"As she began to ask questions, she soon discovered these children to be orphans. Having lost their parents to AIDS, they had neither a home nor a way to pay their fees to attend school. Josephine responded immediately."
Josephine Sesi's daily work places her amidst some of the greatest challenges facing the church in Africa today. As an adjunct professor at the Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology (NEGST), her work focuses very directly on the dire need for trained leaders, educated pastors, missionaries and teachers to help the rapidly growing church evolve toward maturity. In addition, her personal work focuses directly on the challenges of Islam, an issue that touches not only the church, but her own personal life as well. She has also founded and oversees a ministry focused on AIDS orphans in her hometown in Eastern Kenya. As God often does, He has given her the opportunity to combine the work she does on a variety of fronts for a powerful and positive effect on the spread of the Gospel in Kenya.
Josephine's call to work with Muslim women came at a very young age. Having been born into a Christian family, she was involved in the church from her childhood. As a young girl, she began attending a girls' club called the "Christian Service Cadets", memorizing Bible verses, playing games, and working on various badges. When she was 14, she began work on a missionary badge which required her to select a missionary, learn all she could about that person and pray for them every day for three months. Josephine chose two missionaries working with Muslim groups in Kenya. That choice, along with seeing her uncle convert to Islam in order to marry a Muslim girl, shaped a great passion for reaching out to the Muslim community with the hope of Christ. She began to learn all she could about Islam. In doing so, God confirmed a call in her to serve unreached people in Africa, especially Muslim women.
Following her call into ministry, Josephine attended Scott Theological College in Machakos, Kenya. While there, she met Stephen, who also had a heart for reaching Muslims in Kenya. Like Josephine, Stephen had seen a family member convert to Islam in order to get married. After Stephen's sister married a Muslim, he too developed a strong desire to reach out to Muslim people, especially the Digo people group who live near the African coast. Like many in Africa, their practice of Islam is mixed with a variety of rituals from the area's traditional religions. Many of the Imams (teachers of Islam) are also village witch doctors.
After graduating from Scott, the Sesis began teaching at a Bible college in Mombassa (on the Kenyan coast). They planted and pastored a church, continuing their outreach to the Digo people and were eventually made national directors of Christian education for the African Inland Church (Kenya's largest denomination). This moved them to Nairobi where they also taught at Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology (NEGST).
Seeking further education and an opportunity to research the Islamic practices of the Digo people, the Sesis attended Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, CA with support from CISF as they earned their doctorates. Even while studying at Fuller, God opened yet another door for ministry among the Muslim people in Kenya. In the midst of her studies, Josephine received a call that her father was very ill. Returning home as quickly as possible, her father soon recovered. It was on that trip however that Josephine encountered a new challenge for the church. As she walked around town, she noticed a number of children on the streets who were not only absent from school, but who were not even going home at night, something that disturbed Josephine greatly. As she began to ask questions, she soon discovered these children to be orphans. Having lost their parents to AIDS, they had neither a home nor a way to pay their fees to attend school. Josephine responded immediately. Using all the money she had with her, she paid school fees and bought uniforms for as many as she could afford. She recruited family members to watch after these children, promising that she and Stephen would send money to cover their costs. At the time, Josephine had no idea where that money would come from, as she and Stephen were both students. Yet she believed God still wanted them to care for these children. She phoned her perplexed husband back in Pasadena to ask him to send more money to Kenya and despite initial misgivings, the decision became an easy one once he heard her story.
Returning to Fuller to resume her studies, Josephine and Stephen took on any jobs they could find so they could send money back to the AIDS orphans in Kenya. After only a month, the Sesis received a call from Kenya requesting yet more money. The number of orphans needing care had grown from 10 to 60. Josephine and Stephen continued to pray as they had no idea how they could support so many. They then met some members of a church in Southern California who felt called to join them in their ministry. With the backing of that church, they received the funds they needed to not only keep the children in school, but also to build them a home in the village of Makobe, near Mombassa where the Sesis had once ministered. Because some of these children came from Muslim homes, caring for these AIDS orphans has also opened another avenue to share Christ amongst the Muslim community.
Throughout her studies at Fuller, Josephine's passion to reach out to Muslim women continued to grow. However, she had no clear vision for how she was going to carry out that ministry. While the orphanage continued to grow, Josephine completed her studies at Fuller and she and Stephen then returned to Kenya to teach at NEGST. As she prayed, the Lord began to open doors to ministry to Muslin women in a most surprising way—through the orphanage.
Many of the children at the orphanage still had grandparents who lived nearby. In the Kenyan culture, most elderly are cared for by their grown children. The government does not have a social security program and thus elderly people must look to their children for their own care and provision. When adults die of AIDS, they not only leave behind children who need care, but also their own parents who depend on them for their needs. Many of the children who have come to the orphanage have been brought by grandparents who lack the means to support themselves, let alone their grandchildren. And many of these grandparents are Muslims. The orphanage has opened the door for Josephine to connect with many of the grandmothers of these children and she spends one week a month in Makobe, overseeing that ministry and cultivating relationships with the Muslim women in the area, many of whom are looking for hope and answers.
Josephine's vision doesn’t end with the orphanage. The next step in that ministry is to develop several economic empowerment projects for women of the region. She has found that holistic projects such as these not only provide some financial means, but give Muslim women the freedom to explore their questions of faith as well.
In addition to the orphanage, economic empowerment projects and teaching at NEGST, Josephine has a great passion to teach the church how to witness to Muslims through both the scriptures and through the way they live their lives. She is also developing training materials for use in seminaries, Bible schools and local churches seeking to reach out to their Muslim friends, neighbors and family members.
Leadership, AIDS orphans, and Islam: Josephine and Steven represent wonderful examples of gifted Christian leaders who, with CISF's support, will train up a whole new generation of pastors and teachers to help the church take on the most pressing issues facing Africa today.
