“Sisterhood” Women Evangelists Stir Up Community with Helping Ministries
by Lynn Nyaera | 15 July 2025 |
An Adventist women’s group from the Nairobi South Adventist Church, dubbed Sisterhood, are redefining what it means to create and build community among women.
Their methods are deceptively simple. Twice a year, a member of the group volunteers one of their female Adventist relatives, who hosts the group in their home and whose church hosts the group for the Sabbath day. Sisterhood’s most recent expedition brought them to Kyumbi Plainview Adventist Church, Machakos, in the East Nairobi Conference of Kenya, where they evangelised for three days.
Through a visit to survey the needs of the community they came up with a program beginning early on Friday morning at the local school, Kiasa Primary School.
The church program coincided with a tree-planting ceremony organized by area leader Francis Kavyu and the Kenya Forestry Research Institute. The women helped the school and the community to plant trees, then afterwards proceeded into a program to teach the children about sexual reproductive awareness.
Parents & children
“We are very passionate about children,” Sisterhood’s deputy chairlady, Esther Momanyi, said, “We came up with a program to speak to the children about safe environments and when and who to speak to if they ever feel uncomfortable about someone or something. We involved professionals and went through vigorous training so we can handle the education of the children in the proper way.”
In addition, since the tree-planting day involved the parents, the group taught the parents how to take care of the children and how to listen, pay attention, and take action when their children are trying to explain that they are uncomfortable.
The group invited the parents and the children to attend the Sabbath services at Kyumbi Plainsview Adventist Church after the program was over, an invitation which most of the children from the church honored with their parents’ blessings.
“We were honored to have so many of our guests be children. Our church has never had so many guests, and to have so many of them be children from our own community and parents from here too was very nice,” one member of Kyumbi Plainsview said.
The group was in charge of the Sabbath service, conducting Bible study for all the age groups and leading the divine service. Members of the church as well as members of the community were invited for lunch in the area public square, followed by a small afternoon crusade and prayers.
Later, they donated clothes and dried food to members of the community in need, as well as Adventist books and hymn books to Kyumbi Plainsview Church for the community.
“Part of our mission is to help those we can in any way that we can,” a member of Sisterhood said.
“It meant a lot to the community,” a member of Kyumbi Plainsview said, “The clothes and foodstuff were appreciated, but it’s the fact that the church thought about them and did not come empty-handed that is staying with the people of the community right now.”
Evangelism
On Sunday, the group conducted door-to-door evangelism to the community, who were receptive to them due to the proximity, humility, and service that Sisterhood had to them and their children throughout the time the group was in the community.
The Sunday mission also involved the group visiting other churches and praying with them and their members before heading home on Sunday afternoon.
The group started off as a way to give Adventist women from Nairobi South Adventist Church community outside of the family structure.
“At first, Sisterhood started as a way to come together and support each other in times of losses. Then we became a group that came together to support each other for life events such as baby showers and get-togethers. Now, we are an evangelistic mission,” the deputy chairlady said.
Aside from that, the group is meant to be a bonding experience for both the women in the group and the women of the organising church, who come together to provide domestic necessities with the host, as the Adventist women’s group of the welcoming church are the church group hosting the Sisterhood.
Building trust
“It brings a sense of togetherness for us also,” one of the women at Plainview Adventist said, “It’s nice to organize how such a large party of people is going to be managed in the church. It also means we see each other more often than we would otherwise, which brings us closer together.”
“Our guests really did draw in many of the parents and children that they invited from the school,” another member said. “We’ve never hosted so many people. It was nice for the church to experience the joy of having people come in.”
“What we want, most of all, is to bring people together in Christ. Women can do a lot when they put their minds to it. Our mission as Sisterhood is to evangelize to the people and reach out to children, other women, and everyone in the communities we visit.” the deputy chair of the group said.
“Both our church and our community have felt the impact of Sisterhood visiting,” the hostess, Jemimah, said, “Sometimes I walk around and see children colouring or reading the pamphlets that the group gave them at the school. It was nice to have them.”
“About half of the children that they invited to the church when they came still attend the church. The parents trust that the church will take care of their children, primarily because Sisterhood earned their trust. That’s an honour. We take the responsibility of guiding these children down the road to a Christian Adventist life seriously,” an elder at Kyumbi Plainsview Adventist Church said.
Most of all, the group has done and achieved what many groups could learn from: they found a way to come together and spread the word of God. They have brought people into the church, and they have shown them that there is goodness to be found in the Adventist church and in the word of God.
Lynn Nyaera writes from Kenya.
