When God Changed Our Plans in Kenya

I went to Kenya with a pretty clear plan.

My purpose was to meet the Becoming Love team on the ground, visit the water wells we had recently drilled, document the work through photos and video, and begin identifying ways churches in the West could become more connected to what God is doing in Africa.

The plan included several days in Kenya followed by a longer trip into Tanzania.

But as is often the case when you are trying to follow the Lord, the plan changed.

"But as is often the case when you are trying to follow the Lord, the plan changed."

I landed in Nairobi on June 27, 2025 and immediately began the four-hour drive to Kitui with two members of our Kenyan team, Jacob and Mesh. Kitui is an extremely remote area of Kenya. No power. No water. Very remote. But it was an area of Africa the Lord had us serving for the past five years, primarily by meeting the need of accessible water. Most of the 100k+ people in the surrounding villages have related to water by the miles they have to walk each way to get it. Thankfully, Becoming Love was doing something about that.

By the time we arrived in Kitui, we only had a few hours of daylight, so we moved quickly.

We visited two wells that had recently been completed, another well that had providentially begun drilling that very day, and the future site of a fourth well. We visited a secondary school that would be served by one of the new wells. We ate dinner in the village with a local leader named Kennedy and his family.

Then, after about five hours on the ground, we drove four hours back to Nairobi.

It was an extremely full first day. But it gave me my first real look at the impact Becoming Love was making.

A water well is easy to reduce to numbers. This well will serve this many families. It produces this many liters of water. It costs this much.

But when you meet the people who actually drink from that well, it suddenly becomes personal.

You see young girls who no longer have to walk thirteen miles one way for water. You meet families whose livestock and crops depend on that water. You visit a school where hundreds of students are affected by whether or not clean water is available.

This is not an abstract project. Water changes a community.

"This is not an abstract project. Water changes a community."

A couple of days later, we were scheduled to leave for Tanzania. This was actually the part of the trip I had been most excited about. But that morning, I could not find any peace about going.

There was no dramatic warning. I did not know of any danger. I simply felt a deep lack of rest about continuing with the plan.

We decided to postpone the departure until the following morning and meet together to pray.

The next morning, the team gathered at my hotel. Before we prayed, I asked each of them to share the vision God had placed in their hearts for Kenya. They talked about their ministry inside local prisons, their desire to disciple former inmates as they transition back into society, and their dream of building a prayer and discipleship center.

They told me about sixty-three acres of land Jacob had already acquired near Kitui. They envisioned a community devoted to prayer, discipleship, practical training, evangelism, and shared life.

As I listened, something became increasingly clear.

Becoming Love has an opportunity to leverage the years of relational equity we've built by drilling water wells to also contribute to what God is doing through His church in the country.

The phrase that came to me that morning was:

Strengthen the local church (our church in America) by supporting the global church.

We do not want to bring people from the West on trips simply so they can collect experiences or take pictures. We want to help believers encounter the work of God in other nations. We want them to strengthen faithful men and women who are already serving their communities. And we believe that, in the process, the churches sending them will also be strengthened.

After breakfast, we began to pray about what to do with the rest of the trip.

One of the men shared that while we were praying, he saw the top of a stone mountain. In the vision, a door opened to a high place of prayer. He also felt drawn to Obadiah 17:

"But on Mount Zion there shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness; the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions."

The mountain he saw was not random. There is a particular stone mountain in Kitui located directly beside Jacob's land.

The actual stone mountain beside Jacob's land

While we were discussing this, Jacob's phone rang. Someone from Kitui was calling.

We joked that it was our own version of the Macedonian call in Acts 16.

At the same time, my father was praying for us from North Carolina. It was around two in the morning for him, but he wanted to intercede while we sought the Lord. He sent me a message saying that while he prayed, he kept feeling an emphasis on the number seven.

Incredibly, the area around Jacob's land is known locally as The Seven Elephants.

That was enough confirmation for us. We were going back to Kitui.

The following day, we returned to the village. We visited the wells, walked Jacob's property, explored the town center, had an impromptu meeting with thirty-three local pastors and leaders, and climbed the stone mountain to pray at sunset.

Just before we prayed, my father sent another message. A friend who had been praying with him said he had seen seven mountains and the Lord drawing a circle around them. Then he heard the words:

"This is Mine."

"Then he heard the words: 'This is Mine.'"

Standing on that mountain, I had the strong sense that our trip had moved beyond inspecting water wells.

God was revealing a place He intended us to be in…for the long haul.

He was introducing us to His people.

He was allowing us to see the beginning of something that could extend far beyond a single well or a single visit.

"God was revealing a place He intended us to be in…for the long haul."

Near the end of the trip, the fourth well was drilled beside Jacob's land. Fresh water was reached at about forty-five meters. The report from the ground described it as the most "prolific borehole the drilling team had ever completed." The water was abundant, clean, and sweet.

The fourth borehole flowing — abundant, clean water.

While we were praying on the stone mountain the night before, we had specifically prayed that this well would produce enough water for 700+ families, crops, livestock, and the future ministry on the nearby land. The Lord answered that prayer.

Time will reveal everything God intends to do there. We are trying not to run ahead of Him or make promises He has not asked us to make.

But this much is clear: God changed our plans because He wanted us to look more closely at Kitui.

And I am so glad we listened.

"God changed our plans because He wanted us to look more closely at Kitui. And I am so glad we listened."

The fourth well came in as the most prolific the drilling team had ever seen.

There are more villages waiting, and a vision at Shiloh still to build. Help us keep going.