David Wanjala | bless-ministries

Christ's Resurrection Founded Church

Nairobi, Kenya

I am David Wanjala. My wife, Peninah, our five children, and I work together as the pastor family of the Christ's Resurrection Founded Ministry, located in Nairobi, Kenya.

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After being born again, my relatives disowned me and sent me away from the family. This caused me to relocate to the Nairobi city slums with my family. After some time, I started preaching the gospel and many souls came to Christ. Eight years ago, I planted our church and registered it with the republic of Kenya. However, I have passed through unlimited challenges while preaching!

I had been praying about who to partner with in our ministry when I was directed by the Holy Spirit to Google "Bless Ministries." I was surprised that the search landed on this website. I was delighted to find Bless Ministries to be a partner willing to offer prayers on our behalf and bring spiritual awareness to every part of my ministry and family's life. This answered my prayers, as I comprehended that the Holy Spirit did not lead me here in vain. No flesh led me to this Bless Ministries of Mobile, Alabama, in the United States!

I was born in 1978 and raised in different families with diverse religions! Some Muslims, others Catholics, and others never thought of any religion. It was challenging to decide which way to go since each group believed theirs was the best.

I didn’t grow up with my father. I have never seen him, nor do I know him. My mother divorced my father when I was very young and married another man who was a Muslim. I stayed with them in a polygamous family for about ten years, passing through hardships, mockery, and psychological torture. When this man died, we were chased away from that family by his wife and sons. Since my biological father had also died with no home, my mother took me, and we lived in her mother’s house. My two eldest sisters had prematurely married, and my only brother was living with our stepbrother (My biological father was also polygamous). I was the last born, and my mother did not give birth to anyone in her second marriage. At my maternal home, the uncles and their families did not treat us well. I was grateful well-wishers took me to school; glory to God!

When I was around 14 years old, my maternal grandmother took me to a Catholic congregation. The ”father” sprinkled water on my forehead after reciting some “special prayers." I received the name DAVID, in addition to my original native name, given by my mother at birth. Because my mother stayed hungry for days due to a lack of food before I was born, I was also given the name Wanjala, a seasonal name meaning hunger. These are the two names I use officially; David Wanjala.

I became a faithful Catholic, and later, under my mother’s influence, I became a Muslim. After high school, I dropped the Islamic religion. I returned to the Luhya culture, where I was involved in several rituals, immorality, drunkenness, and many other vices, while under the influence of the community peer groups.

In 2000, I left my maternal home and traveled to Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, searching for employment and green pastures. While in Nairobi, I still adopted an extra vice: theft and, eventually, robbery. In those days, open-air crusades were almost in every open field. Even though I pretended I didn’t hear anything whenever I passed by the men and women of God who preached the waves of the Gospel in the air as if a farmer broadcasting seeds, at least their words fell on me. Every time I would hear them preaching, I would hear the words, ”Repent, Jesus loves you '’ deep in my being.

One morning on a Tuesday, I was not able to wake up. I was exhausted, and numbness or something I could not understand was all over my body. I could not raise any part of my body. It was like in a different world; my spirit had gone, and I did not know if I would return! In that sphere, I saw a replay of almost every picture of evils I had committed. Every man and woman I had robbed; every woman I had committed sexual immorality with; and all the people I had mistreated. I was not sure whether I had killed anyone or not because I had left some half-dead from my reckless behavior. This morning, in the unknown land, I saw some people crying because of the pain my gang and I had inflicted on them. Lastly, I heard a still voice asking me to repent and believe in Jesus or otherwise I would die and go to hell. It was just like when I heard the preachers in the crusades.

In my spirit, I admired the gentleness of the voice I heard leading me to repentance. Later I learned that He was the HOLY Spirit. In short, I gave my life to Jesus on the following Sunday morning. I went to a local church and asked the pastor to pray with me. Afterward, he baptized me in much water.

After my conversion, my relatives never again wanted to see me in their homes. I, therefore, decided to relocate to the slums of Nairobi (Soweto) with my wife and child. Now we have five children. After some time, my wife and I started preaching in this slum, and many souls have come to Christ. We build a church that has been in operation for over eight years, under many challenges. We still have no place to call our home on earth, and we still struggle in ministry. We hire places to worship, but the owners frustrate us due to the need for more stable finances. We lost many of our new converts who were being discipled.

I have been able to go to many places in Kenya and plant churches, but I have not been in a position to follow them up due to a lack of transportation and other expenses. Otherwise, my family and I love Jesus Christ, our Lord, and Savior!

Pastor Johnny Holland has encouraged us to use the space around our buildings for growing food. This food can be for our family, the church members, and needy people of our community. We have been following his instructions and here is some of our results.

We continue to reach into our community helping people with food, and clothing, as we share the gospel. People are being baptized as God adds to the church those who are being saved.