Pcea Kajiado PresbyteryPcea Kajiado Presbytery
To be leading Christ- centered parish, proving spiritual and diversified services to the society.
To evangelize, uphold moral and social values through focused mobilization and direction of resources for the fulfilment of Christ’s great commission and well-being of the society.
Baraka Parish is among the 10 constituent parishes of PCEA Kajiado Presbytery. It is located within the Sub-urban area of Ong’ata Rongai Township of Kjiado County. The parish consists of three congregations notably Nkaimurunya, Ongáta Chapel and Macedonia church. The Headquarter offices of both the Kjiado Presbytery and Baraka Parish are currently domiciled at the PCEA Macedonia.
Baraka Parish was founded on 18th September 2011 when the larger Mbagathi was subdivided into Mbagathi and Baraka parishes. At the time, the Rev. Crispus Ndegwa was recalled from retirement to preside over the newly established parish on September 18th of the year 2011. A role he played until 31st of December year 2011. The 17th and 18th Moderator of the General Assembly the Very Rev. Dr. David Githii took over from the Rev. Ndegwa in January of the year 2012. However, during his tenure, the very Reverend Githii had to leave the country and travel abroad on two separate occasions to seek medical attention and visit members of his family during which time the Rev. Charles Kibicho was brought to stand in for him. Just in time the Rev. Elijah Kareri Kinyanjui was deployed to the parish where he took over the reins of the parish between years 2013 to 2017. Then Rev. George Kimathi Mugambi was deployed to take over from Rev. Kareri in the year 2018 and was the parish minister until the month of December year 2020 when he got his transfer to the Crater Parish in Nakuru. Then the Rev. Jesse Munyoroku was posted from St. Margret parish in Mombasa and came in to replace the Rev. George Mugambi after a three year stint at the helm. The Rev. Munyoroku’s tour of duty was however short-lived as he lasted for a stint of just two weeks as the parish minister. His brief tenure was abruptly interrupted upon deployment from the PCEA Head Office to the United Kingdom in London for other church duties.
The current parish minister and moderator of the Baraka Kirksession is the retired 15th and 16th Moderator of the General Assembly (GA) of the PCEA the Very Rev. Dr. Jesse Kamau Macharia who was called to stand in after the Rev. Jesse Munyoroku’s very short-lived stint as the parish Minister Baraka parish.
At the time of its inauguration in the year 2011, the parish membership stood at five hundred and ninety three (593) faithful. In spite of the low enrollment in membership, the parish was allocated a relatively high cess at the time and this became a heavy burden to shoulder for the newly established parish. This lead to a straight headwind and a poor initial take off. However despite a few challenges and the very high turnover of parish ministers, the church of Christ at Baraka survived and managed by God’s grace to grow both physically and spiritually during the slightly over 10 years of its existence now.
Baraka parish has had four offices since its inception. They include:-
At present, three congregation notably; Nkaimurunya, Ong’ata Chapel and Macedonia constitute the PCEA Baraka parish. There are thirty one (31) elders of whom ten (10) are retired and twenty one (21) are active members of the Kirksession. At the time of compiling this report, in the month of February year 2021, the Baraka parish PCEA church had recorded an admirable growth of both full members (930) and (362) adherents bringing the total number to one thousand two hundred and ninety two (1,292) members. One hundred and seventy seven (177) at Nkaimurunya, three hundred and twenty (320) at Ongata Chapel and five hundred and forty nine (549) at the Macedonia congregation. At the same time the total number of church school children in the three congregations was an impressive (400) four hundred.
On 23rd of March year 1992, the Nkaimurunya congregation was planted. It all started when the late Rev. Samuel Koitumet Nakeel had invited a group of members for a meeting on his land, part of which is now PCEA Nkaimurunya. In that meeting, he made the announcement that he and his family had made a decision to donate 1.6 acres for the construction of PCEA Nkaimurunya sanctuary. Upon this most unexpected announcement, ululations and jubilation broke the eerie mood as members expressed their gratitude over the great and kind gesture to the Almighty God by the Rev. Nakeel’s family. The twenty eight members present became the pioneers of PCEA Nkaimurunya. They immediately started to donate fence construction materials that included posts, cement and barbed wire and their own time to the work of the Lord. The church services were initially held in open air for six weeks using sitting forms donated by one of them.
In the meantime a renovated store belonging to Mr. Peter Nakeel which was located within the donated piece of land was converted into a prayer house. The church ground was blessed in a service held on 12th April 1992 by Rev. Moses Waweru followed by an impromptu funds drive that realized Kshs. 50,156.25. This marked the beginning of construction of the main church building.
Today Nkaimurunya have 5 elder districts namely Mizpah, Shaloam, Bethsida, Ebenezer and Jerusalem. The first four were there at the time of inception of the Baraka parish in year 2011 while the last one was formed later on in year 2017.
PCEA Ongata Chapel was founded on 6th of January the year 2002 in a classroom at Ongata Rongai Nursery school. The name chapel was coined by the then Mbagathi parish minister the Reverend Stephen Kariuki who hand in mind a chapel or a house of prayer where community members of the Nakeel High School, Nakeel primary school, Rongai primary school and Saitoti Health Centre plus the surrounding neighborhood would congregate for worship.
No sooner was the church started than membership started to grow in a rapid manner such that by May of the same year there arose a real need to make space to accommodate the increased number of believers. The Outreach foundation through Mr. Stuat Rose was requested to help in constructing a building for the church. The Mbagathi parish session gave the local church authority to build a sanctuary on the present ground which is part of the bigger Ngong/Ngong 558 land title deed that P.C.E.A foundation is a custodian. Within a record period of one week, the church in partnership with the outreach foundation build a mambati sanctuary. It was completed and opened on 8th June of the year 2003 by the then P.C.E.A Deputy Secretary General the Rev. Kinyanjui. On the occasion of the opening ceremony, the newly constructed mambati sanctuary was packed to capacity and the Rev. Kinyanjui pleaded with Mr. Stuat Rose to go an extra mile to help in the construction of an even bigger sanctuary. He consented to the request and offered the terms of engagement. The conditions initially seemed like a tall financial order to the members most of whom were of humble means but the challenge was taken positively by the leadership then together with the members.
The ground breaking ceremony led by the then clerk of the Ngong Hills Presbytery and Mbagathi Parish minister the Rev. Robert Waihenya was done on the 19th of November the year 2008. He also laid the foundation stone on the 7th of March year 2010. From thenceforth, things went in a clockwork manner and on 6th of May year 2010, the then Mbagathi parish minster Rev. Robert Waihenya Ndirangu was handed the keys to the expanded and completed church building by Mr. Stuat Rose to the jubilation of the elated congregation who were all praises to the Almighty God for His enduring faithfulness in the completion of the house of worship. The sanctuary was dedicated on 1st of August the year 2010 by the 15th and 16th Moderator of PCEA General Assembly the Very Rev. Dr. Jesse Kamau Macharia.
The church has grown since the inception of the PCEA Baraka parish and currently the Ongáta Chapel congregation has eight elder districts namely Chapel, Bethlehem, Galilee, Judea, Jordan, Nazareth, Horeb and Hosanna.
P.C.E.A Macedonia was started on 7th May year 2000. It has its origins from and is an offshoot of P.C.E.A Kandisi. Kimandiro was an elder district of P.C.E.A Kandisi which was then under the lager Mbagathi Parish. In the rainy seasons, members were faced with a very serious challenge to an extent of being unable to attend church services as a result of flooding of the river Lamelepo. After living with the problem for some time, one day Sunday morning in the year 1999, some church leaders met at Beatrice Wahu Maara’s homestead for a worship service where 16 members, 13 youths and 17 church school children were in attendance. In one accord the members in consultation with then parish minister made a unanimous decision to make the venue a worship center until such a time they could get a suitable piece of land to build a sanctuary that would serve Kimantiro district and its environs.
In the intervening period a team of men of faith led by the Rev. Stephen Kariuki, the late elder Timothy Giathi, Joseph Kamau, David Kuria and James Karanja approached the late John Keen with a request to sell them a piece of land for the purpose of building a sanctuary for worship and prayers. The favor of the Lord was upon them as he readily agreed to sell them 2 acres of land valued at Kshs two million and graciously allowed them to move and occupy the land even before any deposit was made. The congregation managed to move from elder Beatrice Maara’s homestead to the present day P.C.E.A Macedonia ground on the 7th of May year 2000 from where services were conducted under the shade of an acacia tree for a number of months.
Midway in the year 2000, the church ground was blessed by the Rev. Stephen Kariuki and afterwards a series of funds drives were conducted until the year 2004 in an effort to raise the 2 million shillings for the purchase of the piece of land. As the worship services continued under the acacia tree, arrangements were made to start construction of a permanent sanctuary and the foundation was laid. The church rapidly grew and the numbers outgrew the small sanctuary made of iron sheets within no time. This prompted the construction of a bigger Mambati sanctuary on the already laid foundation. In the year 2005, just a year after the construction of the bigger Mambati sanctuary, by God’s grace the growth of the church continued unabated and plans to build the present day modern sanctuary was mooted to accommodate the growing membership. In just under a year down the line, a ground breaking ceremony took place on 8th of December year 2006 under the patronage of the then parish minister the Rev. Onesmus Kanyaru, the foundation stone was laid by Rev. Patrick Rukenya the then moderator of Ngong Hills presbytery on 16th of March year 2008.
After the construction and completion of the main works, the church leadership requested Rev. Dr. Charles Kibicho, who was holding brief for the very Rev. Dr. David Githii to allow the congregation to move from the old sanctuary to the newly constructed sanctuary. The request was gladly granted and the minister presided over a colorful and joyous exodus on the 8th of July year 2012.
Now, although the intention for the construction of the new church building was for use by the local congregation, soon after its completion, Baraka Parish and Kajiado Presbytery were established. It was decided that by virtue of the construction works of the church building and its strategic location in the middle of the parish, the Presbytery and Parish head offices headquarters became domiciled at the P.C.E.A Macedonia building where they are currently housed.
The sanctuary was eventually dedicated on the 31st of July year 2016 by the then secretary General of the 21st General Assembly the Rev. Peter Kania Kariuki. The gracious Lord of harvest has since seen the congregation grow both spiritually and numerically and at the time of writing this history the congregation membership stood at about five hundred and forty nine (549) full members, close to eighty (80) adherents and about two hundred (200) church school children.
Macedonia PCEA have 9 elder districts so far. Notably Elim, Eden, Zion, Upendo, Rehoboth, Bethel, Judah, Siloam and Caanan.
P.C.E.A Kajiado Presbytery is part of the Nairobi Region in Kajiado County bordering the following presbyteries, Ngong Hills in the North, Tanzania Mission in the West, Nairobi Central in the South, both North and South Milimani in the East.
Pcea Macedonia Church, Ongata Rongai, Nairobi – Kenya
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