THE MISSION ON THE HILL

THE MISSION ON THE HILL

Paper by CS Wakili Clifford Gathara

DEDICATION

This paper is dedicated to GOD, MUACCU LEGACY 20TH OUTREACH FAMILY, and everyone who gets to read this article.

COMMENCEMENT

A tour to the horizons of West Pokot.

A great experience that shall forever linger in my mind. Speak of blessings, favor, provision, the ultimate experience of the super natural. 15th to 16th October 2025 shall forever linger in my mind; when I think about success. A successful trip and mission in West Pokot which felt like a road trip experience. But it all doesn’t start there; does it?

It was around May of 2025; wasn’t it? At the time, yours truly was actively serving at the Executive Committee in the campus’ Christian Union. Capacity- Outreach Chairperson. The mandate for organizing the annual mega mission thus lay squarely on my desk. I was to work hand in hand with my Mission Coordinator for swift facilitation.

It was in a season where we were in search for a Mission Ground; for proper organization to be done duly. After a service, we have an Executive’s meeting as usual. I crack a joke; in my cheeky nature; to the secretary at the time to host the mission. We laugh it off but I challenge him to think about it.

The challenge became real; and we settled for Rongai, Nakuru County as our mission ground. The mission was to happen from the 15th through to the 21st of September, 2025. We thus proceeded; with the approval of the executive committee at the time; to notify students and launch the mission. Funny enough, we used the theme “God ndio Plug (God is the plug)” instead of the mission ground; this was the first time this happened.

We then proceeded to assemble a team to plan the mission together with the Outreach Committee at the time. We drafted the budget, and got in touch with the host church. A pre-visit reconnaissance was set for the 30th of May, through to the 2nd of June 2025. Then the 22nd of May 2025 happened. A cool Thursday evening. A midweek meeting was called by the executive at the time. Normally, I missed these meetings; but I just decided to attend this one. In any case, my Missions pre-visit was a week from then.

In the meeting, assessment of missions was the last agenda. At around 11:50 PM, the agenda was tabled. All of a sudden, it was no longer about the dates; the question of “Should we have this mission?” was tabled. Members ganged up and before I knew it, the team agreed to disapprove the mission and its dates. They advised that we could plan another one with other dates later in the year.

It sounds simple; right? It’s not. If I say I was shuttered and broken, I would be lying. If I say I felt dead; it’s still an understatement. I had put in so much effort and sent in so many invitations. I had also sought finances from all over, and visited all corners of Eldoret with my own money. Being passionate; indeed I was.

I felt filthy, I felt like a liar. I tried convincing them that I would organize two missions to favor all persons; the ears were deaf. At that moment, I looked around the room and saw satisfied egos; they had succeeded in proving their point, I don’t know how true that is; it’s only known by the face makers. I arose; down and broken. I literally staggered into the secretary’s washroom; he had hosted us for the meeting. It was increasingly overwhelming at this point.

I walked out of that meeting at around 2:00 AM. I cared less about security. At that time, I would have appreciated a hug from a thief as he did his job. For the very first time in my manhood sanity and masculinity, tears rolled down my cheeks as I journeyed to my bed sitter; around 150 meters away. I felt void, hopeless and empty, I just wanted to be swallowed by the ground; as they say.

What would I tell the Outreach team that I led? What would I tell the ministers and bishops that I had invited? Why would God allow this to happen to me? Why would an executive approve a mission then disapprove it; a week to the pre-visit? A mission which they aren’t funding. At this moment, I decided to resign. In the frustration, at that hour, I lay to rest. Law School didn’t care about my Ministry Problems. I had a Jurisprudence Lecture presentation at 11:00 AM under the great Dean, Professor JJ Wamwara. Life moves so quickly; doesn’t it?

I then did my presentation with borrowed energy. The Vice Chairperson at the time came to see me. I chose to understand her mass thinking decision the previous night and listen to her. I’m not sure whether I was listening, but I’m certain that she talked and later left.

I called for an emergency online meeting that night with my Outreach Committee; at least to update them. I also had to call in my guests and tell them to suspend their support; that was the moment I felt that indeed this was stupid and unreasonable. However, the back ended with me and I was mandated to do just that.

One thing that I was lucky to have was a supportive Outreach Team. They really believed in and supported my course; in deed heaven sent. They were really angry at the executive, once I notified them of the decision made. “Lack of a piano guy” was the pregnant reason given by the executive; it was sickening.

When I told them that I wanted to resign, I first felt like a betrayer as the words left my tongue. Surprisingly, they were understanding. They however gave a condition; we all resign as a committee. That’s when it hit me that I’m still in charge and they look up to me. I decided to soldier on; solely because of them. Had it not been the Outreach Family…

After a moment of rethinking, God told me to “look at what’s on my palms’’. That’s when I realized that the library docket; still under Outreach; was deserted. I decided to divert my attention and focus on success therein. I switched the project from Missions to Library.

No sooner had that happened than The Mission Coordinator brought about the idea of donating bibles to vulnerable areas. I remember it as a hot Wednesday, as we were walking from one of the High Schools we had as a mission ground to our campus. As we assessed the damage caused, she raised the idea of donations as an indirect mission; and it was born.

We then start thinking, which vulnerable area is this? At that moment, I recall meeting Reverend Simon A. earlier in the year, when I attended a legal empowerment program in a school that sought to educate the students on what being a lawyer was all about. I called The Man of God; and we had a conversation. I had already informed him of the prior mission and he had sent in some support. We had a talk about the new donation idea, and he gave me two options- Turkana and West Pokot.

We had a discussion with my team, and we settled for West Pokot. We then shifted our attention to raising funds for fifty bibles and ten audio bibles. We continued selling the t-shirts; this is where we realized the advantage of not having the name of the mission ground on the shirts. We continued pursuing funds; aiming at around 50,000.

To our surprise, God surprised us, and we raised funds close to 70,000. The interesting part was on the guest of the day. In the panning, we usually had a giving day; where you invite your guests alongside your special guest of honor. Our mega giving was thus on the 12th of October, with the mission being on 15th of October.

My guest; a senior engineer; notified me of her unavailability on the 12th; the notification came in on the 11th of October in the evening. She however promised to send in a proxy, and later send her contribution for the mission.

Factually, it was believed that it was in the benevolence of a guest or lack thereof, that determined the success of a giving. We thus sought after high-profile persons; with the assurance that these persons shall contribute a good amount. I wasn’t an exemption to the belief; explaining why I sough after an engineer. It was nothing much spiritual; just use of common sense. Little did we know…

True to her word, she finally sent in her contribution as the chief guest; Kshs. 1000. The most anticipated student guest gave Kshs. 100. In a budget warranting excess of Kshs. 70,000, this should have shattered me; as missions had proved effective at doing.

To the contrary, I was wowed by God’s faithfulness. I saw Him literally. Out of his own benevolence, despite not being aware of the giving, the standing in Speaker of the day promised to give “some resources” as we went to the mission. With the budget already arrived at, I made peace with all things.

As promised, he called in on Monday evening. To my surprise, the impromptu speaker donated 420 leather coated bibles alongside 3500 books; of different ages. He also drove to my bedsitter and unpacked the boxes; my room was half occupied by books that I didn’t expect to have. At that point, my heart melted at God’s faithfulness. We now focused on Audio bibles. We had more than enough.

With the travelling to West Pokot, set for the 15th, the headache was always the means to get to West Pokot. We were four Committee members travelling, and it was quite a distance; not mentioning the heavy luggage and unfamiliarity with the place. God connected us with one Pastor Aggrey and Pastor Juma; who not only organized our transportation, but also organized our residence and places to visit during our stay there. They also organized for our meals and transport means for the time we would be there. That was the best 48 hours of my life.

The beautiful land of West Pokot; the beautiful hills, the beautiful escarpments, the beautiful authentic culture; such a great experience. We got an opportunity to visit six schools, talk to students about the great possibilities of life, the faithfulness of God, and the unforgiving nature of “consequences for actions principle”.

We then gave them bibles and books based on their ages; it was a Wow, fulfilling experience. We also got to attend an Elders Fellowship. Elders who are experienced, yet still hungry for God. We shared a fellowship, shared some word via translators. The beautiful Pokot Language was all they got to understand; the translators helped up deliver the word in that very language articulately. Simply put; it was a Wow experience.

I remember the 16th of October; the very morning for the second day on the mission ground. I woke up at 3:00 AM; probably the heavens asking for early morning prayers. In this beautiful land, you didn’t need a blanket; the temperatures were quite conducive.

I strolled on the verandah of the hotel in which we resided. I remember thinking about the whole course of the mission journey. My mind went back to the dark night of cancelling of the mission at first instance, to the birth of this second mission, to its approval by the executive, and its implementation; my heart was broken at the thought of God’s faithfulness. In my state of brokenness, I remember walking onto the grass, gazing onto the moon, desiring God’s face to just show up; just for me to tell Him how grateful I was. Again, tears; this time, of joy and fulfillment.

At that moment and time, I gave Him (GOD) another name; “MY CHEAT CODE.” To me, the flow of occurrences, didn’t make any sense. The fact that God saw us through that season and enabled the birth of a mission that is generationally impactful wowed my spirit. I take pride and love the executive; which I was part of. I felt that God desired this to happen; and he just led us to it’s occurence.

The Mission on the Hill felt like an assignment; which I was obliged to fulfill alongside my great team. It was a great assignment.

Come to think of it; the 420 physical bibles, and 3500 books shall evangelize long after we our visit; they literally evangelize to date. The Audio Bibles that read the bible out loud in Pokot language shall be essential in the Elders Fellowships for quite a number of years to come. In the spirit of The Great Commissioning under Matthew 28:18–20, we wouldn’t have desired more.

Indeed God is faithful; “2nd Timothy 2:13 If we are unfaithful, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny who he is.”

Truth be told; we enjoyed our stay, and we got angels for hosts. In my parting short of this article, I want to emphasize on our incapacity and God’s capacity. We best operate and get the best out of ourselves, when we live a life of surrender and dependency on God. When Paul says in 2nd Corinthians 12:9 that “And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.”

Weakness is realizing you own infirmities and incapacity to do it by yourself. Through out this life experience, the constant figure was crying out to God. Despite it being a rollercoaster, what was birthed out of it was more than worth it. What made it more fulfilling was that we were also able to address the library, begin a book club, purchase podcast material and begin a podcast, buy more books and buy a good rack. It was quite a legacy; I really shed lots of tears of joy.

From my experience on THE MISSION ON THE HILL; God is faithful. From winning, to breaking, to getting it right, to ultimate fulfillment and legacy; what a ride that was!