Church Planting in Nairobi, Kenya
An update from Brian Kiama, graduate of Trinity Fellowship Pastors College, Ethiopia, and SG Church Planter to Kenya…
My name is Brian Kiama, born and raised in Nairobi, Kenya. I am married to Julia Kiama, and together the Lord has blessed us with two beautiful and energetics kids; Adriel who is 6 years old, and Tadya who is 5. Early on in my Christian life, I began to sense a call to some kind of ministry and, over time, the Lord seemed to make it clear that it was a call to pastoral ministry, though I did not know when or where that would come about. During that time, I grew in the conviction that I needed to be part of a healthy local church and to have my calling assessed and confirmed by my church community. Added to that, the Lord gave me a wonderful, godly, and gifted wife who has been of tremendous support and encouragement to me as we sought to discern the Lord’s call in my life.
The Kiama family at Trinity Fellowship.
Since before our wedding and early in our marriage, we had been part of faithful Bible preaching churches in different towns in Kenya that we lived in. The Lord gave us opportunities to use our gifts to serve the churches and build relationships with church members. However, we were never fully aligned doctrinally with any of them. Then the Lord led us to discover Sovereign Grace online through the music. We were immediately intrigued by the depth, joy, and passion for Christ that was so evident, not only in the music, but also in the preaching of various SG pastors.
Not long after our discovery, in 2017, the Lord led us to pray for an opportunity to move to the US and to join the Pastors College in Louisville. We prayed for a while, but eventually we gave up, because it didn’t seem that He would open that door. Fast forward to 2018, and the Lord led us to meet a missionary couple that had just moved to the same town in Kenya that we lived in. A friendship was quickly kindled between us and it grew tremendously from that time onward. Our friends knew my desire for pastoral ministry and particularly our desire to be part of Sovereign Grace someday. Toward the end of 2020, he reached out to an old friend of his from bible college whom he knew to be in Sovereign Grace, and asked whether there was any possibility of a Kenyan being accepted in the US Pastors College. This friend of his happens to be Josh Pannell, and in God’s amazing providence, Josh was planning to move to Ethiopia with his family to establish a Pastors College under Trinity Fellowship church, which had been planted in late 2020. There we were, thinking that the Lord had closed that door, and yet He was answering our prayers in His own amazing way!
Jonathan, Rick Gamache, Michael Granger, and Brian at a Nairobi Vision Trip in 2024.
So I got accepted and I moved my family to Addis Ababa to join the first PC class in 2021. Our plan was to go through the whole three-year program, from PC to Ordination, and to see where the Lord would lead us to serve Him and His church. From the beginning of our time in Ethiopia, my wife and I had no desire to ever live or plant a church in Nairobi. But it soon became clear that the Lord had different plans for us. It began with a conversation with my pastor, Michael Granger, during my internship year at the PC. He asked whether we would ever consider moving to Nairobi to plant a church. My wife and I quickly shot down the idea, primarily because we did not see ourselves as “city people”. Then in December 2022, the Lord brought the Leslie family into our lives. Jonathan (US Pastors College graduate) and Lillie Leslie had been living in Kenya for a few years up to that point and they desired to see a gospel-centered church that embodied the shared values and shaping virtues of Sovereign Grace in Nairobi. They visited Trinity Fellowship in early December of 2022 and when Michael realized that they desired to see a church planted in Nairobi, he quickly introduced me to Jonathan and the conversation about planting a church together began there. A friendship with the Leslie family was kindled, and has been growing ever since, and the Lord used them to spark a desire in us to plant a gospel-centered church in Nairobi.
The Kiamas, together with Jonathan Leslie (left) and Bereket, Abigail and their daughter (right).
Jonathan and I have been going through the ordination process, he at Cornerstone Community Church in Burnsville, Minnesota, and I at Trinity Fellowship Addis Ababa. My family plan to move back to Nairobi in August this year, and the Leslies shortly after, to begin the work together. Thankfully, the Lord has given us another couple, Bereket and Abigail, from Trinity Fellowship who desire to be part of the team.
Our city is one of the largest and fastest growing cities in Africa. Many profess to be Christians. However, not many truly know the Lord and many are led astray by churches that preach a false gospel of prosperity and moralism. Many are unchurched and others are de-churched. Still more are living in worldliness and their hearts and minds are captivated by the attractions, pleasures, and prosperity the city life has to offer. The Lord has given us a burden to bring the light of the gospel to our dark city, and beyond. We desire to see many come to the knowledge of Christ, to have their hearts and minds captivated by the beauty and worth of our God and Savior, and to see the transforming effect of the gospel in every part of our society. Would you pray with us toward that end, and pray that we, as a team and eventually as a church, would continually be objects of God’s renewing grace, even as we seek to be instruments in God’s hands to transform our city and our country through the power of the gospel.
The Leslies and Kiamas.