More than 800 people gathered on Sunday for the dedication services of the new Mbitin Christian Church building located near the Maasai Mara Game Preserve in Kenya, according to William Koya, a long-time leader in the Mara North Cluster and the Field Operations Supervisor for the Community Health Partners clinic.

“People gathered to rejoice, celebrate and witness the work our Lord is doing in Maasai land,” said William.  “People came from all the Mara North cluster of Community Christian Churches — ordained and licensed pastors, our regional overseer Patrick Sayialel from the CCC, local leaders, chiefs and the area Member of Parliament.”

The service on Sunday also included the ordination of the Mbitin church’s pastor, Wilson Parkeyio Karkar, and his wife. 

“Also, during this occasion, 11 people gave their lives to Jesus, two men and nine women, and many sick people were prayed for,” said William. “The people also prayed for rain, and God answered immediately with such heavy rain that all the rivers are flooded!”

Mbitin is a young congregation that began in 2008 and is part of the Mara North cluster of the Community Christian Churches (CCC). In the beginning, the church members used to worship under a tree. The church now has a membership of 218 people: 30 men, 80 women and 60 young people.

“The church was built in two and a half months,” said William. “The total cost was about $18,000. Men and women of this church took a lot of their time meeting every week to raise money to meet the total cost of the construction and raised it in good time.”

CMF also contributed some financial assistance to the building project, according to CMF missionary Lynn Cazier.

“This was built with assistance from CMF of about $5,900,” said Lynn. “The rest of the cost was raised by the Mbitin church and others in the cluster. In well-organized clusters like Mara North, all the churches work together to raise funds for the next building on the list, and then move on to the next one.”

The 30-by-50-foot stone building is complete, except for the final painting, said William.

“We thank God for this and express our sincere gratitude to the whole CMF International for the support and partnership with CCC,” he said.