theexpandingshrink

IMPACT Conference

The Trinity has been likened to a dance in which the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit: 1) Honor one another; 2) Defer to one another; and 3) Commune with one another. (The Devil does not honor, or defer to anyone but rather wants every one to revolve around him.) The Trinity invites us into this eternal dance whereby we honor, defer and commune with the God-head and we honor, defer and commune with one another in the family of God.

I experienced just such a dance this past week, July 23-26, in the Kingdom Life Network (KLN) annual IMPACT Conference at Grace Chapel, Elizabethtown, PA. It felt like a first century church conference. Leaders with giftings from the Holy Spirit ministered powerfully yet they deferred to one another, honored one another and communed with one another.

A brother with an apostolic and healing anointing whom God had used to plant over 75 churches and raise five people from the dead, deferred to a young sister, whom He sensed God was anointing with healing gifts, to pray a healing prayer over a pastor suffering from Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

Young men and women were teamed with seasoned leaders to bring the word of God to the conference in the plenary sessions. Worship teams brought us all to the feet of Jesus in joyful celebration. Participants from around the globe blessed and honored one another. A Bible college in India, directed by P.C. Alexander, bestowed an honorary doctorate on an elderly brother, Pastor Luke Weaver, who was mightily used of God regionally as well as internationally to open the door for a move of the Holy Spirit that has impacted the nations.

Conference participants were challenged to become ‘Resurrection Cells’ to transform our culture, bringing the salvation of God to people devastated by the terror of these days.

A nominal Syrian Christian living in Staten Island had been dramatically rescued from death by God during Hurricane Sandy. Upon being rescued he immediately began helping others devastated by the storm. He has been used by God to pass out millions of dollars worth of relief supplies as he daily listens for God’s direction and then simply does what God asks him to do. During the conference he stated that he is now sensing that God wants him to plant a church in Staten Island. Pastors from KLN, Doug Lamb and Chinedum Uwaga, who were divinely connected with this Syrian brother, are now committed to walking with him in the church planting process.

A Ugandan missionary to the United States, David Kandole, who was used by God to plant a very successful church in the inner city of Harrisburg, introduced a young man whom he is mentoring , Nashon Walker, who was facing 85 years in jail for crimes he had committed but who met the Lord in prison and is now, several years later, planting a church in Harrisburg and developing a program to disciple and mentor persons in prison and post release from prison.

Conference participants were ministered to individually by a prophetic presbytery composed of ministers from South Africa, Nigeria, South Carolina and PA: Allan and Rose Chambers, Chinedum and Nkechi Uwaga,John Harris, David Hoeflin and Vard Gainor.

Don Hess served the conference by producing a daily report of the conference in a newspaper entitled KLN Kronicles.

During this conference Pastors Dean Landis, Don Lamb and Mel Weaver gave leadership to a youth camp, ages 8-12, called Camp Awake. Sixty youth participated in this camp held on the grounds of Grace Chapel at the same time that the Impact Conference was being held. Approximately 75% of the youth were from non-Christian homes and over half of the campers made commitments to Christ during the week.

Campers were powerfully impacted by the experience and testimony of three of their counselors from the same family who lost their home when a powerful explosion totally obliterated their home during the week as they were ministering to the campers in Camp Awake.

Conference participants were challenged with the word that through Jesus, authority has been given unto us to go into all nations and bring Kingdom Life and by so doing to plunder the strong man’s house, for Satan, the strong man, has been bound, and our ultimate victory is assured.

This picture was taken just before the PTL-India Partners Dessert Banquet meeting at Hinkletown Mennonite Church at 6:30 pm September 22,2012.

Here P.C. Alexander “Alex” claims the covenant promise of God’s blessing symbolized by this rainbow which appeared just minutes before the meeting.

The meeting was a huge blessing. It was a celebration of God’s love and faithfulness. We are now within $10,000 of our goal of $35,000 for the school in Khuttar.

Reverend Boniface Rungi  was raised in a Catholic family. He was the oldest living child to his father and mother. His father wanted him to become a priest. When the young man was confirmed into the Catholic church he was given the name Boniface, the name of three different Catholic popes throughout history.

When Bonifice was age seven his father took a second wife and in so doing became a polygamist.  He eventually had 20 children between his two wives.  When in his mid teens Bonifice  learned  from  a Christian service conducted at his school that salvation was by belief  in Jesus Christ and not by good works. This awareness and his later anointing by the Holy Spirit set him  on a path to pursue intimacy with Christ and to active involvement in the church. As a committed Christian he was a man of peace and through his life and witness brought peace into his fractured family and led a number in his family to fatih in Jesus Christ. Unlike many who grow up in a polygamist family, he was equally close to his  stepmother’s children as to his own siblings.

As a young man Bonifice was actively involved in itinerant evangelism. He became involved with Happy Chruch as a young man because of the dynamic spiritual life in this growing church. It was there that he met Cathy who was to become his wife. Cathy’s  grandfather was a minister in the African Inland Church. She was very close to him. He was the first one she told about her faith in Jesus Christ and later about her anointing in the Holy Spirit.  She promised to pray for him when he was troubled by her anoining iby the Holy Spirit.  Later in his life after his retirement he was also baptized in the Holy Spirit. Her parents are both now Christians.

Bonifice and Kathy have three chirldren . Dorcan the oldest is training to be an oral surgeion. Steve the second is  just beginning college and plans to specialize in information technology. The  youngest,  Joshua 13, wants to become an engineer.  All the children have an active faithe in Christ and honor their parents as persons who live what they speak.

For approximately twenty years Bonifice worked as a miller. He rose through the company and became  manager of a milling plant worth millions if not billions of dollars. He was being groomed to operate milling companies world-wide. However in his early 30’s he answered God’s call to go into ministry. He and Cathy a school teacher began a church in Eldorett. Cathy continued to taach ; however Bonifice gave up the security of a well paing job and gave himself fully to the pastoring of the church.

The church grew and became a strong influence for righteousness in the Eldorettt. In time he was ordained as the pastor and later his wife Cathy was ordained as a pastor as well. Together they made a very effective team.  Bonifice  as a result of his taining in management was a good decison maker. Cathy dealt especially with the women in the church. She would absorb the emotional aspects of conflicts or problems and then bring the core issute to Bonifice for his decions. This action by Cathy protected him from distractions and increased his effectiveness.

In the course of time bonifice completed a Master’s Degree in biblical Studies.  He very loyally served Bishop Kamau. His favorite bible cahracter is David becasue David wias a common every day man with many problems. Like David Bonifice enjoys  his private time with the Lord above all else. Bonifice’s integrity and gifts were recognized and he was made overseer of nine churches within the Happy Church network and participated in the oversight council for the entire network of churches.

Now at the age of 50 , Bonifice  wants to lead the church to be a model of the family of God for the region impacting the nation with the life that is within the Christ-centered, Spirit-directed community of faith.  One of his most painful challenges has been the devastation brought on by the psot election violence of  two years ago. However he has not allowed himself to be polarized along tribal lines but has lived out the realtiy that he is part of a calling higher than tribal loyalties. In taking such a position he has been respected by all tribes and has played a healing role in the community at large.

Bonifice anticipates taking on the role as bishop in that he sences God’s increased anointing for this role will enable him to serve the larger church even more effectively

On Saturday April 23, 2011, Happy Church Ministries International celebrated the ordination of Reverend Boniface Runji to the office of bishop in Happy Church . Bishop Joseph W. W. Kamau, until this time the only bishop  ordained in Happy Church since the start of the church in 1983,  ordained Reverend Runji as bishop. Approximately 1000 people attended the ordianation celebration at the Potter’s Academy on the outskirts of Eldorett, Kenya. The celebration lasted from 10:30  am till 2;30 pm and was then followed by a reception.

Bishop Kamau stated that although he will continue as presiding bishop he will be joined in the leadership of Happy Church by the newly ordained Bishop Rungi and later in this year of 2011 by two additional bishops. Reverend Evanson Macharia of Thompson Falls will be ordained on September 10th and Reverend James Karanga of Molo will be ordained on December 17, 2011.

Bishop Kamau emphasized that all three of these pastors have been functioning  in many ways as bishops in their roles as overseers of the five regions of churches within Happy Church.  This bishop ordination was to confirm what they have already been doing.  Bishop Kamau added that the ordination service is a time of divine empowerment in that as hands are laid on the bishop designate the Lord honors the faith and obedience of the church and releases on the candidate increased spiritual anointing for the new responsibilities  as bishop.

Ordiantion as bishop  is not  a promotion  so much as a spiritual empowerment for the increased responsibilites as servant of the entire church. As Jesus said ‘he who would be greatest should be the greatest servant’, said Bishop Kamau.

The ordination service itself was an experience of beauty and joy.  The meeting was in a large field where five large tends circled around a central square in he middle of which was a raised platform with an awning to protect from the sun.  The bishop designate drove slowly onto the gorunds in his car. A large group of women proceeded him in a joyful procession of singing and dancing.

The program began with multiple groups singing and dancing. Visiting pastors and college adminiatrators and professors of Bonifice were introduced.  Bishop E. Daniel Martin, secretary of Kingdom Life Network and long time friend of the Kamau’s and of the Happy Chruch, brought the message.

Bishop Martin of Elizabethtown, PA, stated thea gospel is a  mystery to be revealed in how the church  community lives out its faith. The church is the household of God and is the piller and foundation of the truth.  It is clear from scripture that the bishop is a shepherd of God’s people. Shepherds need to have a heart of the sheep; be present to the sheep , watch over the sheep and act to proctect and care fot the sheep.

Following the sermon, the bishop candidate were brought to the platform by Reverend Macharia and presented to Bishop Kamau. Bishop Kamau then insructed Bonifice on the role of bishop and Bonifice then stated his public vows to be faithful to God in the conduct of this office.. Following this Bonifice and Cathy were clothed in robes. Then a towel was placed around their necks to keep the oil off their robes. Bishop poured copious amounts of oil from a cow horn down over Bonifice as he ordained him to the office of bishop. The oil ran dow over his face and dripped onto the cushion upon which he as kneeling. Bishop Kamau likewise anointed Cathy for the increased responsibilites she will face as wife of the bishop.  Bishop Kamau stated taht the flow of anointing oil is inviting the oil of Gold’s blessing and eempowerment to flow ounto boniface’s life and the Holy Spirit to abundantly fill the life; it is like the oil taht flowed down over AAron’s bear.

Following the anointing with oil several pastors were asked to lay on hands and pray. Then a bishop’s hat was placed on Boniface’s head and he gave a brief expression of gratitued to the persons attendign the service. The hat completes the uniform and isonly worn at the time of ordination.Following this attendees were invited to greet the new bishop. As each one greeted him and his wife thay gave him gifts. Following this a cake was cut and distributed to all the participanta.  The crowd then began to socialize and to rejoice in the blessings of the Lord.  This part of the service was finished by approximately 2:30. Then the new bishops and other chruch leaders were honored with a reception in the dining hall.

The ordiaation was attended not only by Happy Church leaders and members but also by Bonifice and Cathy’s families as well as a significant number of community pastors and other coummunity leaders. It was clear that Bonifice is well known and highly appreciate not only in the church communty but in the community at large.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

While here in Kenya I am pondering how we might integrate the missions outreach and training of our various networks and congregations.  Here is a draft of a proposal which attempts to integrate what I have felt and sensed and have heard you express in various ways at various times. I would appreciate your feedback: suggestions, modifications, questions, whatever.

Your brother and fellow servant,

E. Daniel

Mission Driven Life Teams (MDLT)

To Jerusalem and Regions Beyond

Vision

 A global army of  people consistently focused for a lifetime on knowing Christ and advancing His kingdom at home and abroad

Mission

1. Raise up, train and equip people to become effective in missions in their local setting (Jerusalem)

2. Prepare people for a missions experience in a global setting (Regions Beyond)

3. Carry out global mission assignment in partnership with the global partners and under their leadership

4. Arrange for a local and global coach for each person, to encourage, comfort and urge to live a mission-focused life worthy of God who calls us into his kingdom and glory

5. Encourage, equip and support people in continuing their local and global missions focus throughout life regardless of educational and career choices

6. Encourage people to continue under local and global coaching  influence  throughout life

7. Prepare people to become coaches to local and to global persons

Strategies

1. Raising up, training and equipping people to become effective in missions in their local setting (Jerusalem)

     a. Conduct weekly training, impartation sessions throughout the year

     b. Develop a ‘core faith/ministry curriculum’ to use in training/impartation sessions

     c. Conduct a quarterly evangelism weekend concluding with a publicly advertised healing/evangelism service

     d. Focus the weekly sessions on preparing persons to take an active role in the evangelism/ healing weekend

     e. Assign a local coach to each participant

     f. Build evangelism outreach experiences into the everyday life of each participant

2. Prepare participants for a missions experience in a global setting (Regions Beyond)

     a. Encourage participants to pray and discern the global setting where God is calling them to serve

     b. Arrange for a coach from the global setting of calling to begin a relationship with the participant

     c. Begin to invest in the global setting through prayer and guided learning experiences from the global coach

     d. Raise finances for the eventual global missions experience

     e. Put aside a portion of the raised finances to give to the global mission

     f. Coordinate eventual global experience with others also called to the same global mission site

3. Carry out global mission assignment in partnership with the global partners and under their leadership

     a. Global partners plan to incorporate Mission Driven Life Teams (MDLT)  into existing programs in their own country

     b. MDLT participants submit themselves to the leadership of the global partner.

     c. Length of global assignment is determined by the mutual needs of the participant and the global partner

     d. Country of origin leaders and global partners maintain ongoing communication about the progress of the MDLT

     e. MDLT participant continues relationship with local and global coaches

     f. Focus of global missions experience is to equip and train the participant in becoming effective in missions in the global setting

4. Arrange for a local and global coach for each person to encourage, comfort and urge to live a mission-focused life worthy of God who calls us into his kingdom and glory

     a. Each setting chooses the coaches that will be involved with local as well as the global MDLT participants

     b. Coaches will be men and women who are full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom

     c. Coaches will be further trained in the mentoring/coaching process according to a curriculum developed by KLN

     d. Coaches will be accountable to the MDLT leadership for the progress of their coaching

     e. Coaches will communicate periodically with their counterpart in the global setting about the MDLT participants of mutual involvement

     f. Coaches will be prepared to maintain a relationship spanning a number of years with the participants

     g. Coaches will be gender specific, that is males with males and females with females.

5. Encourage, equip and support people in continuing their local and global missions focus throughout life regardless of educational and career choices

     a. Create a culture that views missions as a lifestyle and not simply a career choice.

     b. Create a culture that embraces missions for a lifetime and not just for a season of life. (There is no retirement option)

     c. Encourage each participant to seek the boldness to promote the gospel by word and deed in every setting, sacred or secular

     d. Prepare people to expect harassment, persecution, hardship and even death as they faithfully hold out the word of life

     e. Prepare people to expect and seek the Holy Spirit’s direction and empowerment for effective ministry in a given setting

     f. Expect settings and seasons to change but the mandate for missions to remain till the King returns at the end of the day

6. Encourage people to continue under local and global coaching  influence  throughout life

     a. Provide  frequent encouragement and support over time so that ‘no one misses the grace of God’ available for a given situation or season

     b. Encourage a lifetime ‘poverty of spirit’ that is always seeking to learn regardless of how effective one has been

     c. Encourage openness to local and global coaching in order to sustain commitment to the local and the global body of Christ

7. Prepare people to become lifetime coaches to local and to global persons

     a. Create a culture that honors those who are and have been fathers and mothers in the faith

     b. Emphasize that all are called to follow Jesus Christ and to nurture and encourage others in following Christ

     c. Continue periodic equipping, encouragement and counsel to the local and global coaches

     d. Clarify that the persons being coached may or may not change over time, but that passing on the faith is a lifestyle for a lifetime

Additional Thoughts

a. Inform and inspire young children to prepare to participate in the MDLT

b. Invite anyone from teens to 80s to participate in MDLT as a participant or as a coach

c. Participating in a global MDLT requires attention to the following:

          Demonstration of ministry/evangelism faithfulness in local setting

          Evidence of a godly character and Holy Spirit anointing

          ‘Scars’ from local ministry experiences

          Financial preparedness

          Recommendation of MDLT leaders and coaches

d. Format and content of training in evangelism/ministry will be determined by local leaders but may be informed by experiences and counsel of ministry partners in the  global setting.

e. Those planning core curriculum should consider the following

          theology

          ministry training/impartation

          character formation

          biblical relationship conflict resolution approaches

          local culture

f. Develop a prayer team to pray regularly for those embracing the  MDLT lifetime lifestyle

David H. Burkholder, a 90 year old,Lancaster Mennonite Conference ordained evangelist,  from Ephrata, PA, was awarded an honorary doctorate in evangelism by a Bible College in India, PTL-Institute of Mission Studies. This Bible College is a part of Kingdom Life Network (KLN) a global fellowship of Anabaptist related networks. P.C. Alexander, director of the PTL-India network of churches awarded the degree in a KLN Leadership Retreat on August 27, 2011, at Bowmansville, PA.

Dr. Burkholder, son of the founder of a regionally well known farmers market, The Green Dragon, raised a family of five children while farming and running a successful business. At the age of 62 he responded to the call of God to go into full time ‘personal evangelism’. He had kept a list of the people he had met and done business with over the years. He then began to contact these people and present to them the gospel.  Over the next 28 years more than 300 people made decisions to follow Jesus. Many of these were baptized immediately, some just hours before they died in a hospital bed. David performed weddings, and funerals, along with the many baptisms.

Lancaster Mennonite Conference licensed and then in 1987 ordained David Burkholder as an evangelist. David was the first person ordained specifically as an evangelist by Lancaster Conference. David continues his membership in Lancaster Conference. He is also a member of LifeGate, a KLN congregation in Elizabethtown, PA.

At the service granting the honorary degree, Dr. E. Daniel Martin stated, “When persons graduate from college they have knowledge of a field of study. When they gain a masters degree hopefully they have mastered a field and when they earn a doctorate they have made a contribution to a field of human endeavor.”

Dr. Martin went on to state, “David Burkholder well deserves an honorary doctorate. This man with a seventh grade education has not only been a successful businessperson but has made a contribution to the field of evangelism. He has demonstrated that the later years of life can be the time of greatest fruitfulness. David has demonstrated that God is not limited by our lack of education, He is only limited by our lack of faith. And David had great faith in God’s ability to use ‘just a plain Pennsylvania Dutchman.’”

Dr. Burkholder was honored by a number of other faith communities where he had ministered over the years.  On October 30 in a service at Carpenter’s Community Church, near Leola, PA, where he had spent  the greater number of years in ministry, Bishop Lloyd Hoover gave David a plaque from Lancaster Mennonite Conference honoring his faithful service in personal evangelism. Ministers from Metzler’s Mennonite Church and Carpenter’s Community Church testified in this meeting to the significant impact David had on the life and ministry of these congregations.

Even now at the age of 90 David continues to share his faith with all he meets. He lives with a sense that his time here is short and he is eager to go to be with Jesus. He states that he “knows he will die before Christmas.” Then he adds with a twinkle in his eye, “I am just not sure which Christmas.”

This newsletter is an introduction to Happy Church Ministries International. (Happy Church) based in Nakuru, Kenya.  Happy Church is a charter member of Kingdom Life Network (KLN) a newly formed ‘network of networks’  with some 300 churches and ministries  in approximately a dozen nations. KLN headquarters are in Lancaster, PA. The ordination of a new bishop is a milestone in the history of Happy Church. This ordination  provides the opportunity to formally introduce  Happy Church to the larger Christian Community.  It also provides the opportunity to reflect on the spiritual culture which Happy Church has created over the 28 years of their pilgrimage.

E. Daniel Martin

1. Happy Church encourages a culture of honor. The people are trained to honor one another and to honor their leaders. At Nakuru Happy Church there is a protocol committee headed by Irene. Irene trains young women how to honor the leaders in the church: to meet the leaders as they enter onto the church grounds; to carry their bags or their Bible; to bring them hot tea or a pleasant drink as they are seated and again after they have just spoken; to provide a place for them to relax and regroup in a private room between services to provide light refreshments after the service and to in all things meet the needs and comfort of the speaker.  At the ordination, the ordained was met as he drove onto the ground by a crowd of people who were singing and dancing in anticipation of his arrival. They then accompanied him to the tent of meeting, singing and  dancing as they went.  All speakers and leaders were given a corsage and “properly seated’ in a place of honor in the service.  In one service at the conference preceding the ordination, I sat back in the congregation. A pastor was distressed that I had not been properly seated in a seat in front of the church facing the congregation.  The Bible says ‘in honor preferring one another’ and show hospitality without resenting it. Happy Church does this in abundance.

2. Happy Church emphasizes pastoral authority. Although Bishop Kamau is careful to emphasize that he does not want to have a hierarchy where there is an elevation  and separation of leaders over those being led, he does feel that the men and women who serve the church should be honored because of their works and words and the anointing that is on them to be servant leaders of the people of God. So these are pastor led churches. However each pastor is under the authority of those over him in the Happy Churches such as overseers and bishops. Bishop Kamau brings himself under the counsel and advice of his fellow bishops and overseers. He is also under the counsel and brotherly address of other leaders in the Kingdom Life Network.

3. Happy Church creates an atmosphere of beauty. In spite of financial challenges, Happy Church maximizes its resources to create beauty. Everyone was in there colorful best at the ordination. The bishop wore a colorful robe. The bishop candidate and his wife were dressed in colorful robes; they knelt on beautiful white lacy cushion to be ordained. Tents and meetings houses are decorated with banners and flowers. There is a lot for the eye. It is as though they are saying, ‘God is so beautiful and we want to remind ourselves in these small ways that He is beautiful’.

4. Happy Church loves to dance. Especially in the worship service there is always movement. Worship and celebration have always been associated with dance in the Happy Church. However now there are presentations were choreographed dances are a special focus. The youth especially delight in these vigorous choreographed dances performed to the exuberent  music of praise and celebration.

5. Happy Church expresses joy and celebration. In spite of financial difficulty; in spite of tribal conflict; in spite of governmental corruption; there is joy in the house of the Lord. The worship services celebrate the goodness of the Lord and His intention to bless and keep His people from all evil. Upon leaving the service one is lifted up with joy for another week.

6. Happy Church values covenantal relationships.  On several occasions I reviewed with the people the relationship I have had with Bishop Kamau and the Happy Church and our committment to one another over the years. I said that my wife,Ruth,  was presently in Belgium visting our son and his wife and our three granddaughters and seeing the tulips of the Netherlands. Of course I would have wanted to be there but  I was here in Kenya because of a covenantal relationship. We are commtited to one another. Relationships cost something; they cost time and energy and finances. American churches as well as Indian and Cambodian Churches now have an official covenantal relationship with Happy Church in that we are all members together in Kingdom Life Network (KLN). Happy Church has modeled faithfulness to relationsips in good tiems and difficult times.

7. Happy Church devotes itself to prayer.  Prayer is founational of Happy Church ministries. Both private and corporate prayer is strongly encouaged. At leaast once a month Nakuru Happy Chruch has an all night prayer meeting.  The meeting  begins at 9:30 pm and does not conclued till  6 am or day light.  Often as many as 200 people attent this prayer meeting.

8. Happy churh is a community of faith. In the midst of overwheliming odds people believe that God is able to meet their needs and the needs around them. They beleive they are called to pursue God for a break through in their finances, there relationships and their physical healing. Worship services are often enlivened by the testimomies of God’s faithfulness.  One woman , the head of the hospitality committee at the Nakuru Happy Church, greately desired to serve the church by providing transportation to people in the chruch as well as visiting speakers. However she had lost her job and had no automobile. In addition she was estranged from her children in spite of her efforts to be reconciled. She began to believe God for a miracle in both these areas. One Sunday morning her son from whom she had been estranged and who knew nothing of her prayer asked the pastor for permission to honor his mother during a Sunday morning service.  The pastor agreed. At the agreed upon time he went to the front of the chruch and called his mother forth to honor her in front of the congregation. He stated that God had spoken to his heart and he wanted to honor his mother and to praise God that they had been reconciled.  At the end of his comments he handed her the keys to a brand new Toyota automobile. She was overwhelmed  by God’s response to her prayers of faith.  Since then she continually rejoices that she is able to serve God’s servants by providing them transportation.

9. Happy Church expects and prays for physical healings.  Prayer for healing is a frequent occurance. And the frequency of  reported healings seems directly related to the frequency of believing prayer for healing.  One pastor developed the symptoms of diabetes. He began to lose his eye sight . In spite of medical interventions his symptoms continued and he found it increasingly difficulty to read. Eyeglasses were not satisfactory. He began to feel depression that in spite of having seen God heal many others in response to his prayers, his prayers for his own healing seemed to go unanswered.  One day he sensed God telling him to prophecy to his body. So he began to prophecy health to his pancreas and to his eyes and to his entire body. For three weeks nothing happened. Then one day his symptoms remitted. He was able to see again. He continues to have good eye sight without the need for reading glasses.  ‘God is so good!’ he proclaims.

10. Happy Church seeks to transform the community and nation with the Gospel lived out in word and deed.  The faith disciplines learned in church are lived out in the market place. One brother associated with the Happy Church founded a college and a retreat center with a Christian emphasis. Students from the college do their internships in ‘Hospitality’ at the retreat center. His vision to transform the community through Christian principles applied in the market place has born fruit in a college that now enrolls 500 students and a conference center that is well known and respected in the community. Happy Church members take their calling in Christ as a higher calling than their ethnic loyalties. Thus they are often able to be peacemakers in a culture ridden with conflict and corruption.

11. Happy church takes the Bible seriously. Biblically based preaching, Bible studies and  Bible conferences and conventions are a part of the spiritual diet of the average  Christian. Biblical principles influence decison making and determine doctrinal beliefs.  They also equip the believer to make discernments regarding false doctrines and teachings.  Presently there are ‘Christian’ pastors in Kenya  teaching that especially anointed brooms purchased from them can be used to sweep the devil out the house and out of their lives. Pastors and believers turn to the Bible to guide them in avoiding such teaching and such practices.

12. Happy Church takes loving relationships seriously.  Bishop Kamau had a significant part of his formal theological training in schools of  an Anabaptist perspective which emphasized Christian discipleship and  and living out the gospel in loving relationships within the body of Christ and within the community at large. Happy Church teaches that love for the brother and the pursuit of peace in all relationships is a central mandate of the Gospel.

13. Happy Church is a Holy Spirit-anointed, Holy Spirit- directed community. Happy Church teaches  that one cannot live out the Gospel without the anointing of the Holy Spirit. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is taught as an expected part of the Christian life. Believers are taught to seek the gifts of the spirit. The church moves in and teaches the five-fold ministry with persons functioning as pastors, teachers, evangelists, prophets and apostles within the body of Christ.

Dear Brothers and Sisters.

This newsletter is an introduction to Happy Church Ministries International. (Happy Church) based in Nakuru, Kenya.  Happy Church is a charter member of Kingdom Life Network (KLN) a newly formed ‘network of networks’  with some 300 churches and ministries  in approximately a dozen nations. KLN headquarters are in Lancaster, PA. The ordination of a new bishop is a milestone in the history of Happy Church. This ordination  provides the opportunity to formally introduce  Happy Church to the larger Christian Community.

 Newsletter from Happy Church International

Happy Church Ministries International is a network of some 100 churches and some 10,000 baptized believers in Kenya under the leadership of Bishop Joseph W. W. Kamau who founded the church in 1983.  As a young man Joseph had medical training as a physician’s assistant. He was also an itinerant evangelist with “Regions Beyond Ministry,”  a group of  Kenyan young men with a passion to take the gospel to all of ‘Kenya and beyond’.  In 1980 Joseph went to Rosedale Bible Institute in Rosedale, Ohio, for Bible training. He followed this with several years study in premedicine at Messiah College near Harrisburg, PA.  Upon graduation Joseph expereinced the clear call of God to leave his pursuit of a medical career and to plant a church in Kenya.

In 1983 Joseph returned to Kenya  where his faithful wife Jane, an RN, was waiting for him to finish his medical training.  She came to share fully in Joseph’s calling to leave medicine and to plant a church.  Joseph and Jane discerned that God was calling them to begin their ministry in Nakuru.  Joseph rented a tent and  held meetings in a square in Nakuru, a city of five hundred thousand, which is a cross roads city of the country. God moved mightily, thousands were saved, many were supernaturally healed of cancers and all manner of diseases. Out of this mighty move of God a new church was born. People commented that the people of this church seemed so happy. Consequently the church became known as the Nakuru Happy Church.  This church began to grow and expand.

In 1988 Joseph returned to the States to renew contact with some old friends. Through these contacts he was encouraged to move in faith and to rent a large theatre as a meeting place for his congregation. God blessed this move with dramatic increase in the size of the congregation- from hundreds to thousands in attendance.  Through these contacts in the States, Joseph and his elders  discerned that God was calling them to associate with the Mennonite Church in Kenya.  This was an act of faith in that Happy Church was charismatic in worship style, multicultural and urban and the Mennonite Church at that time, in the early nineties, was more rural and non charismatic in  worship style and was not as multitribal.  However God moved and both groups were blessed by the union. Joseph was ordained as a bishop  in 1991 by the Mennonite bishop Joshua Okello.

After ten years in the Mennonite Church, the Happy Church leadership discerned that they were to separate their fellowship of churches from the Kenyan Mennonite Churches. This separation was not because of conflict. Rather the Happy Church leaders discerned that more could be accomplished for the Kingdom if the two groups associated fraternally in separate organizations rather than attempting to fully merge their differing households of faith. In other words each group manages its own household and blesses the other in pursuing a somewhat differing agenda.  God directed and overshadowed this transitioning in the relationships between the Happy Church and the Kenyan Mennonite Church so that each has been enriched by the earlier association and they continue to love and bless one another even though they are in different organizations.

Over the years the Nakuru Happy Church has become a movement of the Holy Spirit in Kenya that has impacted the entire ‘country and countries beyond’ with the Gospel of a Resurrected Lord who transforms lives and communities; a Lord who heals bodies and relationships; a Gospel where miracles are expected on a daily basis and a Gospel where God is creating a community of faith, hope, love, prayer and great joy.

The Nakuru Happy Church has now become ‘Happy Church Ministries International.  There are approximately 100 ministers and thousands of members. The Church has a national presence  in that congregations are spread all over Kenya and because of TV programing by Bishop Kamau and other leaders in the network of churches.  Happy Church has a number of regional overseers who work under the leadership of Bishop Kamau.

In 2009 Bishop Kamau participated in the formation of a global ‘network of networks’ of Christian ministries. This global network is called Kingdom Life Network of Christian Ministries (KLN). The network includes three hundred congregations and thousands of believers in India, Cambodia, and the United State. There are eight networks of churches and ministries in KLN. Each network manages its own household but the networks work together to promote church planting and leadership development. The leaders of the network are in covenant relationship with one another and they share counsel, vision and resources with one another for the advancement of the Kingdom.  A number of the networks in the States had their roots in the Mennonite/Anabaptist tradition but have also been impacted by charismatic experiences and theology.

Recently Bishop Kamau and his leaders discerned that God was leading them to proceed in ordaining more bishops to share in the ministry of overseeing and serving the churches.The decision was made to ordain three bishops in the year 2011. Rev. Boniface Runji was ordained on April 23, 2011 in Eldoret, Kenya.  On September 10, 2011, Reverend Evanson Macharia will be ordained in the town where he pastors, Thompson Falls. In December 17, 2011,  Reverend James Karanja will be ordained in the town where he pastors, Molo, Kenya.

Happy Church Ministires International is poised by faith to in the next ten years change the culture of ‘Kenya and beyond’ through the mighty gospel of Jesus Christ which heals our diseases, transforms our characters and relationships and invades the earth with the culture and will of Heaven.