» Growth of the Church

The demand of service in ministry was quite challenging those days. They would go to the Town Hall on Sunday morning only to find the place in a mess following discos held there the previous night. They would clean up the hall in readiness for the Sunday service. The membership varied from 25 to 50 at the time. After a month of prayer, members of the church stepped out for evangelism for the first time. Initially he would invite fellow Deliverance Church ministers like Rev. George Gichana and Rev. John Brown Masinde for open air meetings and rallies but after some time, he began to preach in the meetings. This helped to cultivate the people's confidence in their 'local' preacher. The church was extensively involved in house-to-house evangelism and Christian film shows in the estates.

Bishop Mark remembers a programme initiated by a team of believers at Nakuru which came to be referred to as 'Faith Seminars.' A number of people from Nakuru attended a seminar at Eldoret organized by missionaries Paul and Mary Birt. What they learnt during the seminar changed their lives. On coming back to Nakuru, they decided not to keep what we had learnt in Eldoret to themselves. They therefore joined hands and set the series of seminars in motion and as a result of these seminars, many people experienced the power of God and their lives too were changed. The Chrisco Church in Nakuru was born out of the move of the Spirit of God during the Faith Seminars.

In 1984, Bishop Mark was ordained as a minister of the gospel with Deliverance Church Ministry in Kenya. The church was growing fast and in 1985 the membership stood at seven hundred. Two years later a second service was introduced to accommodate the growing church. In 1988 a third service was introduced to take on board the masses that were streaming into the old town hall to receive ministry. At this time the need for co-workers to help with the work manifested and he continued to pray that God would bring along men and women of kindred spirit to join him in this noble task. God graciously answered this prayer when Pastor Paul Mwakio an old friend and college mate joined him. Another co-worker, Pastor Moses Mwangi joined him in the same year.

As ministry at the old town hall continued, membership rose and it became imminent that more space was needed to accommodate the congregation. Membership then stood at 1,500. The government gave a three acre plot in Free - Hold area. The congregation moved from the Town Hall to the plot on 4th August, 1991. A 1500 - seater tent was put up for the purpose of church meetings. But as the numbers continued to rise, the need for a permanent, spacious church building became evident. Plans to put up the now Multi-Purpose Hall began. When the plan of the Multi-Purpose Hall was conceived, the task appeared enormous to the local congregation. However, Bishop Mark shared the need with members in the church asking them to shoulder the responsibility. They responded with a lot of zeal and enthusiasm and after fifteen months, the Hall was completed, having costed some 2.6 million shillings. It has a sitting capacity of about 2,000 people.

Growth in terms of membership called for the expansion of our church sitting area. The church therefore embarked on putting up a 10,000 seater sanctuary, which is now complete and in full use.   ¤