I hope to be an inspiration to women

Pastor Linda Ochola-Adolwa, 37, is the Associate Pastor of Mavuno Church, a role model to many women and a prolific writer. For her, life is about achieving the best that you can. She spoke to NJOKI CHEGE

I always had a conviction that I needed to serve in the church. Right from my first year at university in 1993, I felt the calling to do pastoral work.

At that time, there were not many people who had gone that way and being in the mainstream education system, I wondered, "Do I quit school to join ministry?"

Pastor Linda Ochola-Adolwa

However, people around me encouraged me to complete my degree first.

Immediately after completing my university education at the University of Nairobi in 1997, I went to Kampala to serve with Life Ministry and stayed there for three months. Previously I had interacted with the Nairobi Chapel, which had a one-year leadership development programme. They offered me a year of internship and exposure to church work and ministry.

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After the internship, I worked with Barclays Bank of Kenya as an accounts clerk. I am grateful I took up the opportunity to work at the bank because it taught me a lot on work ethic.

Two months into the banking industry, I realised I was young enough to make career transitions without experiencing crisis, as I had the energy to do so, and no dependants.

I decided to go to ministry, since the calling in my heart was too strong. It was hard, especially for my father to understand that I was leaving a promising career, but I am thankful that my parents finally supported me.

In the year 2000, I went back to Nairobi Chapel and applied for pastoral training. It would take one year and nine months.

Nairobi Chapel offered me a scholarship to study Theology for two years at the Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology (NEGST).

While there, I realised that to excel as a woman, I had to put in twice the effort, so I committed to doing a three-year programme.

I had a fabulous experience at NEGST. It was an eye opener. Having been born, brought up and even studied in Nairobi, the city was my horizon, but when I went to NEGST, I felt that Africa had literally come to my doorstep.

Birth of a passion

I met students from all over Africa; Sierra Leone, Cameroon, Nigeria, Togo, Zambia, Uganda, Tanzania and Ethiopia. They all had one goal — to spread the gospel across our continent.

It was while at NEGST that my passion for Africa was born and my world was completely opened up. I developed the desire to make a significant contribution to Africa and it was a watershed experience in my faith. Up to now, I feel that God has called me to preach and teach the people of Africa.

I graduated from NEGST in 2004 and Nairobi Chapel received me back, making the graduation transition easy for me. I hold a Masters in Divinity from NEGST, and I am trusting God for strength to begin my doctoral studies soon.

In 2004, Nairobi Chapel planned to plant five churches across Nairobi because the congregation at Mamlaka had outgrown the premises. The only way to continue the impact was to plant churches across the city. I just happened to be there at that particular time in history.

In August 2005, five churches were planted — Mamlaka Hill Chapel, Nairobi Chapel on Ngong’ Road, Mavuno Mashariki in Donholm, Covenant Community and Mavuno Church in South C. Pastor Muriithi Wanjau was appointed the lead pastor of Mavuno Church and I was assigned to be his associate pastor. We began with a team of six.

As the lead pastor, Muriithi was tasked with carrying the vision of the church, but I helped with a significant amount of the execution. I was in charge of the children’s church, youth, internships and the first pre-marital class. This gave me an opportunity to grow and explore what God had deposited in me.

We are celebrating our sixth anniversary this year and we thank God for the amazing experience. As we go on with the journey, the vision has become clearer and we have set our sights high — to plant a culture-defining church in every capital city of Africa by 2025.

Being different

Our aim is to reach out to the ‘un-churched’ young urban professionals. From the onset, we started doing things differently to appeal to our target audience. We did our music differently and packaged our sermons in attractive ways to reach out to the young, un-churched urban professionals.

We packaged the gospel particularly to target these young people who would rather have gone to other entertainment spots.

For us, we just ask you come to church, and you will walk out a different person. That is what Mavuno is all about. We communicate a message of purpose, inspiring people to become fearless influencers of society.

In the last six years, we have witnessed God do miracles. The church has become a fun place where we sing our hearts out to God.

I am currently the executive pastor in charge of discipleship. We decided to have an integrated programme, also called the Mavuno Marathon. Each experience is a step to something bigger and better. We started with the end in mind, which is, ‘what do we want you to become after a stint at Mavuno?’

Pastor Muriithi came up with the Mizizi programme, which is the first point of entry at Mavuno. It talks about how people can connect with God directly. So far, this programme has recorded more than 15,000 participants.

As the pastoral team of Mavuno, we challenged each other to develop content for Africa. Pastor Simon Mbevi wrote Ombi, which is the second book in our discipleship curriculum that teaches us how to pray effectively.

In 2006, I began to write and in 2009, I published and launched a book called Hatua, the third book in our discipleship curriculum. This book exposes people to God’s heart for society.

I have also written other books, drawn from the sermon series I have preached. In August 2009, I preached about the Nairobi city then published the book Engaging the City in 2010. Its goal is uprooting people from the individual consumerist approach to Christianity. Nairobi was a city built on inequality since the days of colonialism and without knowing it, we continue to perpetuate some of those things. It was inspired by the book of Jeremiah, who, when writing letters to the Jews in exile, advised them to fully participate in the life of the city and pray for its prosperity so that they, too, would prosper.

My other book, Defining Moment, is based on the book of Numbers in the Bible. As a team, we began to consider what the future held for us. We realised that last year was the beginning of a decade that, like others, would come with many changes. To influence the outcome, you can be proactive in certain ways.

Last year, members of Mavuno used Engaging the City and Hatua as curriculum for civic education on the land policy and the new Constitution in various parts of the country.

I am passionate about women in a way that I wasn’t a few years ago. My greatest concern is that they become what God made them to be. Women must realise they are complete human beings despite the challenges. This means they should exert themselves, cultivate a pioneering spirit and not limit themselves.

I hope to be an inspiration to women all around Africa and encourage them to be the best they can be. For them, the sky should be the limit.