A Look Back at Resourcing Ministry Partners by Ken Yockey

I met Dominic Costanzo in the fall of 1993, while attending a monthly men’s gathering at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Milford, Ohio. We were both relatively new to Faith Church and the monthly Men’s Gatherings were a good way to meet other men of the church. These meetings were led by Andrew Waits and on this particular Sunday night, Dominic felt impressed by the Holy Spirit that Andrew needed prayer protection. After the meeting was over, I was waiting in the front of the room to connect with Elder Rod Young who was engaged in conversation with a couple other men. Dominic walked up to me and said “Hi, I am Dominic Costanzo. The Holy Spirit told me that you and I are to pray for Andrew.” My response was “He didn’t tell me, but if that is what he said, we had better do it” From then on Dominic and I spoke weekly, if not more often, for 27 years. The men’s ministry at Faith Church continued to become very popular. Andrew Waits would step down as the leader of the men’s ministry while Dominic and I would step in and co-lead the ministry. At this point, Faith Church was very engaged with a very popular new men’s movement, Promise Keepers, and the men of the church were attending the stadium events across the country. Faith Churches Men’s Ministry would focus the monthly men’s gatherings around the priorities of the Promise Keepers movement, encouraging men in their commitments and struggles. During this same time period, the book “Experiencing GOD” By Harold Blackaby was extremely popular in Christian circles all across the United States. Both Dominic and I had read the book and were highly impacted by its message. Around July of 1995 (?) during a very hot summer, Promise Keepers was encouraging the men’s gathering to have picnics or other outings for men to get together. Paul and Shirley Burnside, members of Faith Church, had opened up their home for a men’s picnic. They had a beautiful home on a large 5-acre lot in Anderson Township. There were tennis courts, volleyball court, basketball court, baseball field, lake, in ground swimming pool, and a large patio with grills to entertain everyone. The picnic was held on a Saturday Afternoon, with highs reaching the low 90’s. There were more than 100 men and their sons in attendance. At this picnic, Steve Sims brought a guest, a young man in his early 20s, Kenyan Evangelist Daniel Osoi. Although Dominic and I were very busy overseeing all that needed our attention during the picnic, Dominic was almost immediately taken by this Young Kenyan Evangelist. He started to connect the dots from the book “Experiencing GOD” and was asking God if we were to partner with Daniel. Dominic believed this was a divine appointment and he didn’t want to mess it up. It was truly a Mary and Martha moment. Sadly, I must admit I was Martha. I told Dominic while the picnic was underway, I did not have time to discuss this ministry opportunity with him and we had more than 100 guests that needed attention. Later in the late afternoon, as things quieted down, I sat with Daniel and Dominic, enjoying Daniel’s company.Daniel was young, he looked like a teenager, and he was very quiet. He was enjoying fishing in the lake. He would get so excited when he would catch a blue gill! At the time, none of us knew that Maasai are afraid of water and do not like fish. However, this moment would be the catalyst of a friendship that quickly turned into a ministry partnership. After the picnic, Dominic sought to strengthen his new friendship with Daniel. He invited him to attend his home Bible Study small group. Daniel attended and the relationship grew to include the members of the small group. One of Dominic’s small group members was Bill VanFleet. I only knew Bill casually through Dominic. Bill also had met Daniel and formed an immediate friendship and bond. Dominic and Bill prayed and asked the Lord if they were to partner with this young evangelist from Kenya, Africa. It became very clear to both Dominic and Bill that the small group should adopt Daniel and support his ministry endeavors.At this point Dominic had only know the Lord as his personal Savior for little more than 10 years, Bill was an even newer convert. So, Dominic came to me for advice on how to proceed. I was raised in the Baptist Church and came to the Lord at the age of 9. My father was a radical Christian “Soul Winner”, who had experience in Christian Missions. At that time, I was working under Keith Kruger in the Faith Church Youth Ministry, teaching youth small groups. I sat down with Dominic and we discussed his vision for the ministry and partnership with Daniel. Dominic, being highly influenced by the book “Experiencing GOD” knew what he wanted the ministry to look like. After much discussion, it became very clear that this partnership would only be an extension of Daniel’s ministry. As I explained to Dominic the different types on missions’ outreach, he was emphatic that this would be an indigenous ministry, led by the Holy Spirit.From that time forward the ministry partnership was born. Dominic came back and asked me how he should structure the ministry. Dominic wanted all to go well, to be a good steward with a high level of accountability and integrity. I advised him to ask Daniel to provide him with a business plan! Dominic thought that was an excellent idea. Daniel did just that. Daniel was very poor and came from a terribly impoverished area. The Maasai tribe, at that time, were considered one of the very least of the tribes of Kenya. They were declared by many mission organizations as being “Hostile to the Gospel”. Daniel had never had any funds to operate this ministry. It had been all by faith, the Maasai people would donate animals, which would be converted to ministry funds.In the beginning years, Dominic would take donations from the members of the small group and had to devise a way to transfer funds to Daniel in Kenya. It was a very difficult and challenging process in those early years. In the first years, the donations were around $1,500 to $5,000. At the end of five years, Daniel had accomplished everything on his ten-year business plan. Dominic, an astute businessman, was very impressed by what Daniel had accomplished in such a short period. Dominic was so energized by this progress and the rest is history.In 1997, Daniel had evangelized enough Maasai to start a church out in the bush community of White Stone. At the same time, the Missions Committee of Faith Evangelical Free Church took the Ministry of Pastor Daniel Osoi, Maasai Tribe, Kenya, East Africa on as one of the church’s mission outreaches. Daniel was so touched by the confidence that Faith Church had placed in his ministry, that he renamed his ministry “Faith Evangelical Free Church International” in their honor. It is important to clarify that the ministry of Daniel Osoi is not affiliated with the Evangelical Free Church of America. Years later, the government of Kenya would challenge Pastor Daniel, contending his ministry was not an international ministry. He was compelled to drop the international designation from his name to maintain his Kenya ministry credentials. He complied, and the name was changed to Faith Evangelical Free Church-Kenya. That remains the name of the ministry to this day.In 1999, the Faith Church Missions department was concerned that the ministry of Pastor Daniel Osoi was not under a “recognized mission board” for supervision and accountability. Their concern was that the mission money that was being sent by Faith Church may not have been used as it was intended. Dominic and I had discussed this issue many times after the concern was raised. Daniel had been visiting the USA annually during this time period, and he would give a ministry update to the missions committee while he was in Milford. This seemed to help satisfy the committee that Daniel was, in fact, a legitimate foreign ministry. Daniel’s trips to the USA were interrupted by the terrorist attacks of 9/11/2001. It became clear that someone from Ohio needed to visit Kenya in order to validate the Maasai ministry (physical and spiritual) and bring personal accountability to how the donated funds were being spent.Many times during the ministry partnership, Daniel had invited me to visit Kenya and Maasai land. I was, however, very apprehensive in making such a trip since I did not have any foreign ministry travel experience. Daniel was very persistent with his invitations. During his visit in August of 2001, Daniel insisted that I come and survey the water issues in Marba town to see if I might offer a solution to this health issue. The water was contaminated by cattle, which made adults and children sick. In some cases infants and children were perishing. I could not say no, if there might be some way I could help these people. From 2001 – 2005, I starting preparing to do foreign missions and visit Maasai Land.In the spring of 2005, Daniel made the trip to Milford, Ohio, This was his first trip since the attacks of 9/11/2001 and it would be the first time we had been with Daniel since that time. While it was very exciting to see him again, he brought very bad news: Maasai Land was caught in one of the worst droughts that many could remember. At that point, it had been three years with little or no rain. He requested we make the trip to Maasai land by fall of 2005, at the very latest. We immediately began to plan our trip to Maasai Land for October, 2005. We needed to make travel arrangements, get our vaccinations, and exchange our money (we needed to learn how to do that). It was a big leap of faith on our parts! Dominic convinced Bill VanFleet into going on the trip and Jim Stewart, one of the members of Dominic’s small group, also volunteered to go. I did not know Bill well and I only knew Jim casually. It is unnerving, traveling so far with people largely unknown to me, but it would turn out fine.October came and we were off. We departed Cincinnati, flew to Amsterdam, where we changed planes and proceeded on to Nairobi, Kenya. We arrived around 9:00pm Kenya time. We made it through Kenya customs with no problem. There, at the Kenyatta Airport, we found a Men’s Rest Room to freshen up after our long day of travel, taking turns going in. I went first and after washing off, I went out in the airport to wait on Jim and Bill. While out there, I saw two Kenya security Force Officers. They embraced and walked off hand in hand. I remembered missionaries that would stay in our home when I was child, they explained many of the different African customs. It brought back instant memories. As I was standing there taking it all in, I thought to myself that immortal line from the Wizard of Oz: “You are not in Kansas anymore TOTO!”I felt led to pray. During my prayer, I thanked the Lord for journey mercies, for safety, then I asked the Lord to give me love in my heart for the Maasai people. We had just traveled more than 12,000 miles in 21 hours and I only knew one Maasai, Daniel Osoi. When I finished praying, the presence of the Lord was on me. I knew I was in his presence. In that still small voice in my mind, I could hear him say to me crystal clear, “Ken, you don’t need love in your heart for the Maasai people. You need to know and understand the depth of my love for the Maasai people!” The hair on the back of my neck was standing up as was the hair on my arms. When Bill and Jim joined me, they had no idea that I had just had an encounter with the living GOD! That encounter changed my life and would affect the course of my life forever. I now felt so privileged to have been selected by the Lord for this task.Our Luggage was lost, or should I say it did not arrive with us. We were in Kenya at the Kenyatta Airport where the airport personnel were friendly but spoke very little English and just smiled at us. I was frustrated, not knowing what to do next, so I sent Bill out of the airport to locate Daniel, which he did (this was before new airport security). Daniel came in and started speaking Kiswahili to the ladies and got them on the move. It was interesting how quick they developed a plan of action to locate our bags!Daniel led us through the terminal, to a place where 27 Maasai were patiently waiting to meet us. It was surreal. Momma Raliala was among the first of the Maasai I met that night. I had seen her in many of the pictures that Daniel had shown us over the years. And now, I was meeting her in person. She was older, with a shaved head, she covered her mouth with her hand when she spoke and would not make eye contact with me. She spoke only Maasai, Jemimah Osoi interpreted for me. She spoke, saying she just could not believe or imagine that white people from America would travel all the way to Kenya to meet the Maasai! With that, she was holding my hand with a tight grip, I could feel her warm tears dropping onto my hand, and she then gripped my hand with both her hands as her tears flowed. It was so emotional, I knew that the Lord had just prepared me for this meeting back in the airport an hour or so before meeting her. I could not speak, I was just caught up in the moment, however my life had changed, and I knew I was representing Jesus Christ and his kingdom. I learned many lessons that night, one lesson learned was that many times in life no words are needed!We were completely dependent on Daniel and his Maasai family. Every international travel book tells you to never travel on the roads at night in a foreign country. However, we loaded into three cars and vans and headed out of Nairobi into pitch blackness. We soon had to stop at a security check point. When the security force personnel saw that they had white people in the cars, they started yelling waving their arms to get us out of there. They wanted no problems with the white guys on their watch! After we had traveled approximately one hour, the engines of the cars changed sound as they slowed down. Our Maasai friends looked at me and said “Ken Yockey, you are safe now, you are in Maasai Land”. We traveled another hour, on some on the worst roads I had ever experienced, and a light shone in the distance, we were informed that the owner of Kenya Airways is a Maasai and that was his house. Farther down the road, we came to our destination. Bulls Eye, a quaint lodge with seven bungalows, kitchen, dining room, meeting hall combo. It would be our home.We traveled every day, way out into the Maasai bush to visit the churches and validate that they did exist and meet the church members. Many, if not most, had never seen a white person, much less talked to one. It was a real experience for all of us.Over the 15 years since then, I have made six trips to validate the ministry and strength our partnership with our Maasai brothers and sisters. We have been in partnership with Bishop Daniel for more than 25 years.It is hard to tell just how many churches and church plants exist. But the impact of (now) Bishop Daniel Osoi stretches from one end of Maasai Land in Kenya to another. About one year prior to his home going, Dominic estimated that more than a million Maasai have heard the gospel of Jesus Christ through the Ministry Of Faith Evangelical Free Church Kenya, and its Pastors.We have in fact found that the ministry is thriving and that Bishop Daniel Osoi has been faithful with his responsibilities and stewardship of the donated funds that he has received in the 25 years of financial support. Respectfully,Ken Yockey