My Meeting with the Union President and His Officers

On July 20, 2026, I had a meeting with the President of the East Kenya Union Conference, Pastor Joel Okindo, in his office, followed by a meeting with his officers on July 21, 2026, during a digital evangelism committee meeting. My chance encounter with President Joel Okindo started over 10 years ago in Oklahoma. Pastor Okindo has several family members who left Kenya and are now living in Oklahoma and Texas—many of whom have become very close friends of mine and have actually become like an extended family to me and my family.

When I departed to Kenya, I had no expectation of meeting Pastor Okindo. However, one of his biological cousins—Elder Enoch Oyaro Oruru—said to me, “If you happen to meet our cousin, Pastor Joel Okindo, while you are in Kenya, please congratulate him on his new position and let him know that his family here in Oklahoma is praying for him.” By God’s providence, that unexpected opportunity became a reality, and I was grateful to personally convey their love, congratulations, and assurance of continued prayers.

Besides conveying family greetings, I also shared with Pastor Okindo that I was in Kenya conducting a series of revival meetings that had been promoted through various social media platforms, and that some attendees had traveled from as far as eight hours away to participate. I also shared that earlier that day I had met with the officers of the Central Kenya Conference, where we discussed plans to implement practical evangelistic initiatives, including strategies for expanding the church’s digital media outreach.

President Okindo told me that my visit to his office was providential. As it turned out, the very next day—the same day I was scheduled to fly back to the United States—the East Kenya Union Conference was holding a Digital Media Evangelism Committee meeting, chaired by President Okindo himself. President Okindo immediately called his secretary and instructed her to add me to the meeting agenda and ensure that the other Union officers would be present. By God’s providence, the meeting was scheduled for the morning, while my flight was not until that evening, allowing me to participate before departing for the airport. Once again, the Lord’s timing was perfect.

The meeting was held in a conference room at the LMS Guest House, the same hotel where I was staying. The East Kenya Union Conference owns the hotel, and its headquarters are located directly behind it on the same property. During the meeting, a video was presented featuring senior leaders from the General Conference highlighting the OneVoice27 global evangelistic initiative. OneVoice27 is a worldwide mission emphasis proclaiming the everlasting gospel to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people. A major focus of the initiative is the strategic use of digital and social media platforms.

After the video presentations, President Joel Okindo made a heartfelt appeal to the committee, urging them to move forward in advancing the mission of the church through digital evangelism. He emphasized that it was time to turn plans into action and faithfully carry the work forward. He then introduced me to the committee as his “cousin” and shared that I was a social media evangelist who had been in Kenya conducting revival meetings. He explained that he wanted me to share my testimony regarding digital evangelism. With that, I was invited to address the committee and present whatever message God had given me to share.

I really didn’t tell them anything—I simply showed them what God had accomplished through Satellite Newlife Seventh-day Adventist Church using simple, practical digital marketing. I connected my tablet to the projector and displayed the analytics from the back end of our social media platforms. Rather than speaking in theory, I presented real-world results. I showed them the posts that had been created to promote the revival meetings, the number of views those posts received, where the viewers were located, and how social media had effectively directed people to the church’s revival meetings. I also shared testimony after testimony of visitors who attended because they had seen the meetings online. Some had traveled extraordinary distances—up to eight hours—to be there.

I explained that the revival meetings served as a test run project conducted within the Central Kenya Conference and how the results clearly demonstrated the effectiveness of strategic online evangelism. I shared that Pastor James Desvallons, Elder Jonathan Tobias, I, and others from the United States were looking forward to working with the Central Kenya Conference to assist in training and implementing practical digital evangelism strategies that local churches could readily use.

I emphasized that many of our young people are already active on social media and, collectively, have the ability to reach thousands—sometimes even millions—of people. Rather than allowing those platforms to be used primarily for entertainment, I said we need to inspire and equip our young people with a mission: to use their influence to promote Christ, share the everlasting gospel, and direct people to Bible studies, revival meetings, evangelistic series, and local church events. I concluded by appealing to the Union leaders that this work cannot depend on just one or two individuals. They need a hundred faithful digital missionaries doing what we and many others are already doing—using the tools God has placed in our hands to proclaim the gospel and reach souls throughout their territory.

At that point, President Okindo stood up and said, “No, Andy. We are not going to do this only in the Central Kenya Conference. This work is far too important to be limited to a single conference. We need to implement it throughout every conference in this Union, and we need to lead this initiative from the Union level.” He then responded to my appeal for one hundred digital evangelists by saying that even one hundred would not be enough. He proposed a much larger vision: training 100,000 people to become digital missionaries who would use social media to direct people to Bible studies, revival meetings, evangelistic campaigns, and local church events.

President Okindo then asked me to work alongside his committee in helping develop and implement this digital evangelism initiative. He instructed several committee members to get my contact information so that we could continue collaborating, share ideas, and work together to turn this vision into a reality. We prayed, concluded the meetings, and broke for lunch, and soon afterward, I was taken to the airport to begin my journey back to the United States.

Flying back, I was asking myself, “What just happened?” I came to deliver a message of congratulations from his relatives in the United States, and now I’ll be collaborating with some of the church’s top evangelism and communications experts! Let me tell you why I was praising God. There is no way that any one ministry or content creator can train 100,000 people to do what they do all by themselves. However, through faithful leaders who have a vision, who love the Lord and want to see this work done, yes, something like this is possible through the collaboration of self-supporting media ministries and church leadership who have the tools and infrastructure to make this happen.

Please continue to pray for the work in Africa. Pray that God will bring about more—not less—cooperation among those to whom He has entrusted different gifts, talents, and callings. The challenges before us are far too great for any one person, ministry, or organization to accomplish alone. But when God’s people are united in Christ, grounded in the truth of His Word, and committed to proclaiming the Three Angels’ Messages, remarkable things can happen.

Unfinished Business—Had I been able to remain in Kenya a little longer, plans were already underway for me to visit the Kenyan Parliament and share God’s Word with lawmakers through a chaplaincy program. I believe the Lord’s timing is always perfect. Please pray that, if it is His will, He will open this door in the near future.