Churches Without Borders
The internet and social media have been credited (blamed?) for bringing many people together who might not have connected otherwise. This practice has extended to the missionary efforts of a local church. Calvary Baptist Church in Troy has been working with a Pastor in Nairobi, Kenya, to establish a church in a remote area. Pastor Greg Steinke recently returned from a trip to aid in their efforts.
It began with Pastor Jotham Agoro viewing Calvary Baptist Church’s video devotions on Facebook. The church was already recording its Sunday morning services when Steinke arrived in 2018, but after COVID restrictions were put in place, he began recording devotions on Saturday night so the congregation could watch them on Sunday.
“I had been going on Facebook with the church and doing devotions for about two years,” Steinke said. “This fellow from Kenya named Jotham Agoro started conversing with me, and I was able to preach to him over the past couple of years. He would interpret my English into Swahili to share with his followers. There really was no church there in his area. The government didn’t recognize it; there was no address, no water, and no electricity. It was almost like a thought to go there and help him start a church. He’s an educated man with a degree in theology, but we were looking at a lot of money and thought there was no way. Over the past year, an evangelist friend of mine convinced our church to save up so we could help him.”
Going to Kenya for this worthy task came about almost by accident or divine intervention. “My wife and I were supposed to go to Israel to preach, but as you know, war broke out last year. We were supposed to go this past January, but it was touch and go when the war broke out in October. The people who put together the trip initially said they’d have it wrapped up in two weeks, but that didn’t happen. I couldn’t take my wife there in good conscience. That opened up the funds to go to Africa. The trip was July 31 to August 10 of this year. I was there for ten days. I wouldn’t mind going to Israel, but there was some real mission work, the chance to go where no one has been and start a church where there is no church.”
Steinke worked with a travel agency in Indiana that specializes in church outings. “They got me some decent tickets and accommodations, and over several months, we started to get some logistics. I didn’t know what I was getting into or what to expect. My biggest fear was that I wouldn’t be able to understand anything when I got there. I met with Jotham and two other men. We walked from this small village to a place high up in the mountains. You always carry a stick because of the Black Mambo, the world’s most dangerous snake, and the cobras. Then there were the monkeys that didn’t like men and would attack them. They like women, but they don’t like men. I’m not sure what’s up with that.”
When Steinke got the chance to meet with Jotham’s parishioners, he wasn’t quite prepared for some of the cultural differences he encountered. “You have to start with the basics,” he said. “The first time I preached, I mentioned Adam and Eve, and they didn’t know what I was talking about. The biggest question I got from the women was, ‘Is it okay for my husband to beat me?’ That is not a question I was prepared for. I was prepared for a Biblical question. We spent two days on marital relationships. In their culture, the husbands do not answer to anybody, they don’t care, and they would just as soon put their wife away than try to fix the problem.”
His cultural adjustment began upon his arrival. “The first night we were there, after being on a plane for 36 hours with layovers, it was seven o’clock at night and I was tired. Excited, but tired. When we got to our apartment, the electricity went out. We were in a second-story apartment with no fans or air conditioning. The electricity went out three times that week. I learned that when smugglers come from nearby Lake Victoria, they cut the power so they can smuggle without being seen. So somewhere, someone was smuggling things three times that week.”
“Every day was something different that you shake your head at and think ‘How do they live like this? How do they survive?’” he continued. “Because of the narrow paths, most things are transported by motorcycle. My last day there I saw something strange on the back of one and I had to ask ‘Did I just see a coffin on the back of that motorcycle?’ Jotham said ‘Yes, this is Thursday, the day we bury the dead.’ It happens every Thursday in Kenya.”
Since his return, Steinke has upheld his pledge to help the Kenyan congregation when possible.
“When I came back, I put together a forty-minute presentation to share with the church, just some things that stuck out,” he said. “It’s not easy to pull their culture over here, but I can share the videos and pictures. Jotham said he wanted a church like Calvary Baptist, but I told him, ‘You don’t want to be like a Western church because it’s not your culture. How you do it is something you have to be comfortable with. I’m just here to guide you and give you pointers along the way.’”
“The question in my mind was, ‘How are we going to help him continue this?’ We set up an account with the Bank of Nairobi, and part of our contributions go in there to help Jotham’s church meet their needs. For example, we helped provide soccer balls because their team had 70 players but only one ball. We didn’t just want to go there and say ‘Good luck, I hope things work out.’ We talk once or twice a week. We’re able to wire them funds to provide for the church needs and family needs. It’s up to them to use it right.”
Steinke and his parishioners have already mapped out their future strategy to assist their new friends in Kenya after a planned trip to Panama next year.
“We will go back in two years, and I’ll take a group with me so they can see the church,” he said. “We’ll stay a week or ten days to help the people and probably try to take some supplies. One of the biggest things that would help them is a solar panel system because there is no electricity. When you go on a mission trip, it’s a third-world type of scenario. You always come back with a great sense of gratefulness. You come back thinking we have everything at our fingertips, and they have nothing.”
Calvary Baptist Church is located at 1045 Monroe-Concord Road, Troy. For more information about their services and missionary work, call 937.335.3686 or email info@calvarytroy.com. You can also follow their weekly devotions and other news on their Facebook page.