Shortly after enrolling in Grand Canyon Theological Seminary in the fall of 2023, Gama Aywa Ondere believed it was essential for him to bring someone to his native Kenya to preach.
That pursuit did not take long, although the journey was eventful, to say the least.
Ondere quickly bonded with Daniel Klem, a GCU seminary student and youth pastor at The Church Next Door in Prescott Valley.
After making arrangements and receiving security clearance with little time to spare, Klem made a convincing impact during his 10 days ministering in Ondere’s homeland last summer.
“Now I’m receiving testimonies about his preachings, his teachings,” Ondere said. “So I believe that God gave us a good opportunity to be able to just serve.”
Nearly six months after ministering in a different continent, Klem remained startled by the opportunity and experience.
“Why would a small town youth pastor be invited to Kenya? Just because we met each other in school. That’s it,” said Klem, who went to Morocco in 2005 on a standard college mission trip.
“This time it was, “oh, this time I’m being invited as the speaker. What is this? This is new.’ Of course, I was flattered.”
Ondere felt it was a perfect time for his followers and the community-based organizations that he had directed for the last 22 years to hear a different voice.
“I also thought being a good steward, not only receiving the knowledge and keeping it, but also bringing somebody else to kind of read and speak more about the gospel challenges and the gospel truth,” Ondere said. “And through that, Daniel did.”
Ondere believed Klem was the right person to deliver a message to the Kenyan people from the time he met him.
“That was a confirmation from God himself,” Ondere said. “Because when I gave (Klem) the invitation, I asked, ‘can you do this? He said, ‘let’s pray about it.’ and we prayed about it.
“When he said, ‘yes,’ then it was just confirmation of what God intended us to do, and we look forward to having him come again and again and again, because you know the truth of the matter is that the harvest is plenty, the field is ripe, but now those to till the ground is few. And not only few, but those that are dedicated to do that are very few. Therefore, by virtue of Daniel coming on board and others, I think it is an opportunity that needs to be explored more and more.”
GCTS director Joshua Anderson was excited but not surprised by international connections between GCU seminary students and their ministries.
“We want to have a global impact, and this is exactly what we are seeing,” Anderson observed. “International GCTS students are already influencing so many local Phoenix churches and ministries, and now we are seeing local seminary students impacting ministries around the world.
“I believe this is just the beginning of continued global ministry from our seminary students.”
The next trip figures to go smoother than what Klem experienced. He applied for a visa two months in advance of his trip.
“The day I’m at the airport I get an email stating they’re still trying to process my visa,” Klem said.
Klem made some calls, only to find out it would take two days to approve.
At this point, Klem arrived in New York for his connecting flight, only to learn his visa had not yet been approved.
“It turned out the ambassador to Kenya was in the airport,” Klem said.
The ambassador spoke with Klem for five minutes, made a telephone call, and his visa was approved.
Klem checked his email before boarding for Nairobi and realized his preaching might not mesh with the audience.
So after spending the first leg of his trip working on his theme, Klem changed direction.
And it turned out to be a wise move while working on little sleep.
“It became this whole focus on what is evangelism and how do we do that,” Klem recalled. “And I found out most people in his church did not think there was a real need for evangelism. And then all of a sudden, (the people leaned) that’s how evangelism is. Yes!
“You could see how people from across Kenya and across the world came together and got the same message.”
Klem’s change in script caused one speaker to adjust her message, leaving her to summarize her thoughts.
“That shows it was a ripe opportunity for God to bring me and Daniel at that time,” Ondere said.
Klem seemed pleased and relieved by his spontaneous re-write, especially after providing encouragement at a youth conference.
“Don’t let anybody say you can’t do anything,” Klem said. I’m a farm boy from the middle of nowhere America now in Kenya, but you can travel the world because that’s what God did with 12 guys in a small town in Israel. So don’t say you can’t do anything.”
Klem did not feel entirely out of place during his visit, which included stops to five towns.
The local response to Klem’s preachings was convincing, Ondere said.
“People have been sending me messages and saying, ‘I think you are the feeders,. You need to bring Daniel again because the cake you gave us was too sweet but too small.’ Such feedback tells you that the people are hungry for the Word of God. People are thirsty.”
After one of Klem’s last sermons in Busia, locals wanted him to extend his stay, but the cost to change his return flight to the U.S. was too expensive.
Nevertheless, Klem’s trip satiated a mission for Ondere, whose father had a scholarship to an American university in 1982 but did not have the funds to travel from Kenya.
Ondere enrolled at GCU through the help of a friend who raised funds through Facebook.
"I believe this MDiv (Master of Divinity) is not just an MDiv,” Ondere said. “It’s a springboard for us to scale the heights of the gospel. And through Daniel and many other friends, we believe that this will come to pass. It’s only a matter of time.”
Said Klem: “I started telling people it might be worth it to go. And now I help with teaching Christian worldview and next semester philosophy, too. … I’ve seen what they’ve been doing over the last 15 years, and I see so many good things. And then I get to meet all these students from Africa, and now we have two from Asia, and so it’s just growing.”
Based on Klem’s impact in Kenya, “I think it is an opportunity that needs to be explored more and more,” Ondere said.
Anderson was delighted with GCTS’ role in Kenya.
“This is exactly why the Seminary exists ─ to train ministry leaders for a global impact for Christ!” Anderson said.
GCU Senior Writer Mark Gonzales can be reached at [email protected]
***
Related content
GCU News: College of Theology makes an impact at national convention
