently under Reverend Joe Wamutitu, it happened that the he was invited to attend a Morris Cerullo conference in Israel. Since he was to be away for a month, he assigned me some Pastoral responsibilities. When he returned from the conference, he commended me for the good work and I thought that was the end but it was not to be.

Barely a year later, Rev. Dr. Joe Wamutitu got a scholarship to go for further studies at Fuller Theological College in the U.S. He called me and told me that I needed to brace myself for more Pastoral work as he intended to be away from the church for a much longer period. At the time, the church was going through a healing season after a major shake-up that had shaken her to the core.

It felt like the wrong timing but I was relieved when I thought about what could have happened if the shake-up had occurred in the Pastor’s absence.

Back at home, my wife was not very enthusiastic with the idea of me becoming a Pastor. She was concerned that we had young children whose needs were growing by the day and in our view, the church was not meant to support us but the contrary. She had no objection with serving but could not give her consent for me to resign from my employment.

Eventually, the time for Rev. Dr. Joseph Wamutitu to leave for the U.S. came and I was left at the helm of doing the work of ministry in acting capacity i.e. preaching and counseling. This prompted me to intensify my prayers and fortunately the first lady, Pastor’s wife had been left behind and together with the church’s executive board offered me a lot of support. Mrs. Antoninah Wamutitu was very experienced in church administration and therefore shouldered some of the responsibilities which mitigated the effects of the vacuum that had been left by the Senior Pastor, Rev. Dr. Joseph Wamutitu. However, this cushion was short-lived as Mrs. Antoninah Wamutitu soon joined her husband in the U.S.

With this huge burden of ministry upon my shoulders, I had no alternative but to immerse myself in seeking God for enablement and wisdom. Although I felt inadequate, God’s grace was upon me and God’s power was made manifest in my weakness. Six months later the Pastor came back to the country but I had not yet made up my mind as to whether I was to take up the Pastoral responsibility or not.

That notwithstanding, Rev. Dr. Joseph Wamutitu announced to the church that his study leave had commenced and that he was handing over the Pastoral responsibilities to me. Consequently he and the leadership laid their hands upon me to commission me for the work. I grudgingly took over the oversight role of both the church and academy.

I soon realized that pastoring a congregation of over 500 people was no mean task. Apart from preaching, there were many visitations to be made alongside counseling and regular meetings with leaders and church workers.

I also learnt that sometimes it is difficult to demarcate between personal or family time and ministry time. Many at times I was called upon at odd hours of the night by church members asking for my assistance in times of crisis. It was indeed a baptism by fire but the grace of God was sufficient for me.

The lowest moment of my ministry was in October 2005 when I received a call at 3a.m. that the church building was on fire. I woke up hurriedly and rushed to the church, not minding the insecurity in the estate at the time.

On arriving at the church, I was shocked to see a huge ball of fire oozing from the strong room adjacent to the altar area. It was unbelievable and painful to see the House of God burn. It was like watching a horror movie on a giant screen.

Luckily, the neighbors who had been woken up by the commotions responded and frantically tried to salvage the furniture and other items that had not been razed by the blaze. The fire engine arrived too little too late as the roof at the altar area had already caved in. We lost the entire sound and multi-media equipment that we had heavily invested in over the years; not even a single microphone was left.

I was at crossroads, too confused to think. I did not know what to tell the church in that instance. God gave me an idea to call the members for a meeting that following evening, which I did. Almost the entire church responded and I could see from their faces that they were truly shaken and moved by the incident. Some of the women wept uncontrollably while the men just stared into the dark.

During that evening meeting, over Kshs. 200,000 was raised and come the following Sunday we had a new set of sound equipment. We demarcated the church in the middle in order to seal the front half that had been destroyed by the fire and utilized the remaining half for our church meetings.

So many allegations and accusations were leveled against us as people tried to explain why a church altar had to burn. Some claimed there was immorality in the altar while others claimed that God had a bone to pick with the Pastor. Many members left the church. It was indeed a very painful experience for me as a servant of God.

After the incident, despite the fact that some members had left, the church became very vibrant. The members that had remained became very committed and supportive. There was a strong cohesive bond that we all shared and the Holy Spirit moved mightily amongst us in our meetings like we had never experienced before.

By December 2006, exactly 14 months after the fire incident, the church had raised Kshs. 1.8 million towards reconstruction of the sanctuary, besides the tithes and offerings. Exactly 2 years later, we had reconstructed the entire roof and a semi-two story office block to accommodate the Pastoral staff and the Accounts office.

Looking back, I can confidently say there is no ministry related challenges I have not gone through in my many years as a Pastor. But through all these, I have also come to know God deeper in the sense that I always owe him glory for his surpassing faithfulness. With much enthusiasm gained alongside my service to God, I have drawn conclusion that in every venture, greater the battles are potential great victories. Most of these challenges have toughened my stance such that I have become resilient to any kind of threat. “Greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world”.1 John 4.4.

We have seen the faithfulness of God as a ministry and congregation and with the guidance and support of our overseer Rev. Dr. Joseph Wamutitu, we are fired up and looking forward to reclaiming the vision and dreaming bigger as the Lord leads us into the new season and as we celebrate our overseer Rev. Dr. Joseph and Antoninah Wamutitu and our ministry’s golden jubilee.