When Our Unity is Attacked

A few years after we began the work in Kenya, we became acquainted with Mike and Karolyn Schrage who were living and working in the remote area of Pokot, north of Kitale.  When the doors closed to that mission effort, rather than leave the field, they asked about joining our team.  The Schrage’s were supported by Independent Christian churches in America.  In 1906 there had been an unpleasant division between Churches of Christ and Christian churches and over the years the two fellowships rarely cooperated in ministry or missions.  After discussions with the elders at Quaker Avenue however, all concluded that the combined efforts would be good for the kingdom.  The Schrage’s began working with us January 1987.   Later, long-time friends of the Schrage’s, Dan and Traci Harrod from Oregon, joined the team in 1988.

The union of our families on the field brought great blessing and resulted in incalculable fruit for God’s kingdom.   We were able to penetrate more areas with the gospel. In addition each couple brought unique gifts and spiritual strengths to the team.  In particular, the Schrages and Harrods added a depth of spirituality to our team.  The united mission team also brought thousands of believers from supporting churches in America into relationship in their joint support for the mission work and strengthened their unity together in Christ.  The psalmist wrote, “How good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell together in unity… for there the Lord bestows his blessing” (Psalm 133:1, 3).  The pleasant relationships on the team, the growing blessing we felt on our work and the positive networking among churches in the States all confirmed to us the truth of that scripture.  But soon the unity of our team was to come under Satan’s attack and the future of the work would be imperiled.

In1989 our team was gearing up for an intensive outreach into the village churches.  The zeal of many of the African church leaders had stagnated, and it became obvious to us that there were significant sin problems.  Through prayer and discussion, we settled on a new plan.  Whereas we missionaries normally went out individually in order to cover as many areas and churches as possible, we decided this time we would go two-by-two to every church.  Additionally, instead of visiting that church for only a few hours, we would spend one night and two days at each place.  Lastly, our teaching would focus on the need for repentance, using the Achan story of Joshua 7 as a basis.  We developed new teaching tools, arranged a schedule of visits, and invited some of our more mature Kenyan brothers to travel with us to each place.

The outcomes were significant as we witnessed the Spirit convict church leaders and members of their need for repentance. We had never before witnessed such deep response to our teaching.  Repentance in various forms including public confessions, renewed vows and even the burning of items of witchcraft were common and dramatic.

Then Satan struck back.  We were not surprised that the kingdom of darkness would respond to this advance on the gates of hell, but the severity of the retaliation staggered us.  The enemy attacked our team’s unity by using a trusted Kenyan brother who was also a respected church leader.  One of our team members accused this brother of stealing.  Later we would discover the accusation to be true but at the time it was hard to believe and the team became divided over the accusation.  Satan had cast a brilliant stroke.  This brother was one of the few Kenyans we trusted as much as we trusted each other.  This rift threatened to destroy the unity of our team and undermine the good work that had been done.

We continued with our seminars, but now, instead of going out in strength united, we were wounded, less sure of our relationship with each other and consequently less effective.  Our unity had been damaged.  Divide and conquer -- that is a classic military strategy, and has always been the mode of operation preferred by the chief rival of God’s kingdom. What happened to our team?  Satan’s blow damaged us.  It took more than a year to resolve all of the controversy between the four of us missionaries.  But the team overcame the blow.  We remained committed to God’s kingdom and to one another and carried on in spite of the hurt and doubt we felt.  We believe God honored our team for the decision to remain committed to one another through that difficulty.  In time our relationships became even stronger, partly because of our struggle.  In fact, by God’s grace, twelve years later the four of us men—Shawn, Mike, Dan and Kirk––returned to Kitale to do significant follow-up work together, even through three of us had returned to live in the States. Even now the bonds between us and between our families remain strong.

Conflicts in relationships are inevitable, especially with those who are closest to us. Our four families in Kenya saw other teams disintegrate because of relationship problems. Our own team could have suffered a similar fate had we nursed our grievances and considered our offenses more important than the work of the kingdom.  What a great tragedy that would have been!  It would have allowed Satan to destroy the good work done already and prevent the great blessings that the next 16 years of work together would bring.  The success of the kingdom depends on the relationship between leaders in the Kingdom. For Christ’s sake, we need to heal damaged ties.  God is grieved and his kingdom suffers if we march ahead for the Lord and leave a trail of burned-out and broken relationships behind.

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SPIRITUAL TRUTH #6

If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.  Mark 3:24