On Sunday the
26th of March the Grace Bible Baptist Church will be celebrating their 20th
anniversary. God allowed us to see this
church organized in the very early days of our time in Kenya. This church was
birthed by our sending church, the Cleveland Baptist Church.
We have a
special service planned and are expecting a couple thousand people in
attendance. We have not tried to have a
big day in attendance since our building dedication in 2004. On that day the crowd was so large we could
not effectively minister to all who were on the property. Since that time we have focused more on
building people into a spiritual mature body then on trying to have high
attendance days. We always have visitors
and our average attendance is over 400 each Sunday, but our emphasis has been
on equipping our people spiritually to properly serve the Lord. I believe that it is partly because of this
decision that God has allowed the Grace Bible Baptist Church to have ministries
far beyond what we ever imagined possible.
Preaching for
us on this very special day in the history of this church will be our pastor,
Kevin Folger. We are excited that he
will again be able to visit Kenya and see all that God has done in this land
through a church that was birthed by the Cleveland Baptist Church. He will also be traveling to the churches in
Burundi and DRCongo.
The Grace
Bible Baptist Church has birthed dozens of churches in several different
countries, been a leader in promoting the cause of missions in Kenyan churches,
and setting an example in both giving to missions and sending missionaries. The church through their missions giving
program has given over $115,000 to missions and regularly sends its members to
other countries. The church understands
that missions is not just the obligation of “rich” churches, but it is also to be their
purpose and biblical mandate
Much
preparation is being done for this day but the most important part of that preparation
will take place this Friday night. The
church will be holding an ALL NIGHT
prayer meeting as we pray for many visitors to attend and for the Holy Spirit
to convict those present and bring them to repentance and faith in Jesus
Christ. We will be praying by name for
family members, neighbors and friends who have been invited to come to this
service.
Although we do
not expect others to join us in an all night prayer service, we are asking
others to join us in prayer for the 20th anniversary service of the
Grace Bible Baptist Church. Please be
part of that prayer team, praying for God to move mightily in Nakuru, Kenya on
the 26th of March.
