Our first in-campus mission in 2009.

On Sunday 18th January, my wife Denise and I had our first in-campus mission this year at the Marion Senior School located within Kahawa-West in Nairobi. This is a private boarding high school for both boys and girls.

The students had just finished their lively praise and worship session when we arrived. We were warmly welcomed by the Christian Union Patron Madam Mercy Gichohi accompanied by the Students’ leader. We later learned that the entire students’ body assembles for the service every Sunday morning till 11am. This time the number was relatively small because the Form 1 students had not yet been admitted.

We had a blessed time watching and listening to the presentations offered by the students. The items ranged from songs, poems to encouragements from Scripture. It was great to witness the students exercising the gifts and talents God has given them, all to the glory of His name.

We were informed that the School had chosen “FAITH” to be the theme for the term. Madam Mercy formally welcomed us to introduce ourselves. Thereafter, my wife introduced the session on Faith. She started by giving both the dictionary definition and the Biblical Definition of faith.

Dictionary Faith:
- Confident belief in the truth, value, or trustworthiness of a person, idea, or thing.

- Belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence.

- Loyalty to a person or thing; allegiance: keeping faith with one's supporters.

- Often in Christianity, the theological virtue defined as secure belief in God and a trusting acceptance of God's will.

- The body of dogma of a religion: the Muslim faith.

- A set of principles or beliefs.

Biblical Faith:
Hebrews 11:1 (NKJV) - “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

“Christianity is distinguished not by its faith, but rather by the object of its Object of faith”

Based on the Hebrews chapter 11, Denise proceeded to emphasize the three aspects of the Christian Faith:

Objective faith- the fundamental biblical truth about Who God Is, His relationship with Man, Purpose for man, the sinful nature of man, Salvation through His Son Jesus Christ, and ultimate plans for man.

Subjective faith- man’s active response towards the Object of faith- believing the Holy Scripture, accepting and receiving Jesus Christ as the personal Lord and Savior, total surrender and commitment of ones life into His hands for safekeeping.

Active faith- Objective faith and Subjective faith leads to an active obedience to the One being trusted. The one exercising faith undergoes transformation, progressively living out that which he/she believes, in conduct, behavior and speech. Christ-likeness being the ultimate goal of this Transformation.

Christian faith helps the believer to endure, persevere and prevail in the face of daily life challenges. It is the gift of God through which we obtain eternal life.

I then concluded by highlighting the fact that the youth of today needs the Christian faith to resist negative peer pressure, to maintain sexual purity, to abstain from drug & substance abuse, to resist the urge to cheat in exams, to obey authorities and refrain from destructive strikes, to develop a healthy self esteem, to make right choices in career and relationships, and to develop a godly perspective of success in life.

Madam Mercy finished with a word of prayer before seeing us off to the parking lot.

We thank the Lord for the opportunity to be a blessing to Marion School students, just as they were a blessing to us that morning.

In all these, May the Lord God be Glorified.

Amen.