I grew up in a Christian home on Mfangano Island, Lake Victoria, in Kenya, yet I did not know Christ personally. To me, religion was unsatisfying, so I ventured into frivolous living and worldly pleasure. My rebellion grew until I was disowned by everyone except my parents and I became desperate. The world did not satisfy me either. How could I escape this turmoil?
After several years of misery, I grabbed a Bible which a friend had given me years before and began to read it just to win arguments with my fellow students. But something started happening in me that I couldn’t explain. I fell in love with Jesus and how He treated those whom the world counted worthless. I had no other choice but to try Him. Christ didn’t lose in that trial; He changed my life! The best gratitude I could offer was my life for His service.
In 2015, a former student told me about Hartland, but I immediately discarded the idea. All that my family possessed was nothing compared to the cost. But one night two years later, my heart was so burdened that I couldn’t sleep. I asked God to reveal His will to me, and that’s when I found a Hartland catalog. Scanning through it, I arrived at the Pastoral Evangelism major. After reading and praying about it, I slept immediately.
Two years after applying to Hartland, I got accepted into the Missionary Training Fund (MTF) scholarship program. Then a missionary I had met in 2015 offered to buy me a ticket, though we had not communicated for almost four years. God is good!
I’m now in my second term, and I thank God for bringing me to Hartland. The environment and the classes are transformative, and I am encouraged and inspired to walk with the Lord. He is teaching me to trust Him daily, and I’m realizing how much I need His character. Hartland College is also helping me realize the urgency of taking the everlasting gospel to the world. My long-term goal is to start a missionary training institute back home.
I am thankful to God and to those who have sacrificed to support students like me. Without the MTF program, we could never have come to this college. Your labor is not in vain. Soon, our Lord will return and declare to you, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.” Matt. 25:21, 23.