It had been a while since I had personally helped to Christ someone whom I invited to church, but God faithfully and graciously brought about a great victory for me in this area! Together with my wife (far right in the picture), we became fruitful by helping a married couple, Peter and Gloria Kioko (the couple in the centre of the picture), to know God.

Peter is a friend I met before I joined the full time ministry. I invited him to church and continued to do so whenever we would meet. After joining the full-time ministry, I continued to invite Peter, but he would not come to any of our services.

One day he told me that his daughter was very sick. I could not offer financial help but I did the one thing I could - pray for his daughter. I would visit his daughter in hospital and pray for her.

Sadly, the girl died, at the age of one year and one month. From that point our two families grew much closer. Peter asked me to conduct the funeral service for his daughter, my wife and Gloria would meet to talk about handling loss, and one day he asked me what he needed to do to become a member of our church.

We took the opportunity to study the bible with Peter and Gloria. My wife and I were best man and maid-of-honour at their wedding (legalizing their marriage was part of their repentance), and on the 12th of June, before many witnesses, our very dear friends were baptized into Christ.

From all of this I have learned that one should never give up on friends. God has a plan for all, and the Scripture, "your labour in the Lord is never in vain," (1Corinthians 15:58) became real to me. God is faithful and will give us victory so that his name will be glorified.

Sammy Mbuva and his wife Eunice work in the full-time ministry of the Nairobi church