They are part of a group of five pastors being licensed by ECCK, says Pete Ekstrand, regional coordinator for Africa for the Department of World Mission of the Evangelical Covenant Church in North America. Ekstrand emailed the information and photos from a cyber café in Mombassa following a six-hour drive from Mpeketoni.
The first pastor was licensed August 10 at the Kandara Church in Kitengala. To read more of that service, please see ECCK Licensing Service. The remaining pastor will be licensed during a worship service on Sunday, August 27.
The three pastors licensed this past Sunday, pictured kneeling in the accompanying photo, are (from left) Matthew Muchana, Macdonald Mashan, and John Njaramba Kiruga. Those joining in the traditional laying on of hands are (from left) interpreter Duncan Ngoima, Brad Bergfalk, and Alberto Zepeda.
Bergfalk, who serves as senior pastor of Zion Covenant Church in Jamestown, New York, is currently on a four-month sabbatical and is teaching at Daystar University in Nairobi. Zepeda, a short-term Covenant missionary from Strathmore, Alberta, Canada, is on a seven-week visit to the area.
In addition to the licensing ceremony, the worship experience included the dedication of five children and the baptism of three believers, immediately following the service, in nearby Lake Kenyatta. To view these and related photos, please see Mpeketoni Photos.
“The licensing of these pastors represents the first pastors of the eight-year-old ECCK to be granted a license for pastoral office, which authorizes them to officiate at baptisms and serve communion,” Ekstrand said in explaining the importance of the licensing. “This is an historic event in the life of this young church in Kenya. What a privilege to participate in this service of licensing. We have waited a long time for this day, and it is finally here.”
That sentiment was echoed by Bergfalk. “It was very moving for me to be present at the licensing of the first Kenyan Covenant pastors,” he said. “God is alive and well in the ECCK.”
“I am very happy for the ECCK and these men,” said Zepeda following the service. “I am very proud of them. Now we are ready to begin to build, after completing the registration of the ECCK (during this trip) and licensing the first pastors.
“A highlight for me during this visit is simply being with the men of the ECCK,” Zepeda continued. “It is a profound joy, a deep sense of connection with them when we can be together to sit and talk, to share a cup of chai, and to fellowship in the Lord. “I deeply desire to be with them again soon. Breathing in the relationship of friends as we meet each other touches my soul.”
The Evangelical Covenant Church of Kenya spent considerable time developing and establishing the criteria for licensing its first pastors, Ekstrand noted. “They have been very careful in their selection of who should receive these licenses, and I know that these men will serve the Lord and the church in Kenya with passion and integrity. I look forward to visiting the ECCK in the future and seeing how the church and these men have grown following this important step.”
Copyright © 2011 The Evangelical Covenant Church.
