TABBY MUIA - Praising and Worshiping in the Kingdom of God
Tabby Muia was a key member of the praise and worship team of one of the charismatic congregations in Nairobi. The team's role at church services was, through vigorous song and dance, to whip the audience into an emotional high deemed appropriate for "worshiping" God. Tabby felt empty, however, seeing that there was little substance to the endless routine of religious performances.

It was at this time that she began talking to Martin Musambai, a disciple who is both a neighbour of hers in Nairobi's Madaraka Estate and classmate at the University of Nairobi where she is a third-year economics student. Martin invited her to a Bible Talk and she came with a friend. The following day, Tabby attended the Campus Ministry First Century Sunday service and was impacted, she says, "by the coordination of events, the love, and the fun that we had...It was awesome."

The day after that, Tabby showed up to study the Bible with the campus sisters and struck an instant friendship with Jane Adhiambo, the Women's Ministry Leader on campus. She bonded with the other sisters as well, studied the Bible, and was baptized at Women's Day on 11th November 2001.

Tabby contrasts the concern and love she has found in the kingdom to what she was previously exposed to. She notes that when she started studying the Bible with the disciples, only one person from her former congregation followed up to find out why she was no longer there, while in the kingdom so many show immediate concern in similar situations.

About meeting the sisters and studying with them she says, "I wanted to know the Bible and do what is right. I realized that being good was not enough." At her former congregation, where she was highly respected, says Tabby, "You'd have a title but not be growing. That's why I wanted to know the Bible."

Grateful to be a disciple, Tabby's dreams are for her family members to become disciples and for the church to be planted in Nanyuki, where she grew up, and in Machakos, which is her original home. She is excited to be able, after years of emotional yet empty religious practice, to offer God true praise and worship. "The singing [in church, among the disciples]," she says, "is real. It is from the heart." "Sing to the LORD a new song," Psalm 96:1 calls us to do, and that is exactly what Tabby Muia is doing in the kingdom of God.