I was just a nobody, trying to tell everybody, about somebody, who can save anybody.
 

March 2003, Anita Jepson, MVO founder and president set foot on Kenyan soil for the first time. A good friend extended an invitation to her to participate in this mission trip. She soon discovered her Maasai interpreter’s interest in studying the Bible. Through that one Bible study, a mission was born. “For who has despised the day of small things?” (Zechariah 4:10 NKJV).[1]

 

Evangelism flows through Anita’s core. At the end of her two-week mission experience, she gave a $500 offering with the local pastor. With the money, he purchased a public address system so his church could start teaching truth through evangelism.

 

As Anita left Kenya, she believed that this was her only mission trip to that foreign land, but God had other plans. “For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. Plans to help you and give you a hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11 paraphrase).

 

Not long after returning home, the Maasai pastors contacted her by email and asked if she would be willing to support them in doing more evangelism. These requests for evangelism support continued for seven years. During that time, she studied and read her Bible, on a quest for guidance—seeking to know whether she should send the support to help them or not.

 

Some people at the time were thinking that perhaps she was irresponsible to send money to this unfamiliar place. Nevertheless, the Lord daily prompted her heart during her Bible study time. Through prayer and Bible study, she received strong impressions to trust God and send the money: “I am the LORD your GOD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt; open your mouth wide, and I will fill it” (Psalm 81:10).

 

In 2011, the same two pastors urged her to return to Kenya to meet all of the people with whom they had been sharing the Word of God. When she arrived that wet November, she found hundreds of people sitting under trees. While she sat there under the tree one day, she felt convicted it was time to build churches for these people—places of worship; places of prayer to meet with the Lord and to be out of the sun, wind, and rain. This notion finally become her high calling.

 

“Devotion to God and a spirit of sacrifice were the first requisites in preparing a dwelling place for the Most High.”[2]

 

Moving forward, the platform of raising much larger contributions required a higher level of faith and commitment. In her heart, she knew that with God all things were possible, but the question now was: what was her part? how would she do it? After all, this was God's mission, and she didn't want to fail Him. Then the thought occurred to her: how could one fail with God at the helm?

 

She stepped out of the boat to walk to walk on the water. “I knew that as long as I kept my eyes directed to Him, I could not fail.” Just a few months later in 2012, Mara Vision Outreach became an official nonprofit corporation.

 

At the beginning of this high calling, Anita was more excited about being a missionary than running a business in Kenya. She asked God to make a way for her to work directly with the East Kenya Union and Central Rift Valley Conference of Kenya. God answered her prayer with a miracle.

 

At her first meeting with the Central Rift Conference, President Reuben Korir told her: “Mara Vision is an answer to our prayers.” He told her how they had a special committee asked God: “How are we going to reach the Maasai people?”

 

He informed Anita how there were forty-two tribes in Kenya of which the Maasai was only one of them. He also taught her about the tribal challenges within Kenya and how the Maasai people would only listen to another Maasai person or to a foreigner. Since Anita was a foreigner, these Maasai people were willing to listen to her, so the conference agreed to partner with Mara Vision to reach the Maasai people.

 

Since 2012, the Mara Vision Kenyan team has grown exponentially through an outpouring of donor support. Because of these champions’ trust in God's grace and Anita ability to acquire and send the money to where it needs to be, Mara Vision has been leaders in the area of evangelism, Bible teaching in the schools, support of widows and the fatherless—around the Maasai Mara community and Samburu tribe of Kenya. The results have been anything but small.

 

Within just a few years, hundreds and hundreds of people have been baptized into the Bible truth. In fact, in 2022 alone, more than 1,000 people welcomed the watery grave. Many churches have been built. Many of the, filled to overflowing before the building projects were ever finished.

Much of Kenya is largely a Christian nation, but 90% of the Maasai and Samburu people are pagan and have never heard the name of Jesus. By God's grace, Mara Vision works hard to change that statistic. This team labors to fulfill this purpose as God continues to grow the ministry and the entire mission through faithfulness in the little things. Amen.

 

Motivating promises and quotes that have inspired Anita in her Mara Vision Mission work. I hope they will arouse the mission spirit in you as well.

 

• “With Jesus behind you, the Spirit within you, the Word beneath you, and the people before you, there is power that works through you that shakes the world and enlarges the heavens.”  Taj Pacleb, “The Matter of the Message” sermon

 

• If Jesus is all you have, then Jesus is all you need.

 

• “Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.” —Genesis 28:15

 

• “Look, the Lord your God has set the land before you; go up and possess it, as the Lord God of your fathers has spoken to you; do not fear or be discouraged.” —Deuteronomy 1:21

 

• “For God has not given you a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”  2 Timothy 1:7

 

• “He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.” —1 Thessalonians 5:24

 

• “The priceless treasure is placed in earthen vessels. Through men His blessings are to be conveyed to the world.” —Christian Service, 7

 

• “Our reward for working with Christ in this world is the greater power and wider privilege of working with Him in the world to come.” —Christ’s Object Lessons, 361

 

• “Every sacrifice that is made in His ministry will be recompensed according to “the exceeding riches of His grace.” —The Desire of Ages, 249

 

• “To every one who offers himself to the Lord for service, withholding nothing, is given power for the attainment of measureless results.” —Testimonies for the Church, vol. 7, 30

 

• “When God opens the way for the accomplishment of a certain work and gives assurance of success, the chosen instrumentality must do all in his power to bring about the promised result. In proportion to the enthusiasm and perseverance with which the work is carried forward will be the success given.” —Prophets and Kings, 263

 

• “It is not the capabilities you now possess or ever will have that will give you success. It is that which the Lord can do for you. We need to have far less confidence in what man can do and far more confidence in what God can do for every believing soul. He longs for you reach after Him by faith. He longs to have you expect great things from Him. He longs to give you understanding in temporal as well as in spiritual matters. He can sharpen the intellect. He can give tact and skill. Put your talents into the work, ask God for wisdom, and it will be given you.” —Christ’s Object Lessons, 146

 

• “Success depends not so much on talent as on energy and willingness.” —Prophets and Kings, 219

 

• “It will be found at last that the denial of self for the good and happiness of those around us, constitutes a large share of the life record in heaven.” —Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, 133

 

• “The Lord has a place for every one in His great plan. Talents that are not needed are not bestowed.” —Testimonies for the Church, vol. 9, 37

 

• “The Lord has His eye upon every one of His people; He has His plans concerning each.” —Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6, 12

 

• “A great work is to be accomplished; broader plans must be laid; a voice must go forth to arouse the nations. Men whose faith is weak and wavering are not the ones to carry forward the work at this important crisis. We need the courage of heroes and the faith of martyrs. —Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 187

 

• “If the followers of Christ were awake to duty, there would be thousands where there is one today, proclaiming the gospel in heathen lands. And all who could not personally engage in the work, would yet sustain it with their means, their sympathy and their prayers. And there would be far more earnest labor for souls in Christian countries.” —Steps to Christ, 81

 

[1] Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

[2] E. G. White, Prophets and Kings (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1917), 61–62.