Athi River

Athi River

October, 2006
Alan met Pastor Mark when he was working at Restoration Miracle Church as the Youth Pastor there. Pastor Mark left RMC because he felt God was asking him to plant a church at Athi River. When I met Pastor Mark in October, 2006 he had already moved to Athi River about 4 months ago. Pastor Mark lives with his wife Sophie and his son, Asaph.
The Saturday we were to go to Athi River we went to Nairobi in the morning to buy instruments, God had led us to bless them with musical instruments. Pastor Mark had told us that they needed a key-board and speakers.
We arrived at Athi River and in the evening we helped them set up for the crusade. This is the first time for me to be in a crusade and I didn't really know what to expect. At around 5 p.m. we started walking to the place where they had erected a stage, which is just a small 6 by 8 platform on stilts, enough for 4 people to be up with their mikes and sing or preach.
There were lots of kids and they enjoyed the music and danced around in front of the stage. Sophie, the Pastor's wife led the praise and worship and then someone evangelized and spoke in Kiswahili, told them where the church was, and had a call for salvation, some of the kids said they would come to Sunday school.
The next day we sent out early to the church, which was just a rented space which could only fit a dozen chairs for people to sit. There were two families that made up the church, a mother with 2 daughters, two or three singles and a business man and his family who is supporting Pastor Mark with the rent. We saw about 5 kids from the night before, sitting at the back. After the service we all went for lunch with Pastor Mark and Sophie and her 2 sisters who came to help them with the crusade. They said they would have another crusade this afternoon and asked us to stay, and if we stayed they would be able to drive us back to Nairobi, so we stayed. This time the crusade was more lively with church members attending and at the end, Alan almost started a riot with his giving out candies and the children kept following him all the way back to the church site. Benjamin drove us back to Donholm with Mark and Sophie accompanying us.
Benjamin is the business man who helped pay the rent for the church site.

Update, October, 2007
When we returned to Canada Pastor Mark kept in touch with us. He has been having struggles after struggles. There is a lot of spiritual warfare in Athi River and this is the reason that none of the churches has flourished.
His church has grown enough to have the church site filled now and he is hoping to get a bigger place for the church site.
Benjamin, their biggest benefactor has been having business difficulties and has now stopped helping them with paying for the church rent.
We believe Pastor Mark is spirit led and has a vision to convert all the people in Athi River. If you are so led, to support the spreading of the Gospel to the lost, Pastor Mark is someone for you to consider supporting.