Sermon that changed his life

By Kiundu Waweru

When he finished preaching, the unkempt boy approached the bishop and asked to be taken to the land of peace flowing with love talked about in the sermon.

Taken aback, the bishop explained to the boy that if he loved himself, and his neighbours, then he could have peace from wherever he was. But the boy looked at the bishop astonished.

There was nothing peaceful in his life. And he did not know who his neighbour was.

Eager to see the land of peace and love, the boy insisted he would accompany the bishop.

"I would love to see it for myself, rather than hearing about it," said the boy.

When the bishop finished packing his instruments in his pick-up, and prepared to leave, the boy jumped at the back of the truck.

"I thought he was joking about going with me and would jump off at some point," says Bishop David Thagana.

The boy, Boniface Maina, ended at the bishop’s home in Kinangop ultimately acting as the catalyst that saw the bishop and his wife Joyce Njeri start a mission that has seen them establish eight homes with 395 orphaned children countrywide.

"That day, I was at Karatina open air market, and I had preached on God’s love, as illustrated in John 3.16. When Maina insisted to see the land, we took him in," he says.

Having lived for many years on the streets, Maina found it hard to cope with the new environment.

"It took him six months to find the peace he wanted. He had low self-esteem. Initially, when we gave him food, he would pour on the floor and eat from there. We gave him a bed but come morning, we would find him sleeping on the floor," says Thagana.

After adapting, Maina was taken to school.

Starting of home

"He was bright and graduated from class one, two and three in one year. Now, he is a Form Four candidate at Kerugoya Boys," he says.

A teacher by profession, Thagana started Glory Outreach Assembly (GOA) in 1991 and by 2002, he had founded several churches in rural areas before moving to Nairobi.

"God works in His unique way. While we decided to move to Nairobi, we wondered what would happen in Kinangop," he says.

They decided to turn their house to Tumaini Children’s Home Kinangop. Later, through the help of donors and well wishers, they started GOA Educational Centre. When the Thagana’s moved to Nairobi, they left a couple in-charge of the children’s home.

Beating the drum

The bishop says in his preaching missions he encountered more street children who asked for his help.

"We started a weekly feeding program in Naivasha town, but I always felt that was not the permanent solution to the children’s plight. And the solution came with Maina and with time, we took the children to the Tumaini Home Kinangop," he says.

And as time went by, new problems that needed new solutions arose, says Thagana.

"We realised many girls needed to be rescued from societal exploitation, thus we started a girls only home in Nyahururu, Rehema Girls Children’s home," he says.

The other challenge, they found, was caring for HIV orphans who he says needed special care

"We established ‘Beat the Drum’ home in Mai Mahiu for HIV positive orphans," he says.

The name ‘beat the drum’ was inspired by a movie with the same name. The movie, starring a HIV positive boy was inspired by the Thaganas work, but was shot on location in South Africa. Another home followed in Kitengela, Merciful Redeem Children’s Home and to cater for the city centre street children who would flock the GOA church in River Road, established in 2002.

The couple also started Christ Compassion Rehabilitation Centre, Kangundo Road.

Growth of church

"All this while, we were also concentrating on the church growth," says Thagana of the church started 19 years ago in a beer hall in Ndunyu Njeru, Kinangop.

"Today we have 130 churches spread across the region, Congo, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania," he says.

Most of the churches are in remote areas of Samburu and Turkana, where church and schools are a rare phenomenon.

"The White missionaries brought the gospel to us and left. It is for us to spread the word to the areas not reached," says the soft-spoken man whose down to earth demeanour is a stark contrast of his achievements.

Thagana was born at the dawn of Kenya’s independence and attended Siriba Teachers College, where he met his wife Joyce. They married in 1992 and have four children ––one of whom is adopted.

Run to live

The bishop has also studied at Beulah Heights University, Atlanta USA and also at East Africa School of Theology Buru Buru, Nairobi

He is pursuing a theology Masters at Pan African Christian University.

The bishop says lack of love has contributed to rise in street families especially children.

"Sometimes the children we get out of the streets ran away from home because of conflicts. Confronted by this, we try to reunite them with their parents, but not before we try to guide the parties involved solving the underlying conflicts," he says.

The main course is domestic conflict, and many children prefer the streets to their chaotic homes. Also, parents abandon their children due to financial constraints.

"Aids also has orphaned many children and this also is a big problem," he says.

He says the problem can be solved if for example able Kenyans helped one child or more.

Thagana says if foster care system was created, there would probably be no street children.

"These children need love, someone to love and care for them," he says.

Indeed, some of the children who sat for the KCPE last year from one of his homes performed well. Moses Kinyanjui from the children’s home in Kinangop got 408 marks and joined Murang’a Secondary School. Carol Njambi scored 406 and joined Naivasha Girls Secondary School. The bishop says well wishers paid the school fees. Most of the homes depend on donors and well wishers to survive.

The church runs conflict resolution programs, also targeting warring communities through they call sports evangelism.

"We organise for sports among the North Eastern. At first the games are charged with emotion but with time, they run to live together," he says.

Clarion call

The church has four arms; Compassion, Church Growth, Conflict Resolution and Leadership Training, each headed by a director.

"We hold national, regional and international leadership training seminars. Also, we have Glory Evangelical Bible School focusing on those who want to reach more people," he says.

The Bishop says that it is not enough to give hand outs to the street children or the under privileged.

"We should sacrifice a little more of our time and resources to change these children, even if it means bringing some to our homes or supporting them their education. Granted, not every one can do what I have done, but every Kenyan can play a part," he says.