11 April 2008
RAYOLAS RELOCATE
Rayola and Georgeanne Osanya-Nyynéque, long-time members of the Nairobi church, plan to relocate soon to USA from Kenya.
Baptized in September 1989, Georgeanne abandoned her long-held dream to acquire a PhD in 1992 in order to enter the full-time ministry.
Rayola was a member of the team that planted the Nairobi church. In 1992 he planted the Eldoret church together with 5 others, and in 1994, after a short stint leading the church in Addis Ababa, entered the full-time ministry.
The two of them have led various ministries in the Nairobi church.
Rayola and Georgeanne were married on 8 July 1995 and in 1997 moved to Kigali, Rwanda to plant the church there. In 1993 God blessed them with a son, Paul.
After many years serving God in the full-time ministry, the Rayolas took up full-time positions at HOPE worldwide Kenya, where Georgeanne has been a program manager and Rayola an officer.
Says Rayola, “I thank God for the Nairobi church and I thank him for allowing me to live my dream of helping people become disciples who have gone on to help many others to know God. Like the apostle Paul expressed in Romans 15:20, ‘It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known.’
“The brothers and sisters who planted the Nairobi church are incredible heroes. They set a spiritually rock solid foundation on which the ministry throughout East Africa has been built. There are so many stars in the East Africa churches today. I’d want to mention them all but let me simply thank more than I can express all those who have discipled us (put up with us, more like—and loved us through our sin and weaknesses) and those who’ve been humble enough to let us reach out to them, kind enough to let us disciple them and patient enough to listen to us preach. Heaven is reserved for people like you, and we plan to make it there with you. The disciples in East Africa are the salt of the earth.”
Georgeanne says, “What impacted me when I was studying the bible was the love of the disciples. It has always worked. In Kigali I learnt the lesson again—open your hearts, lives and doors to people.
“Our time in Rwanda was great for me. It was a time where I really learnt to depend on and trust God. I also got to spend a lot of quality time with people.”
She continues, “Here in the church in East Africa, this is the church that I know. Leaving is hard for me. I feel torn. I want to carry with me the lessons I’ve learnt of loving people and sharing my life with them.”
Below, Rayola shares a poem he wrote to the disciples in East Africa.
FAREWELL TO THE NAIROBI DISCIPLES
The time has come – we wish it hadn’t – when we must say goodbye,
The moments and the memories that we cherish make us cry.
We’ve said and done some things that we look back at with regret,
The kind of sin and errors that we’d much want to forget.
We’ve been through rain we’ve been through pain we’ve felt we’d reached the end.
But in the arms and prayers of each of you we found a friend.
Through it all it’s this one thing that’s kept us going on,
Your love and life and guiding light showed us just where we belong.
And we’ve been to the mountaintop and looked out from that peak,
And seen so many triumphs – more than we can speak.
These victories fill our hearts with joy beyond expression
And in every one of them we clearly see this lesson
That greatness is achieved only when many stand as one,
It’s as a player in a team that mighty deeds are done.
You have been our team, you have been our family,
You’ve been the wind beneath our wings in every victory.
You’ve been our strength when we were weak, our light when it was dark,
To get our fire going again, you have been the spark.
God bless you, God bless all of you
Wherever you go and whatever you do.
We’ll meet in heaven this world is not our home.
We will get there because we’ll never walk alone.