Living in View of Eternity

Picture an 11-seater public van packed with 20 people, enough food to feed an entire village for a week, and livestock squeezed in. There’s a 50-kilometer (31-mile) stretch on dirt roads from the main highway—think rocky, dusty roads, sweaty passengers, leather-covered benches that leave you drained and exhausted: That’s the road to Pokot, our mission field.

Pokot, in the northwestern region of Kenya, is a previously unentered territory that ALIVE-Kenya has been ministering to for the past 15 years. The area is dry, war-infested, and underdeveloped.

A typical mission schedule kicks off at 4:30 a.m. and ends at 10:00 p.m. Each day we’d walk 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) to fetch water from the river before going door-to-door sharing the gospel, often walking 10 to 20 kilometers (6 to 12 miles) in the scorching sun.

ALIVE (Africans Living in View of Eternity) is a group of students and young professionals who believe in the imminent return of Christ. We have vowed not only to look forward to but also to hasten His coming.[1] 

The Road to Pokot

Three years ago, in 2022, we traveled to Pokot in our own hired bus, which was an answer to prayer and a gift from God. Though the 16-hour journey ended up taking 40 hours, it was a reminder that God wants to develop in us “a faith that can endure weariness, delay, and hunger—a faith that will not faint though severely tried.”[2]

We weren’t prepared for a puncture, sleeping in the middle of nowhere, or the fact that all the watermelons we had budgeted for the three-week mission trip would be eaten up in transit. But hey, that’s all part of the adventure! The road to Pokot was a total mess; a ditch separated us from the other side, and our attempts to cross resulted in two blown tires. Getting new tires meant waiting for rescue from Nairobi, which was 10 hours away. The public transportation on that route operated only on specific days, so we weren’t sure how long we would have to wait. 

In the face of these challenges, we resorted to prayer. Joyfully we began to pray and sing aloud. We chose songs centered on faith, and the Lord truly gave us the strength we needed. Not a single murmur was heard as we peacefully locked the bus door and rested under the cold desert night sky. 

In the morning we went to worship by the roadside, and as we sang it felt as if heavenly power had descended. People started approaching us, and we began sharing the good news of Jesus’ love with them. Then we looked for rocks to fill the ditches. From a distance we saw a house where we borrowed a jembe (hoe) to help us. It wasn’t easy to fit the rocks into the trenches, but the teamwork I witnessed will forever remain a symbol of the oneness Jesus speaks of in John 17. We worked while singing, stopping only to pray, until the trenches were filled. 

With punctured tires we faced the rugged terrain, walking along so the bus would be as light as possible. We continued singing songs of triumph and sharing stories of what God had done for us.

I’ve come to realize that mission isn’t just about doing something once a year; it’s about living a life of service.

The Mission

On this mission trip the prayer request in all households we visited was for water. It had not rained for two years! The river where we fetched water from was the same place where both clothes and motorbikes were washed, and livestock was watered. Your one stop for even cooking and drinking water. We prayed that our stomachs would not get upset and asked God that this water, which was bitter in the mouth, would be medicine in the stomach. And the Lord did it; not a single missionary fell ill!

Despite several seasons of prayer and fasting for rain, however, the sky remained clear. We had hoped for an immediate response to our fervent prayers, reasoning that Elijah, “a man with a nature like ours,” prayed. “And the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit” (James 5:17, 18). Yet despite the apparent delay in God’s answer, we steadfastly maintained our faith.

At the marketplace where we conducted public evangelism every evening, villagers gathered in large numbers. We had been projecting the prophecy series, and for a remote community such as this, this was a cinematic spectacle that none would dare to miss. Even those who were not interested in the teachings simply came to witness the visuals. 

As we reached the end of our time in Pokot, we prepared for the sermon on the meaning of 666 in Revelation 13:18. That evening ominous clouds gathered and the wind howled, heralding an impending storm. Momentarily we contemplated requesting God to postpone the rain until the message had been fully articulated. But as a single droplet swelled into an unprecedented downpour that persisted throughout the night, we welcomed God’s timing in answering our prayers. Despite arriving at camp drenched in water, we were left with an overwhelming sense of gratitude for God’s benevolence. 

The Harvest

Every December we organize a three- to four-week mission trip to different parts of Pokot where door-to-door ministry, medical outreach, and public evangelism are carried out. In partnership with the North Rift-Valley Conference, a Bible worker is then contracted for two years to nurture the young flock. When we first arrived in Pokot in 2010, there were no Adventist congregations. Today Pokot has 5,785 baptized members in the 36 churches and 49 Sabbath Schools that have been planted.

ALIVE-Kenya is not only involved in missions to rural areas. We organize missionary outreach throughout the year, from reaching out to the sick, helping the homeless and those in prisons, to literature evangelism and medical outreach in the cities. I’ve come to realize that mission work isn’t just about doing something once a year; it’s about living a life of service. ALIVE has taught me that I need to live out missions every day, and that God’s call for us isn’t about sacrificing, but about working together with Him. It’s in mission service with ALIVE that I’ve made friends who’ve helped me grow in my relationship with Christ and encouraged me to give more of myself to God. 

Serving others has shown me how God provides for His work. As a full-time aviation professional and part-time business manager, I have a schedule that is extremely demanding, leaving me with minimal free time. Despite this, I have been inspired to embrace a missionary lifestyle, dedicating my spare time to serving others. Most of my annual leave days are allocated for mission work, and I consider it a privilege because it allows me to witness the presence and power of God firsthand. I often experience strength in the midst of exhaustion, perpetual joy in the face of sorrow, abundance where there is poverty, and fullness despite emptiness (2 Cor. 6:10).

I invite you to consider God’s call to use your time and lifestyle to influence others toward the path of faith.

[1] See Ellen G. White, Christ’s Object Lessons (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Pub..Assn., 1900, 1941), p. 69.

[2] Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1911), p. 621.