Using Business to Find Persons of Peace in Rural Kenya

Joseph Makokha has been running a movie theater in his village in western Kenya for more than ten years. The theater is housed in a modest mud and concrete building, typical of those found in his village. Inside are rows of plastic chairs and wooden benches, along with two flat screen TV’s, which play a variety of programs for his customers. When Arsenal gears up to play Newcastle in a soccer match, people from his village fill the theater to watch.

For a long time, the theater was simply his way of earning a living. That began to change after Joseph went through Videre’s business training. Through the training, he learned how important it is to keep proper records. Tracking things like income, expenses, profit, and loss helped him see where his business needed to grow and how it could improve. He also learned practical skills for serving and communicating with his customers. As he put these things into practice, he noticed that he began attracting more customers than he had before.

Joseph’s business is now closely tied to his ministry work. When people come to his theater to watch something, he uses that time to share about Christ, using the Disciple Making Movement (DMM) methodology of making disciples. As customers begin to understand the message, some of them become key contacts, or “persons of peace,” who welcome Joseph into their communities when he visits their areas.

Joseph says that before this, he used to struggle to find people to engage with. Now, after integrating DMM into the way he uses his business, he sees conversations flowing much more naturally when he visits them.

God is at work through his business!

His profits have also grown enough that he can not only sustain himself and his family, but much like Chris with his lumber business, use some of that income to connect with people in the communities where he does DMM work.

Looking ahead, Joseph is praying that his business will continue to expand so that he can keep providing for his family and continue giving through his tithes.