Kenyan Pastor is Modern Day Abraham

I drove to Springfield, Mass. yesterday to have lunch with the Rev. Joseph Kimatu, pastor of the Tumaini fellowship in Springfield. This is a worshipping fellowship of Christians from different faith backgrounds who share the same heritage of immigration from Kenya. It seems that most or perhaps all of them are from the Kikuyu tribe. Pastor Joseph is from the Presbyterian Church, a member of our Presbytery as well as retaining his membership in the Presbytery of East Africa. I am serving on a team charged with nurturing this fellowship and helping them move from being a fellowship to becoming a Presbyterian Church.

As I listened to Pastor Joseph describe his travels to this country and then his call to minister in Springfield his journey seemed so much like that of Abram (later known as Abraham). Abram’s father immigrated to Haran with his family including Abram and Sarai where they settled and apparently led comfortable life. After his father’s death “The LORD said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you.’” (Genesis 12:1) Jews, Christians and Muslims all know the story of how this family led a nomadic life living in tents and moving from place to place, never owning any land except the burial plot that Abraham bought when his wife died.

After years of ministry as pastor of large Churches in Kenya Joseph came to the states for graduate theological studies and pursued several Masters Degrees from both Johnson C. Smith and Erskine Theological Seminaries. While serving on the staff of a large Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, Georgia he accepted an invitation to preach at this fellowship in Springfield. This led to the fellowship extending a call to him to be their pastor and after much prayer and consultation with his family the family decided that this was a calling from God to leave the comfort of their situation in Atlanta and to step out on faith and follow where God was leading them.

The Tumaini (the word means HOPE) fellowship in Springfield is small with just over 40 adult members and they are able to pay rent on the building where they worship, provide a home for Joseph and his wife and two children (a third child stayed in Georgia to continue her college education). They also provide a small travel allowance but are able to do no more financially for their pastor.

This dedicated man has supported his ministry and his family using personal resources (including proceeds from the sale of property they owned in Kenya) and still is making considerable sacrifice to be faithful to his calling. One son is in high school in Springfield and a second son was enrolled in a vocational/technical college in the area but has dropped out for lack of funds to pay tuition.

While we have hope that the day will come when the ministry will grow and become more stable financially at this point it seems that there is a need for individuals of good will as well as our denomination to provide some pastoral support as well as development funding. Any readers who would like to contribute can send contributions to the Presbytery of Southern New England, 123 Elm Street, # 200, Old Saybrook, CT 06475 and indicate that the funds are for the Tumaini fellowship.