A True Hero of Faith

“Simiyu Machani is my name… Shall I have the pleasure of knowing your name”

I told him my name. He said some words and gave his characteristic laughter. I smiled sheepishly as he did this. Collecting himself together and, in a rather lower composed tone he asked, “so you are a first year?”

“No, I am a second year”

He looked at me with that look, and asked, “Really! But how come…? Anyway, we will talk about this later”

That was early May 2010, I was just from upper chambers for the very first time in my life. I met him at the balcony just above the foyer. We were praying for a WESET (Western Student Empowerment Team) mission that was to start the next day. The reason he told me we would talk about it later was because at the time he was the treasurer of the group and they were running up and down just to see to it that everything was in place for the mission. To date, I don’t think I know what the question he asked was. But if what we’ve shared in the short period we’ve interacted is anything to go by, then I believe that somehow, we have talked about what we were to talk about in this entire span of time.

That is a snippet of the few instances that ushered me into the service of Christ. More specifically, he was introducing me to the WESO family. 2 days later, he was giving me one of the greatest challenges in my life at the time. He was asking me to share in a morning devotion, something I had never imagined could ever happen. At the time, I didn’t even have a bible, leave alone having a preaching experience. I remember having a sleepless night trying to figure out what I was going to share before these about 15 men, whom I believed were all more “spiritually superior” than me. Somehow, I remembered a sermon someone had shared in a home-cell meeting back at home and I replicated the same that morning, because I at least remembered the major verses he had quoted that day.

That is how my journey with him began. Later on, we would joke about the fact that he holds several titles in relation to me i.e. he was a father, son, neighbor, village-mate etc. and sure enough, he has had an immense contribution to my life. Just like the aforementioned challenge, on several occasions he has challenged me into doing things that I sincerely felt I was inadequate to do. Notably, handing over to me the docket of the WESET treasurer, seemed a joke to me. You see, he was a CPA K, and I had never smelled the door of a business class. The highest amount of money I had ever handled was my HELB loan, and here was someone asking me to handle hundreds of thousands. With his encouragement and promise of support, I agreed and I did it, not one term, but two.

For the time we served with him in WESET, his remarkable leadership qualities couldn’t go unnoticed. He always had this way of making us buy the vision and move with him. His ability to blend with all people and interact with them at their level was awesome. His conflict resolution skills were just out of the box. I admired the meticulous approach to work that left us in awe each time. Even when some of us fell behind with deadlines, we realized that he had already factored in a way to handle the same. The man was very organized. So organized that to date, I am yet to see anyone with folders neatly arranged in their laptop as his were (Numbered and hierarchical).  

Most importantly, he taught me how to live by faith. I recall those times, when we spent time toiling and raising funds for a WESET mission budgeted at over 200K, yet on the material date we had barely enough to take the members to the grounds. He would encourage us on, and we would take the team to the mission ground trusting God to provide in His own ways. I still remember the late night meetings we would have long after everyone else had slept. These were meant to be crisis meetings, but most of the times they turned out to be a celebration of God’s goodness and provision for the day. What was amazing was his ability to shield the members from what was happening, and many of them didn’t even think anything could go wrong at any time. At the same time, even though most of these times we were discouraged, he always gave us hope, and our meetings were always lively. My friend Silas and I discovered that his favorite phrase was “way forward” and we used to give one another a knowing look and chuckle whenever he mentioned it. Of course, with his smartness, he soon figured this out. But most important, we discovered that he did not pick the word carelessly, and he always had a way forward.

As a personal friend, we shared so much of our lives. I appreciated his approachability and humility. He had no qualm of learning something from someone his “inferior”. He was always willing to create time for anyone, no matter how tight his schedule was… yet, at the same time, he remained effective in everything he did. His charming personality and sense of humor could not be avoided. I was so much encouraged to be vulnerable to him, as he also openly shared his life to me. He greatly encouraged me in my spiritual growth, and lovingly rebuked me when necessary. One of the areas I will always accredit to him is helping me out of my religiosity and “holier than thou” attitude that was growing in me at some point.

His sermons were always well prepared and hit on the core. They always left one truly refreshed. One of the most notable one was “Skeletons in the Closet” which left many people reflecting in their lives, and a large number of students made decisions for Christ on that day. I remember urging the executive committee that he was best suited for that topic (because I had recently had a similar discussion with him on the same), and sure enough, he didn’t disappoint.

Given chance, there’s so much I can say about this man… but this platform may not allow me to do all that. He was a talented actor and orator among many other things, but what inspired me most about his life is his devotion to the service of Christ. Having been with him, I knew very well Simiyu’s passion for Electrical Engineering, Heavy current option. He was so passionate that he could never afford to miss a single class. In fact, he was so noted in the department that some lecturers preferred him to be their personal class representative, even though there was the official class representative. So his decision to join FOCUS for the 1 year, STEM program was a little unexpected. But this was not as shocking as when after serving for one year he opted to do a second term, and this time it was in form of an exchange program in Norway. Yet still, I gasped when I learnt that after his second term he had considered another 3 years in service as the FOCUS assistant missions coordinator.

This to me, portrayed an individual living a life of total surrender, willing to shelf his ambitions for the purpose of God’s kingdom. And within the short time he has been out of campus, he has influence many more than during his times in campus. I believe, hundreds of individuals out there can relate similar personal experiences with Simiyu.

Receiving the phone call two days ago, about his demise, I refused to believe it. I thought it was a joke. My mind literary went blank. Later on, as I was coming to terms with it, I didn’t know how to respond to God about it. For one, I felt that it was quite unfair for him to go at such a time, especially when he was just 5 days shy of his 3^rd month wedding anniversary. Yet, at the same time I felt that God could be justified to take him, because, to be honest, in my entire lifetime, I don’t think my service is half what I have seen this man do in the five years that God allowed me into his life. As I was reflecting on this, I again remembered the fact that all of us have assignments to accomplish… and God is faithful enough to take us home only when our assignment has been accomplished. Again, it brings me down to one point, how much of stewards are we to the time that God has given us? This is the same thing that Simiyu posted in one of his blog articles, “The discipline of time”.

I believe Simiyu has been faithful in dispensing that which God had given him to do in this short period. And sure enough, he has joined the cloud of witnesses encouraging us on, in our service. He truly walked like Christ, and is a true hero of faith… I believe I am one of the fruits of Simiyu’s, Work and consequently, by extension, Jesus’ work. Let’s assess our lives… 50 years or 100 years from now, should Christ tarry, will you be in a position to say that so and so is a disciple of Christ on account of what you did while still on earth? A question to ponder…