Adam

Were you terrified? Did you think you were going to die?

 

Joseph

Yes. They have killed so many of my friends, even a family member. They have killed my brother. I mean, it’s just like a common thing; when they get you, they kill you. I was among the lucky people who were arrested. They were gotten by them, and are still alive. I’m among the few. I lived that life for a period of time, and also, because of protection, I used to box.

 

Adam  

I remember a lot of the kids are sniffing glue or any kind of substance to stay high, because life is not a pleasant one, so you’re trying to escape as much as possible. Is that part of the equation for you?

 

Joseph

I’ve never been high. And because I started boxing when I was going to trash, and my boxing coach was South African, who was always on my case, so I didn’t use any glue. I’ve never drank. I have never smoked marijuana. All my entire life, I’ve been in the worst place, but very sober. I have never used any chemicals.

 

Adam  

The boxing coach. Is he a man of faith?

 

Joseph

He was not a man of faith. He told me that one day, he told me, young man, if you want to play boxing, never use any kind of drugs. And they knew that was the only key I had that would unlock my life, and that was boxing. So I was very serious with boxing, apart from doing all the other things, I was very serious with boxing. I was representing my country in boxing. I was one of the best young boxers in the country. I was a captain of our national amateur boxing team for one year.

 

Two girls came to me one day, I think it was the 10th of June, the year 2000, and they asked me, Joseph, “Can I go to church tomorrow?” I was like, what? Where is your church? Hoping it is not in the neighborhood, because they’re in the neighborhood. I could not be allowed because I was one of the biggest criminals in the community. So they told me, No, it’s a 30-minute drive from where we were living.

 

I said, Yeah, okay, we’ll go to church tomorrow. So I went to church, and at that time I was in the trash place, I’m a criminal, I’m like the worst. I’m living the worst life. And then I went to church. There was an evangelist who was preaching. His name was John. He preached the book of Job, the way Job had so many things, and then he lost everything. And then I realized, Oh yes, I had so many things. But right now it’s like, I’ve lost so many things in my life.

 

He preached, and then asked if you want to receive Jesus salvation. Then, after the service, we went home with the girls, and I was sitting between the two girls. They were like, “Why were you crying when the preacher was preaching?” I’m like, I was not crying. When the sermon was going on, I was crying without knowing it.

 

When I went home, I told my mom today, for the first time, I was in church. My mom asked if I had become a Christian. I said, No, but next Sunday, I’ll become a Christian. But there was too much conviction in my heart. I had already made a decision. From that day on, 11th June, that was my turnaround. And then the following Sunday was the 18th of June, when the preacher was preaching, and I was like, I could not even wait. I cannot even remember what he was preaching. I was down there and just asked for prayer. I wanted salvation now. I don’t want tomorrow. I want it now and then.

 

But since that time, I became a very radical Christian in the slums. I’ve been a street preacher since. I have been preaching in the street for the last 26 years and proclaiming the word. I became a pastor in 2005. I went to a seminary from 2002 to 2004, but I was unable to finish the last semester because I could not raise the money. I was paying $15 per semester. I was unable to raise $15, so I was not allowed to do the last exam. I was not allowed to do the last exam, but the knowledge that I got is what I’m surviving with, even right now.

 

Adam

How did you feel when you did the altar call and you asked for salvation? Did you experience anything? When did your thinking start to change? How did it start to work itself out?

 

Joseph

One of the things that I realized that I had to change was my company, the group that I hung around with, I had to change. I didn’t have a Bible, and I didn’t know anyone who had a Bible. So one girl had said, ” I have given my life to Jesus.” She brought me a Gideon Bible and two tapes, one called Majesty and another called God’s Property. So that’s all the material I had.

 

Because of my life in crime, many people, many Christians, did not allow me to go to their house for home fellowship, because they thought I was still a criminal. So I was watching a lot of TBN. I always say that I’m a product of TBN. TBN played a major role in my becoming who I am right now, because I was not going to fellowship. So I was in my mother’s house watching TBN. I was just there consuming and consuming and consuming. That’s all that I was receiving.

 

I had to stop a couple of things. I had to change my company and depend on the trash place for leftover food. I have to go to a trash place every day. I have to go to a boxing gym every day now. Then on Sunday, I have to dress up and go to church. And then something tremendous happened in the year 2002.

 

Adam

Not a lot seems to be changing in your circumstances at this point. Do you feel? Are you experiencing His presence?

 

Joseph

Oh my gosh, I had a house made of mud, a mud house. I’ve never experienced His presence like that again. I could lock my house in that house for hours and hours and hours, and had so many encounters in my mud house, crazy encounters in my mud house.

 

I saw miracles. I was doing fellowships in the slums. So there is this lady, she was not waking up, she didn’t have energy. She was very sick in her sick bed. So I was like, We need to pray for her. I know we cannot afford medicine, but we can pray for her. So we went, we prayed for her. The following day, she was alive and kicking, and I went to see her. She made me tea. She cooked for me. I saw so many miracles.

 

I went to a place called Lodua, we were doing a revival meeting from 10am midnight to midnight, and then I was seeing miracle after miracle. There was a person who was brought to me who was deaf, and we prayed for him. His ears were wide open, and the whole community started celebrating. I have seen miracles, like every day to date.

 

One of the things I don’t stop doing is praying for the sick. I believe that God has allowed me to pray for the people who are sick, because he has placed me in a place where medication is an issue, where people don’t go to the hospital because they cannot afford it. People have faith that there is someone who can heal them, and they are waiting for someone to heal them.

 

I prayed for people, and they have died, and whether they live or die, all the glory is God’s. I saw so many salvations, I was like a very radical street preacher. I was preaching in the streets, in the slums, and I was a firm believer that God has called me to number one, to the slums, number two, to the young people. To date, I’m preaching in the slums, and we have a ministry called Count Me In, in which we preach every day in schools. Last year, we saw more than 96,000 salvations.

 

Adam

Wow. In the beginning, you’re in your mud house, and you’re praying all the time, and you’re watching TBN. Are you getting a vision for all of this stuff? What is God saying? How is God communicating to you? How is he resourcing you? I just find that really inspiring.

 

Joseph

One thing, I was a blank slate. I was not born or raised in the church. So that number one, number two, because of my life of crime, my education level was very low, and even understanding English was an issue, but I I stood with a scripture in the book of Jeremiah one, verse five, that even before you, before I formed you, I set you apart and called you before you are in your mother’s womb and set you apart to be a prophet to the nations. I was a firm believer that God had given me a nation.

 

I don’t know how, but whatever I’m doing right now was deposited in me in that mud house; whatever I’m offloading right now was put in me, in the trash place, in the mud house.

 

There is a culture in Kenya that anytime you’re doing a crusade, open-air, you have to wear a suit. So I didn’t have that kind of dressing, so I had to talk to my father to give me his clothes for me to go and preach. They were too big, but I would just wear them to go and preach.

 

I was leading a group of young people who were very vocal and were preaching. I always walked with so many young people, wherever I was going, they were like following me. We have nothing. I was a street boy. They will follow me, and we’ll go and evangelize to the community.

 

So I knew from the word go that God had set me for something special. And I always knew that being in the trash place, living the life I was living, God was training me for what was ahead of me. Whatever I’ve gone through, God was training me for what he has in store for me. So if not for what I went through, I would not be who I am right now.

 

Adam

You were beginning to say before I interrupted that at the roughly two-year mark, something miraculous happened.

 

Joseph

Yeah. I’m preparing to have a fight with a team from Uganda. I’m the captain of the boxing team, and it’s one month before the fight. It’s a Thursday. I trained very well, had a very good sparring, and then I was walking home, and then I heard a voice from the Lord walking in the street, walking in the slum. I heard a voice say, “You have been busy doing your business. It is time to do my business.” And he told me to quit boxing.

 

Boxing was the only hope I had. I went home. I washed my clothes, my boxing clothes, I met my mother, and I told my mother, from today, I’m done with boxing. My father was the biggest supporter of my boxing career. I went to the pub. He was always drunk. I went to the pub and told my dad, ” From today, you’ll never see me in the newspaper, and I’m done with boxing. I want to serve the Lord.” And no one believed. No one believed. No one.

 

All my coaches were like, ” This boy is getting mad.” No one believed. I was the only hope of the family. Because of my boxing career, I had only one thing that I had in my hand that could take me from one place to another. That was the only key. Then the Lord is telling me, “Give me those, please.”

 

I mean, so I’m done with boxing now, my job is to go to the trash place. I go to my fellowship. I had small groups in Dandora near the trash place. I had a small group that I was leading. My job was now to go and follow up on people, reaching out to people, and then going to the trash place for food and to work. And that was my life.

 

Adam

How old were you when you made that decision to when you heard the voice of the Lord?

 

Joseph

22 because I was born in 1980, I was just about to turn 22, and my birthday is in June. That was the last day. I took everything, and I was done with boxing.

 

Adam

You had that conviction because the voice of the Lord was so clear; it was such a powerful moment. It’s almost like Abraham laying Isaac on the altar.

 

Joseph

The same experience, yeah. I was not in my prayer closet. I was not in a prayer room. I was walking in the street, and I had my bag, my boxing bag, my bag full of bandages, I mean, my T-shirt that was sweaty, full of sweat, and everything. I’m walking in the street, and I hear the voice, “You have been busy doing your business; it’s your time to do my business.” I could not understand which business, because I was not a pastor. I was not like, God calling me for full-time ministry. It’s not like that. It’s like, it is my time? My time to do your business?

 

So I was preaching, preaching without any experience, and just preaching.

 

Adam

How would you present the gospel at that time? What would you tell people that God loves you?

 

Joseph

One of the most powerful things that I’ve used is my testimony. My testimony is one of the things that is in the middle of my Bible. I have led so many 1000s and 1000s of young people through my testimony, and I have learned and cultivated a way of sharing my story and sharing the gospel at the same time.

 

I didn’t have so many things, I didn’t have so much experience, but when I was in the discipleship, one of the things that I caught was that you can share the story. Your story is powerful, and you can share it to lead people to Christ, and I’ve been doing that since my discipleship class in 2001

 

Adam

Yeah, amazing. So how did doing God’s business start to provide for you? If you are quitting boxing, you feel like you’re never going to get out of the slums.

 

Joseph

I had to depend on trash. And then another mysterious thing happened in 2004: a cult group came, which was cutting people’s heads off. At my source of food, which is the trash place, I’m chased away. Then I had to move to another slum, and I started living with a family. I ended up living with them for close to six years. They were Christian. Their father was a pastor.

 

Every now and then, I was doing something called Kesha. Those are overnight prayers. I was doing overnight prayers in his house, which ended up with so many people, young people, giving their lives to Christ, and he did not have a church in that location. So through that, I forced him to start a church in that location.

 

That’s where I started pastoring. But even after I started pastoring, I was earning $15 every Sunday. That was my income for almost six years.

 

I was working, being a pastor there, and I was hired by another big church in Kenya to help them work with young girls from Islam. I worked with them Monday to Saturday, and then on Sunday, I was in the church, but in the same location. So they were paying me. They were paying me $70 then another organization from Norway came to Kenya and hired me to help them do spot outreaches in the slums.

 

They started giving me $100, and it went to $250. And then after that, in 2017 or 2016, I met an American missionary. He came to Kenya and decided to take care of my expenses in Kenya, and that family has been supporting me until 2024. They have been supporting me for almost 10 years, yeah, so I live through the support of people.

 

Adam

Where are you today? What does life look like today?

 

Joseph

Life is so good right now. I have a big ministry called Count Me In, which is a 501 (c) 3 in America. Here in Kenya, we do a lot of school outreaches. We do a lot of camps for young people. Like every day, we are leading people to Christ literally every day. Today we went to two schools. I also lead a very vibrant church in the slums. The church is called Destiny Community Church, a very vibrant church.

 

And by God’s grace, I have planted, apart from my church, 19 churches all over the country. Two years ago, God gave me a vision of starting kids’ churches in the slum. So I have started four kids’ churches in different slums where I share a breakfast with the kids, give them food, and then we share the gospel. I have a good team that is working with me.

 

We reach 800 to 1000 kids every weekend, every week. And then on top of that, this year, God gave us a vision of starting kids’ schools in the slum where the women who work in the trash place, they can’t afford to take their kids to school, so God gave us a vision to start a school for them, and we have been raising money to feed them.

 

They’re not paying any amount of money. We buy them a uniform. We have a room set apart. They are using our church as a school, and we have a couple of rooms prepared. We have four classes. We have one-on-one students, kids who are coming to our school every day. We are feeding them, and we are trying to bring an impact to society and give them hope in a society where hope is not. The only way that we can bring hope is through our Lord Jesus Christ and the amazing gospel.

 

Adam

That’s one thing that I saw in 2008, and you know, they had a presidential election, and just violence broke out. And my recollection of that time, and trying to make sense of it, was that it was a lot of men, young men with no hope, no purpose. A lot of them are suffering, and they’re self-medicating with drugs and alcohol. Any outlet to release that frustration that they’re feeling and that hopelessness. That’s what I think led was the catalyst. People take advantage of that angst and take advantage of that condition and leverage it to steal, kill, and destroy.

 

You are providing hope and a testimony of, I mean, you were in a dark room, you were raised in a dark, dark room, in a dark place with the odds stacked against you, and God met you there and brought you out and into the light and gave you your identity. What a powerful physical representation of the kingdom of God in your person and in your testimony.

 

Joseph

When I was growing up, my role models were all criminals. Now, just by serving there, maybe I can be a role model to a couple of young people. I’ve seen so many young people getting out of crime and becoming strong Christians and testifying in the community, because they now have hope, which is the missing link, and one of the things that the government is not offering. The government is not offering hope.

 

The young people are desperate. One of the trending news stories in Kenya is the Russian government taking the young people from Kenya and taking them to the front line in Ukraine. And they are dying, including one of our elder’s son, who went and died. They die there. They were paid 1000 USD per month. That was their payment. That is 120,000 Kenyan shillings.

 

We are doing a desperate thing, because we are, we are desperate. And of course, other governments are taking advantage of that, like Russia is taking advantage of that. I mean, other people may also be taking advantage of the desperation of the young people, young men in the country who are trying to survive, who are trying to feed their families. And it’s a bad thing that is happening right now, especially right now,

 

Adam

What’s your hope in sharing your story for somebody that’s listening here in the States? What do you hope that they gain from listening to your testimony?

 

Joseph

Number one is just one of the key things, which is that the presence of God is real, and he’s not a respecter of persons or places. I was in a dark place, and he came and met me. So even where you are, you can experience the power of God. If you just open up your heart to Him, you will experience Him. And whenever he comes, he comes to transform, he comes to heal, he comes to restore. He will meet you where you are and transform you.

 

Adam

Amen. Amen, amazing. I would love for you to pray for the folks who are listening.

 

Joseph

Lord, we thank you. Bless you. Give you praise. You give honor to a faithful Father. Lord, we thank you. Lord, You are Cesar from the rising of the sun to the going down, on the same day, that Your name be hallowed. Lord, we thank you for allowing us to hear and hear from you, Lord. And Lord, we just want to thank you for the testimony that I was able to share.

 

Lord, I thank you for every person listening. Lord, I just want to pray where they are. Lord, I just want to thank you because you’re doing something new. I pray that they shall experience you, my Lord, and their lives will never be the same again. Lord, I just want to pray that they shall have an encounter with you.

 

Lord, I had an encounter with you, and since that time, my life has never been the same again. I pray that I may have an encounter with you, and we bless you and give you thanks. I thank you that whatever they’re expecting, Lord, from you, either healing, restoration, Lord, I just want to pray that you may do it, Lord. I thank you because every person listening they are candidate of miracles, and Lord, you’re still working miracles, even now and even to this generation. We thank you for Adam, Lord. I pray that you may bless him and bless His ministry. Yes, mighty name. I pray. Amen.

 

Adam

Amen. Amazing. Thank you. What do you need prayer for? I will put a link to your ministry page. What’s the prayer request? And then, what are your needs?

 

Joseph

Number one is the prayer request for this nation that there will be an awakening. We have been having too many false prophets that are coming from all over the world, including America and other countries, so that the Lord will see them of the country that will have the true gospel being shared. That’s my prayer. Number two is awakening for this generation. Kenya has an average age of 19 years. They normally say in East Africa, we have more than 50 to 60% of the population under the age of 16. So that’s my prayer that the Church will rise up to reach out to that population.

 

My need is about the kids that we are supporting and feeding in the slums. One of our major needs is food. Yeah, for the children. That’s our major, major need.

 

Adam

Can people donate through your website? Is that the best way to help?

 

Joseph

Yes, they can donate through our website.

 

Adam

Yes, all right. Well, man, it’s been a pleasure. Thank you, guys, for watching. Love you, guys.