William’s Story

            William Ochieng has increased the size of his kiosk to almost double its original size.  Though his business of selling telephone time is doing well, he is not increasing the size of his duka for that reason. William has to increase the size of his building because he needs more room for the people who are coming to hear the Gospel message of Jesus Christ. William is a leader of a weekly T4T group that meets at his duka.  Starting with only three people, his T4T group has now grown to eight regulars and several persons that attend as they are passing through Baba Dogo.

  We entered the Baba Dogo slum two years ago at the beginning of the T4T discipleship process in the city of Nairobi.  The Baba Dogo slum area is located northwest of the city of Nairobi and is one of the larger slums in the city.  It has approximately 250,000 people and stretches over a land area of about 10 square kilometers. 
 
As we walked through the Baba Dogo looking for a person of peace, we would ask people, who is the one person in the community that everyone knows?   William’s name would be mentioned over and over.  As we met William and began to talk with him, we realized that he was truly the person of peace that the Lord had wanted us to meet.

As we shared our testimonies and bible stories with him, it became obvious that William was not saved.  But we could tell that God had been working in William’s life and on his heart.  And we knew as the person of peace that he would be instrumental in others coming to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

William moved to Baba Dogo ten years ago from the western province of Kenya.  He came looking for work and through the generosity of a friend he was able to start his own business. William’s business is located near a matatu station so there is a constant flow of people passing by his kiosk.  Since most of the people live in the slum they do not own mobile phones or have telephones in their homes.  William’s business, Simu ya Jamaii, or phone collection, allows them to pay a few shillings to use his phones to make calls both locally and long distance.  This created the ideal setting for T4T Training.  

Now after two years we have seen the Blessings that God has poured upon William and the people that come each week.  Through this group William accepted Christ as Lord and Savior and he is now teaching, encouraging and mentoring others each week.  Many people that come to William’s place each Thursday are passing through Baba Dogo and going on to various parts of the city.  As they go they are taking the training with them and sharing bible stories and their testimony.  We are seeing God do mighty things through William and other men and women who are being faithful to God’s Command that we go out and tell others about Jesus Christ throughout the city of Nairobi.