Bwana Yesu Asifiwe! (Praise Be to the Lord Jesus)

By Tyson Heins, Heartland Annual Conference

“Bwana Yesu asifiwe,” Swahili for “Praise be to the Lord Jesus,” was one of many things I learned while visiting Kenya after the 2026 General Conference of the Global Methodist Church.

I’m Tyson Heins, a lay member of Ebenezer GMC in Olpe, Kansas, Heartland General Conference delegate, and member of the Global Episcopacy Committee since 2024. I met Pastor Chrispus Ogari Aboki on WhatsApp while notifying Conference Superintendents of their assigned bishops. Our friendship grew, and he invited me to visit Nyarenda Fellowship Ebenezer Church and his village after General Conference.

The Rev. Everlyne Esther Kukah, Kenyan General Conference delegate and member of Maji International, accompanied me on the flight from Johannesburg to Nairobi and helped me reach my hotel.  Maji International provides sustainable clean-water initiatives and hygiene education in Kenya. Before leaving Nairobi, we collected supplies from Maji’s office for a water filter distribution and purchased 48 Ekegusii Bibles from The Bible Society of Kenya to bring to a  water hygiene training. The training at local churches demonstrated how to assemble, use, and maintain the filters. In addition to providing the water hygiene training and resources, we distributed Bibles, a gift from members of Ebenezer & Madison GMCs, praying over the Bibles and those receiving them.

Although laity, I preached Tuesday and Thursday with Rev. Wilkins Ombongi translating. Drawing from Genesis 11, Isaiah 64:6, Mark 10:17-31, and Luke 16:19–31, I explained that although we spoke different languages, all humanity was created by God as one family, divided by languages due to our disobedience, that no one reaches God through personal righteousness, and that Jesus bridges our separation from God through His sacrificial death. I invited them to surrender to Jesus and follow Him fully.

In my second message, I asked whether my Kenyan brothers and sisters had shared their faith or invited anyone to church this year. Jeremiah’s costly obedience showed how strongly God’s Word can burn within compelling believers to speak (Jeremiah 20:7–13). Jesus likewise taught that His followers should expect opposition, fear God rather than people, confess Christ openly, and live set apart from the world (Matthew 10). Adapting Bishop Greenway’s five spiritual growth stages, I urged believers to mature into spiritual parents who share Jesus boldly, closing with prayer for courage and conviction.

Many villagers invited me to pray in their homes. I knelt with them, holding hands, and prayed for healing, restored sight, children returned from exile, work, finances, and provision.  Before leaving each home, I placed my hand on each doorframe praying God would bless everyone who lived there or passed through it exceedingly and abundantly.

While preparing to leave, the congregation honored me with a red-checkered Maasai Shuka, giraffe figurine, and white marble lion. A woman who I had prayed with called it the Lion of Judah for God’s servant.

At a tea plantation along the road back to Nairobi, God orchestrated meeting James, a plantation supervisor, who taught me about tea leaf harvesting and pruning. James asked to see a U.S. dollar, so I handed him a $1 bill which He inspected with joy asking if he could keep it. His face lit up when I said it was his and he asked “What’s it worth?”  When I replied 127 Kenyan Shillings, he explained that was a fifth of his plantation workers’ daily wages. Later, I asked Collins and Mallo what they thought James would do with that dollar who guessed he would keep it,  showing it to everyone telling them about the day the mzungu (foreigner) gave it to him. They said they would not be surprised it that dollar was passed down in his family after James passes. I was humbled that something of minimal value to me could have such great value to James.  Even the smallest gift can be multiplied by God to do great things for His Kingdom.

John Wesley once said, "Give me one hundred preachers who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God, and I care not a straw whether they be clergymen or laymen, such alone will shake the gates of hell and set up the kingdom of heaven upon earth." It is vital to our mission that our GMC laity embrace their role of always being ready to give a reason for the hope we have working with our clergy to spread scriptural holiness across the globe. 

View photos from Heins' trip to Kenya: