Ripple-makers for Christ
By Christina Eglinton
The 10th of December 2023 was a special anniversary for me. It was exactly 30 years since I began mission work in Kenya as a somewhat young (31 years old) and somewhat naïve young lady. Stepping out of that plane in Nairobi, I had very little idea of what lay ahead of me – if I had known, I might well have been tempted to get back on the plane and head home! But all I knew was that God had called me to go to Kenya to serve Him as a witness to His name and saving message to the children and youth of Kenya. Armed with my Bible, a basic knowledge of the Scriptures, a number of years’ experience as a primary teacher, my first aid kit, anti-malarials and a packet of Tim Tams, I was ready for anything!
Or so I thought… Looking back now, after years of highs and lows, severe trials and many mistakes, I can only marvel at how gracious our Heavenly Father is to take us as clay vessels, weak and limited as we are, and to use us nevertheless for His eternal purposes and will. 2 Corinthians 4:5-7 (KJV) explains the purpose and the testimony of the missionary: “For we preach not ourselves but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen [clay] vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.” We are not supermen or superwomen; we are just vessels made available to the Master to be filled with His love and light to touch the lives of the lost. It is Him, not us, who will save people. It is Him, not us, who will change people from sinners to saints. But we are still the vessels that He chooses to use through the “foolishness of preaching” (1 Corinthians 1:21), weak though we may be.
I once had a fridge magnet that said: “If you can’t make waves, make ripples!” Do what you can do, and it is amazing how far those tiny ripples will reach! I used to be fascinated as a child to play with pools of water after the rains and to see how even the smallest ripple would travel far to the edge of the puddle without being impeded or stopped. Ripples even divert around obstacles in their path! There is no stopping the momentum of a ripple! And so it is with the work of the Lord. There are three things needed to be “ripple-makers” that we can glean from 2 Corinthians 4:5-7:
We need to make ourselves AVAILABLE to the Lord – body, soul and spirit – ready to pour ourselves out for Him down to our last ounce of strength and passion!
We ourselves need to be TRANSFORMED through the saving power of the Holy Spirit, taken from darkness to light and understanding the depths from which we have been saved. We will never touch another soul for Christ unless we have been deeply touched ourselves and set on fire from above.
We need to teach and share the CORRECT MESSAGE, the true Gospel that transforms lives and not some pseudo-gospel, so common in churches today and especially in many African churches. Romans 1:16 talks of the gospel of Christ as the “power of God unto salvation”. The message of “Christ crucified” is described as the “power of God and the wisdom of God” in 1 Corinthians 1:24 (see also verse 18). Christ died to save sinners, and we need to teach people this; ‘repent and believe’ is the teaching of the apostles in Acts. There is no substitute for the Gospel! Nothing else will change a man enough! Not education, not opportunity, not money, not humanitarian aid. Educate a thief and all you will get is a smart thief! The heart needs to be changed, and this transformation of the Gospel is the only thing that will stop people and nations from being at each other’s throats.
In the 30 years spent in Kenya, I have seen the ripple effect of the Gospel in the lives of many Kenyans and in the development of some of the national churches. Let me briefly share a few examples of this from three of the ministries I was involved with.
For some years, I taught part-time at a Bible college, training young pastors from a number of Kenyan denominations, as well as some students from Ethiopia and Rwanda. One of my students was Pastor John Argwings who completed his theological training in 1997 and has now spent 26 years in ministry in his church, together with some other pastors who also received training through the same Bible college. The sound biblical teaching these pastors received produced a ripple effect that has slowly transformed their church and is still touching the lives of many today. Argwings’ church battled many issues in the early days of his role as a pastor: corruption; financial mismanagement; lack of applying biblical standards to bad traditions and cultural practices; distrust by the old leaders of the younger more “trained” pastors, etc.
One such cultural practice that persisted in his church from its beginning was polygamy (culturally common throughout Africa!). Argwings was telling me just recently that his church has finally condemned the practice to the point of disciplining its members involved in such things. They are training their youth to avoid polygamy and other wrong cultural practices. This is a major spiritual victory, as the custom of polygamy had been so entrenched in their church! Argwings is now a senior leader in his church and the chairman of the draft committee producing the church rules for marriages, etc. It has taken 26 years, but they finally got there! What a ripple effect! Slow but unstoppable. At their church’s recent National Youth Convention, Argwings and other pastors spoke to more than 1,500 youth! Wow! More ripples! And how far will they reach?
I spent many years working in the IPC church in Mathare Slum in Nairobi. Apart from Sunday School, we also ran a Kids Club on Wednesday afternoons for many, many years, sharing the Gospel and Bible teaching with the many children who lived there. One boy who came regularly from about 11 years of age onwards was John Mutangili. The Lord touched the life of this young man, and you could see the ripple effect of this. As he got older, he became one of the Sunday School teachers and later trained as an early childhood teacher. Finally, I asked him to become our pastor at my children’s centre, Solidarity Child Rescue Centre, and he did a part-time diploma in theology for some years. It was a delight to see him drinking in the Bible teaching like a lightbulb moment, as God opened his mind to the richer depths of the Scriptures. Now in his mid-thirties, John is the Director of Solidarity CRC (see photo). In his role as Pastor and Director, he touches the lives of many young people and their families. He runs a branch of Trinity Baptist Church at our centre, a national church with sound biblical teaching and a growing number of branches. More ripples! And how far will they reach?
Together with some other Kenyans, we started Solidarity Child Rescue Centre in 1996 in order to rescue destitute and orphaned children. Besides the residential children’s home, we started an onsite primary school and then an assistance programme for students at high school level called ESSF. So many hundreds of kids have passed through the children’s centre and our programmes over all these years! Time and space don’t allow me to name all who have been impacted by the Word of God and the love and care received, but let me mention just one. A young man called Elijah (see photo below) was assisted in the ESSF programme. His father had abandoned his large family, leaving the mother to struggle to provide for them.
With our help, Elijah completed high school with a mean grade of A-. But more importantly, he heard the Gospel at our compulsory ESSF counselling sessions and was touched by God. He became a regular attender at our church and soaked up the teaching. More ripples! He then went to university in Mombasa to do an engineering course and became the head of the Christian Union (CU) there, which has a membership of about 800. He also has contact with about 4,000 other CU students from other universities. Wow! What potential he has to impact lives for Christ as he covers more contemporary issues with his fellow students! Universities are usually the hotbeds of every radical philosophy and anti-Christian sentiment, including sexual perversions, gender issues, feminism, environmental issues, political systems, etc. Over the last five years, Elijah has been able to give a mature spiritual input to his fellow students on these various controversial issues. Only God knows how many other people have been impacted through this “ripple-maker” and in turn, have now generated more ripple effects to spread to an even wider audience.
And so it goes! Besides the opposition, besides the persistent attacks of the devil, the sacrificial service of an individual, and consistent and accurate teaching of the Word of God, continues to produce ripples that reach far and wide to slowly change men’s hearts and establish Christ’s kingdom. In Matthew 16:18, Christ proclaimed, “..I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” May your kingdom come, may your will be done, O Lord! Glory to Your Name!