Editor's note: Meet a Nazarene leader in Kenya who shares how she found Christ and accepted His call to ministry.
My name is Elizabeth Musimbi. I was born in a small village in Vihiga district in the Western Province of Kenya. My parents were strong Christians in the Salvation Army Church. I am the last born and the only girl among seven brothers. All along my parents were trying and praying for God to bless them with a baby girl.
I started primary school when I was very young but I was determined to learn. There was no class I repeated. After my primary level examination, I joined a Pentecostal Mission school. This school was very strange to me, since I grew up in the Salvation Army Church. I felt out of place, not knowing this was the place where I would give my life to Christ.
I gave my life to Christ when I was in second form in high school. This was a good time of sharing with others and doing outreach during the weekend. After my “O” level exams were out, I found that I had performed well. There were many opportunities for me but I lacked a sponsor since my father had retired when I was in form one.
I joined with the Coffee Research Foundation to work in the chemistry lab, not knowing that this was where my life would change. The work was very low paying and I kept on hoping that I would get another job. This is when my spiritual life weakened very much and I found myself on a thin line.
I gave back my life to the Lord in 1989 after I had suffered and seen the bitterness of this world. I decided to serve the Lord and that is what I have committed myself to -- serving Him.
I joined the Church of the Nazarene in 1992 after my brother, who was serving as a pastor in a Pentecostal church, had joined the denomination. Rev. Wellington Obotte, who was the district superintendent in Kenya at that time, introduced the church to him.
Since I had sensed a desire to serve the Lord, I sent an application to Kenya Nazarene Bible College which had started in Kenya. They were not taking ladies by then but they told me to wait.
A dream comes true
It was in September 1993 that I received a letter from Kenya Nazarene Bible College that I had been accepted. My happiness was beyond human expression. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I knelt down and prayed a silent prayer, thanking God for what He had done.
I now started a new life in the Bible college. There were only three ladies and 25 young men. My first week in the Bible college gave me a challenge in my life. I knew I was saved but there was still something more of which I didn’t know. This first week was a holiness week; we had all the district superintendents from Kenya preaching to us.
God spoke to me during this deepening week. Every evening after the sermon, as I went to sleep, I could see myself standing on a platform teaching and preaching to many people. I could see people coming to kneel and I was praying with them. I could see myself standing on a platform preaching to thousands of people in an open place. Then I said, “NO! God I can’t do that, I can’t stand before many people.”
This continued coming on and on until I decided to share with the district superintendents what was happening to me. They gave me encouragement and each of them shared with me about his calling. I was encouraged and kept on praying for God’s will to be done.
I remember one evening Rev. Wellington Obotte spoke on sanctification and living a holy life. I felt that I needed that grace, the second touch -- the purity of the heart. I moved to the altar with my heart broken and he prayed with me there. This was September 10, 1993. All the fear left and I felt that I would do what God wanted me to do.
I was then involved in evangelism in the district, especially during school break. One time I was sent to another district during the vacation. We were doing door-to-door evangelism; we entered a member’s house. There was a sick child here and the mother just brought the child and put her on my lap and went out crying. The child was unconscious. I took my breath and said a silent prayer, and then I told the group that was with me to pray with me. The child started breathing and I was happy. We entered another house; there was this man that had been sick for six months. He was crawling on his knees; he couldn’t stand. I read Luke 18:35-45. I asked the man, “What do you want God to do for you?” He said, “I want to be healed.” I prayed for this man and as I finished the prayer the man stood up and praised God. I thanked God for His mighty power. After the two weeks were over, many people testified in the church of what God had done in their lives.
Full-time ministry
After I graduated from the Bible college in 1996, I was determined to be in the field and serving the Lord. I was one of the field teachers serving on the district. I was then sent to Tanzania to plant a church in a new town and help train the lay pastors. My stay in Tanzania gave me a challenge. Being a single lady, there were so many things I passed through, but God was in control. I was involved with JESUS film ministry as the Tanzania North District coordinator. Tanzania is a very big country and I was helping the country coordinator so that the work could be bearable. I had a 15-minute program once a week with “Radio Voice of the Gospel.” I led all the auxiliaries in the district for five years.
I came back from Tanzania in July 2003 to join the field office. I am now the Africa East Field Nazarene Compassionate Ministries (NCM) coordinator. I feel that I am where God wants me to serve him.
I am a woman with a compassionate heart and I am looking for men and women with the same so that we can make a difference in our Church. We should take the real gospel and the true religion to our people.
James 1:27 says, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”