GO MICRO Kenya

About a year ago, Ralph Rittenhouse was asked to teach a class for multiplying disciples at Full Bright Seminary. This course was based on the book Discipleship Essentials by Greg Ogden. Now the process of making disciples who make disciples is the continuing focus for these last four semesters on into the future. Graduation ceremonies in May in the United States led to another invitation to go to Kenya where over 200 students graduated.

Ralph and Frank Milward participated in the graduation in Kenya and also taught conferences for pastors and youth from Kenya, Uganda, Congo, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Pakistan guests. Over 220 pastors attended and 125 youth built relationships while practicing MicroGroup skills of disciplemaking.

During the week, international guests began arriving: John Peter, a youth pastor from Uganda, Kennedy Gei and two associates from South Sudan were the first to come. Later, Pastor Kibambala and his wife, Joycie from Tanzania joined us.

Monday morning we were glad to see that Nelson Obolli and John Peter, young pastors from Uganda had arrived, after great difficulty. These were all traveling by public buses. Some had difficulty at the border. All are individuals that Bishop John Mugo has been encouraging and training in disciplemaking. John’s extensive influence has become clearly apparent. He is a strong leader and highly respected.

The four-hour disciplemaking training was enthusiastically received with 45 in attendance. Kennedy Gei from South Sudan stood to jokingly confess and repent to the entire group, that he had been doing it wrong. (He had been trying to disciple ten or eleven groups at a time.) Now he saw the great wisdom of focusing on a few, just 3-4 in one MicroGroup, to encourage greater intimacy and transparency, which accelerates transformation.

Very impressive was the urgent requests from multiple pastors for weekly and monthly meetings to keep them accountable for emphasizing disciplemaking in the ministries, and the opportunity to continue learning from each other. Following the training in Ahero, we drove an hour to Muhuroni. We arrived at Sheba Gardens, very primitive guest house in a jungle-like area, that had rooms for our entire team of 18.

Tuesday was scheduled for another training conference hosted by pastor Benson Obolli and his wife, Joy. Their church is called Jesus Celebration Center, in Muhoroni. Benson has been part of a pastor's coaching group that Bishop Mugo and I have been working with for two years. His church has currently, two first generation quads and four 2nd generation quads with 40 individuals attended the training.

The church is in a very impoverished area with almost impassable roads. The church was large enough to seat 100 people comfortably, but made of small trees and branches nailed together. It had corrugated tin roof and walls, and a dirt floor. They have electricity though itis often interrupted. For our seminar it powered a large screen TV that I used for PowerPoint.

I met Pastor Edwin Ochola, during one of our breaks. Edwin, who also lives in the area, started a school (K-12) that eventually grew into a church. Other communities asked him to start churches for them. Now there are 20 more churches that he has appointed laymen to pastor. He wants theological education for these pastors. We, of course, suggested GO MICRO (free book) for them, a simplified version of Transforming Discipleship book for free international distribution. Bishop John will follow-up to help train them.

Gabriel from Rwanda came on Tuesday. He has been in a coaching MicroGroup with Bishop Mugo. After the seminar in Muhoroni, we drove two hours to Nakuru and spent the night at the home of Bishop John and Faith Mugo. 

Wednesday We enjoyed a four hour safari in Nakuru National Park. After the park adventure, we met with the executive of the Nakuru Ministerial Association and several key Nakuru pastors. John had already been talking with them about the GDI materials and method. They are keenly interested. John plans to follow up.

Thursday morning we met with the rest of the pastors from the association for a breakfast meeting. After an hour-and-a-half seminar, there was keen interest. Following the meeting we drove to another location to meet with five other interested pastors. 

Friday was an early morning start, to drive 4 hours to Thika. Approximately 70 pastors and seminary students waited to hear our full training seminar. It was fun to see men and women I had only seen on a computer screen in my Zoom classes. The response in Thika was extremely warm, many stating their intent to begin MicroGroup quads immediately. Frank Milward was always ready to assist in the teaching.

Saturday was the pinnacle of the trip with the Full Bright Seminary graduation where 200+ students, in caps and gowns, excitedly received their certificates and diplomas. Over 100 of these students were asked to come and stand in the front to receive a a disciplemaker's baton and a Certificate of Completion from Global Discipleship Initiative (GDI).

During our time in Kenya, I spoke in three different church services on "How Disciples Grow." Full Bright Seminary conferred a doctorate degree, recognizing the work of disciplemaking through Global Discipleship Initiative training disciplemakers at their seminaries.

Pastors and Professors Respond

Hello Ralph,
Thanks for work at Western Kenya. Dr. Karuri
(notice the batons and certificates folder)

Hello Pastor.
I'm so so delighted to see you and also to be part of the mission of GDI. I thank God for putting you in my path to learn discipleship. Thank you for all and I wish you a safe return home. Rev. Tsonga Paluka, Congo

It was great meeting Dr. Ralph and his team in person. Such a blessing.
Dr. Julius Kimani