Nica on the Verge

As the bus stopped at the small shopping center, I scanned the area to glean what kind of place it was. I was arriving at Got Nanga with my team of young adults for a two-week mission engagement. A woman rushed alongside the bus as it slowed, trying to sell fruits through the window to passengers inside. I got up and motioned to the rest of the team that we had arrived at our destination. As we gathered our luggage and alighted, I could not help feeling apprehensive. I had been on a number of mission projects, but each was different—each brought new lessons and experiences. I wondered what Got Nanga had in store for us.

We spent the rest of the evening setting down, arranging where the women would sleep, where the men would sleep, where we would cook, where we would get water, and where we would meet for our morning and evening devotions. We then sent earnest petitions to heaven that God would guide us on what to do and how to work in the area. I often look back and acknowledge that God more than wonderfully answered our prayer—in very many ways.

“Behold, He Cometh”

Got Nanga is a rural community within the Ugenya area of western Kenya. In 2019 the Kenya National Census indicated that Ugenya was home to 134,354 people. The then closest Adventist church, Sega Seventh-day Adventist Church, was 10 kilometers (about six miles) away, and it served congregants from a radius of more than 40 kilometers (25 miles). In 2018 the Sega church sent a request to my home church, Berea Seventh-day Adventist Church, in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, for assistance in conducting evangelistic outreach—a request that the Berea church enthusiastically accepted. That is how a team of 22 young adults and two elders landed in Got Nanga in November 2018 for a mission trip. 

We rose up early our first morning, had breakfast, and began our work in earnest. We split into four groups, and each headed in a different direction to let people know that we would be running an evangelistic campaign in the area. The groups of six or so further split up into twos some distance from base camp—just as Jesus sent His disciples to every place He would visit (Luke 10:1).

My friend Jasper and I greeted mothers toiling in the fields, girls and young women washing clothes by the dam, young boys playing football while herding goats and sheep, and men catching up outside their homes. To one and all, our message was “Behold, he cometh” (Rev. 1:7, KJV). We invited those who wanted to know more to gather at the market area in the evening for a multimedia presentation on the subject. Most people, though polite, were cautious not to commit to attending. But we hoped they would be curious enough to come to the marketplace.

Jasper and I wound up our morning visitations and headed back to the camp about 1:00 p.m. On our way we passed by a well-built house—strikingly different from the many of the mud-and-grass-thatched houses that dotted the locality. “Did any of our group members visit this home?” Jasper queried. I was not sure, so we decided to stop in. We did not know it then, but God was leading us to a home where a thirsty soul was waiting—just as Jesus was guided to Jacob’s well, where an honest seeker of truth was panting for living waters.

Nica saw us approach her house and, glancing at the Bibles in our hands, said, face beaming, “Have you come to teach me the Word of God?”

“Not today,” we answered. Then we invited her to the main program happening at the market later that evening.

She asked us where we were staying, and offered to give us accommodation in her home. But when we informed her that our team consisted of 24, she apologized that her home was probably too small. “Well, discuss with your team and let me know!” she said. “Maybe I will be able to host some of you.”

The Road to Nica’s House

That night people trickled into the market area as we ran the program. We had a health presentation, followed by a session on how to have better families, and yet another on a Bible doctrine. There were some chairs in a tent right in front of the raised platform where the speakers and translators would stand, but no one walked over to sit in the tent. Yet we could see pockets of people milling around, seemingly minding their own business but visibly interested.

Members of our team walked around the market area, mingling with the people and asking if they understood what was being shared. Some understood, some had questions, some were more interested in bringing up some controversial topic, while some were not interested at all. We noted carefully those who seemed to be interested, took their phone numbers, and, where possible, made appointments to visit them in their homes. As we neared the start of the prophecy presentation, we continued in earnest prayer for the Holy Spirit to continue speaking to His children.

Thus our program continued. Every morning we would have door-to-door visitations, making invitations, studying with the interests who were making an effort to come to the market area. And every evening we would have programs at the market area. Every evening we would mingle and gather more interests. So for the next few days we were very, very busy. And somehow in all that busyness we forgot about Nica and her invitation for us to visit her and teach her the Word of God.

But the Holy Spirit had noted our lapse, and moved to correct it. One day during the second week, Jasper and I happened to be assigned to do visitations together. And it happened that we had to take the road that passed by Nica’s house.

“Did anyone ever visit this woman?” I asked.

“I have not visited her,” Jasper responded.

We felt strongly compelled to turn aside and visit Nica’s home first.

There she was, in the farm, weeding. When she looked up and recognized us, she immediately left her hoe and walked over, the smile on her face as wide as ever. She ushered us into her house and soon joined us in the living room with a large black leather Bible in her hands.

As we neared the start of the prophecy presentation, we continued in earnest prayer for the Holy Spirit to continue speaking to His children.

Jasper and I began explaining how it was important for everyone to know that Jesus is coming soon, and that we should all cultivate a personal relationship with Him. We delved into the vision of Daniel 2 that gives us a view of earth’s history and informs us that we are living in the “days of these kings” when the God of heaven will set up an everlasting kingdom (Dan. 2:44). We could see Nica deeply interested in what we were sharing, and her face grew grave and pensive as we continued to engage. When we finished the study, we promised to visit her the next day—a promise she welcomed with great joy.

The next day Nica was seated in the living room with her Bible, studying intently as she waited for us. She greeted us with many questions: “Is it true that the United States is mentioned in Bible prophecy? Is it true that the next president of the United States is identified in the Bible?” (There had just been a midterm election in the U.S.) She had many such questions.

We glided briefly over Daniel 7 and then turned to Revelation 13 in order to answer some of her questions. We were deep in the study when Nica, who had been quiet and pensive as before, abruptly stood up and said, “Wait; I’d like to show you something.”

She went into an inner room and soon came back with a large hardcover book. “Do you know this book?” she quizzed as she set it on the table. Looking at the cover, I was taken aback. It was a copy of Ellen White’s Prophets and Kings!

“Why, yes, I know that book!” I exclaimed. “Where did you get it?”

I had never in my life seen an actual copy of the illustrated hardcover large-print edition of Prophets and Kings.

“I bought it from a literature evangelist,” she answered, and then proceeded to tell us that when she was still working in Nairobi, her colleague would frequently receive a visitor who always came with books to sell. She declined every book until one day her colleague offered to buy one for her. Out of shame, she decided to buy it herself, but had never read it. It was only on the day of our first visit that she remembered the book and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening reading from it. “I think you can tell me if this is a good book. I have been reading it.”

When we finally recovered from our shock, we told her that it was indeed a good book. She then had even more questions than before: Who was the author? Where could she get similar books?

If Only She Would Come

We continued to study with Nica over the next few days, and eventually got to the study on baptism. When we finished the study, we asked if she wanted to give her life to Jesus, and signify it by being baptized. She looked very troubled and said a few things that were not related to our question. Eventually she said, “I like to study the Bible, but I do not see why I should be baptized.” We tried to encourage her, but she again politely declined.

When we went to visit her the next day, her son let us know that she had gone on a journey. We were back the day after, a Friday, and so was she. Our study was on the Second Coming; then we invited Nica to fellowship with us on Sabbath as we closed the meetings. “No, I will not be able to come. I might have to go on a journey,” she answered. All we could do was pray and surrender her to the Holy Spirit as we took our leave.

The next day I could not help thinking of Nica, her beaming smile, and her large copy of Prophets and Kings. As we went through the morning program, my eyes kept darting through the congregation to see if Nica was in the meeting. If only she would come, I said to myself, I know she would give her life to Jesus.

The first program ended, and a short interlude of music followed, but Nica was nowhere to be seen. The last sermon began, and with my heart in deep anguish I walked out of the tent to find a quiet place to whisper a prayer.

“Lord, You know that Your servant has been seeking for the truth. Please dispel the darkness clouding her mind and show her the glorious light of Your cross,” I prayed. I could not return to my seat, but continued in prayer outside the tent as the preacher came closer to the final call.

At last the call was made. And 32 people responded, walking to the front. Some of them had already made their commitment in the course of the two weeks and had been studying the Bible with us. I craned my neck to have a better look at the respondents. Was Nica one of them? My heart sank. No, she was not. The speaker asked that the final hymn be sung, and made another powerful appeal. I sank to my knees again and made my prayer for Nica. If only she would come to the meeting, I knew she would give her life to Jesus.

Unbeknownst to me, Nica had indeed been at the meeting all morning, except that she had not come to the tent. She had sat at one of the shops in the market and had been in the process of coming to a conviction the entire time. As the final stanza was sung, and then the chorus, the Holy Spirit gave her freedom to rise to her feet and answer the call! When I said my “Amen” and looked up, it was with utmost joy that I saw Nica standing at the front with those who had given their lives to Christ. That afternoon she was buried in the watery grave, and rose to take her place among the redeemed of the Lord.

Nica serves today as a leader in the congregation that was organized from that mission trip to Got Nanga. Perhaps if the Berea church had not accepted the call to conduct a mission there, Nica would not have been brought to the light. And if Jasper and I had not heeded the voice of God guiding us to her house, she would not have heard the message. Indeed “there are many who are reading the Scriptures who cannot understand their true import. All over the world men and women are looking wistfully to heaven. Prayers and tears and inquiries go up from souls longing for light, for grace, for the Holy Spirit. Many are on the verge of the kingdom, waiting only to be gathered in.”[*] Will you go?

[*] Ellen G. White, The Acts of the Apostles (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1911), p. 109.