Stories from the Field: Kenya — The Gospel in Their Hands

🌍🇰🇪 Stories from the Field: Kenya — The Gospel in Their Hands

It was February 2026, and I was traveling through Kenya with a suitcase that probably looked a little unusual when it went through the airport scanner in Nairobi. Inside were approximately 100 EvangeCubes that I had brought with me for a very specific purpose. I wasn’t bringing them into the country to sell, and they certainly weren’t souvenirs. My plan was to take them into local churches, teach Kenyan believers how to use them to share the Gospel, give the cubes to them, and then challenge them to take what they had learned beyond the walls of the church and into their own communities.

The journey into Kenya had already come with its share of disruptions, but one of the most memorable happened at one of my final security checkpoints in Nairobi. My suitcase went through the scanner, and almost immediately an officer asked whose bag it was. When I told him it belonged to me, he instructed me to open it, so there I stood in the airport unzipping a suitcase filled with EvangeCubes.

He looked inside and understandably wanted to know what they were.

I picked one up and told him, “It’s about Jesus.”

He asked what it did and whether I was bringing them into the country to sell, so I explained that they weren’t for sale at all. They were free, and they were tools for telling people about Jesus. After a few more questions, he looked at me and said, “You need to follow me.”

So I picked up my suitcase and followed him.

I didn’t know exactly where we were going or what was about to happen, but I remember thinking that if I was going to be detained because I had brought a suitcase full of tools for sharing the Gospel into Kenya, then the Lord knew exactly where I was and I would trust Him with whatever came next.

They brought out a supervisor, and once again I found myself holding an EvangeCube and explaining why I had brought them into the country. She eventually disappeared into a back office while I waited, and about ten minutes later she returned and told me that I was free to go.

I thanked her, closed the suitcase, walked outside, met my driver and continued on my way.

Looking back, though, getting those EvangeCubes through airport security was only the beginning of the story, because my purpose wasn’t simply to get a suitcase full of evangelism tools into Kenya. I wanted to get those tools out of my suitcase and into the hands of Kenyan believers who could use them long after I returned home.

During the trip, I traveled to several churches, and at the church pictured here I stood before the congregation with my translator and explained what we were going to do. I told them that this was not going to be a preaching session; it was going to be a teaching session. That seemed to bring a little relief and quite a few smiles, but before long everyone was engaged as I began walking them through the EvangeCube and showing them how it could be used to explain the Gospel clearly.

We talked about sin and our separation from God, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the salvation He freely offers to those who place their faith in Him. But I hadn’t traveled all the way to Kenya simply so they could watch an American missionary demonstrate an evangelism tool. I wanted them to learn how to use it themselves, because they were the ones who would be sharing Christ with their families, neighbors, friends and communities after I was gone.

So we divided everyone into smaller groups and circles, placed the EvangeCubes in their hands, and let them begin practicing with one another.

That is what you are seeing in this photograph.

For the next hour or two, the room was filled with believers learning how to communicate the Gospel, helping one another, practicing the presentation and becoming increasingly comfortable explaining the message represented by each side of the cube. I could walk around the room and watch something happening that was far more important than simply teaching people how to manipulate a little folding cube. They were gaining confidence that they could personally sit across from another human being and tell them about Jesus.

Toward the end of our time together, I asked for volunteers who would be willing to stand before everyone and demonstrate what they had learned. A man volunteered, and then a woman volunteered, and I watched as they stood before their own church and shared the Gospel using the EvangeCube in their own heart language.

They did a wonderful job.

That moment meant a great deal to me because it represented something I have come to believe deeply about missions. The goal should never be for people to become dependent upon the missionary. We should go and faithfully proclaim Christ, but we should also disciple, equip and encourage local believers so that the work continues long after we have boarded an airplane and returned home.

Before leaving that church, I believed the Lord had placed a number on my heart: 500.

So I challenged them to take what they had learned outside the walls of the church and prayerfully pursue the opportunity to see 500 people come to faith in Jesus Christ. They now had the tools, they had practiced using them, and they had demonstrated that they could clearly communicate the Gospel in their own language. The next step was to go—to their families, their neighbors, their communities and wherever else God opened a door.

I don’t know what the final number will be, because the results have always belonged to God. What I do know is that on that day in Kenya, I watched believers move from simply hearing about evangelism to realizing that they could actually do it themselves.

And when I look at this photograph now, I think back to that suitcase sitting open at the airport in Nairobi. For a few uncertain minutes, those EvangeCubes had attracted the attention of airport security, but they were never supposed to remain inside my suitcase anyway. They were meant to be placed into the hands of Kenyan believers who could carry the Gospel into homes, villages and conversations that I may never enter.

Somewhere in Kenya, one of those EvangeCubes may still be moving from hand to hand. Someone I trained may have used one to tell a neighbor about Jesus, and perhaps that person has already told someone else. I may never know this side of eternity how far those conversations traveled, but that is part of the beauty of multiplication.

We faithfully place the Gospel into the hands of others, equip them to do the same, and trust God with where it goes from there.

“And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” — 2 Timothy 2:2 NKJV

Someone, somewhere, helped place the Gospel in your hands. Who are you helping equip to carry it to someone else? 🌍🙏