ILI: History Makers Leadership Podcast
Explore the transformative journey that is leadership. In each episode, we will dive deep into strategies, stories, insights, and the core values that shape and inspire effective Christian leaders who make an impact - all around the globe. Get ready to unlock your leadership potential.
When leaders are equipped, kingdom impact multiplies. Equipping leaders and spreading the Gospel. Let’s change history together!
This podcast is brought to you by the International Leadership Institute.
ILI: History Makers Leadership Podcast
Ep. 80 | From One Bible to 270 New Churches
What if one person’s faith could transform entire communities—and even nations?
In this inspiring episode, Bishop David Muniri Thagana shares how God led him from a traditional upbringing to founding Glory Outreach Assembly (GOA)—a movement reaching across Africa and beyond.
You’ll hear how a single Bible in high school and a burden for the unreached sparked a vision that grew from just five churches in 2001 to more than 270 today. Bishop Thagana opens up about caring for orphans (now over 1,000 served), building peace in Rwanda and Kenya, and helping believers live out the Great Commission through GOA’s Acts 1:8 strategy.
The conversation pushes past surface statistics. Kenya may report 85% Christian affiliation, yet nominal faith often masks unreached tribes like the Samburu and Turkana, some of whom had never heard the name of Jesus. Bishop David explains how GOA targets people groups rather than political borders, and why that shift matters for any leader who wants real impact. We also explore the compassion engine behind their work: the story of Boniface, a street boy clutching shoemaker’s glue to numb hunger, who became the first of more than a thousand children cared for through eight homes, education, and mentorship that turns rescued kids into leaders.
Whether you’re a pastor, entrepreneur, or community leader, you’ll gain timeless lessons on faith, stewardship, and multiplying impact through Christ-centered leadership.
Connect with Bishop David Muniri Thagana
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Join a community of leaders who are ready to change history and make an impact in this world. When you take part in ILI training, you will discover how ILI's Eight Core Values will help you transform your leadership. Discover more at ILITeam.org/connect.
Hello and welcome again to the ILI History Makers Leadership Podcast. We are committed to helping leaders live and lead by the eight core values of the leaders that change history. And by doing that, together, we accelerate the spread of the gospel. Today I have the honor of uh having a conversation with my good friend of many years, Bishop David Muniri Thagana. He is the uh founder and general overseer, bishop of Glory Outreach Assembly. It is an African-initiated denomination based out of Kenya, but present in several East and Southern African nations. And um he has been an amazing leader and a fellow companion in the kingdom of God by multiplying ILI. And we've been into many places of the world together, and today you all get to hear his story and some of the insights from leadership. David, thank you for being here with us.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you for having me.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, let's go right in. David, Bishop David, tell us about you. Um, where do you come from? Uh, did you grow up in a Christian home? Um, obviously you are a Kenyan. So tell us a little bit of your story.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you so much for this opportunity. I was born in Kenya, in the central part of Kenya, a place that is called Karatina, on the slopes of Mount Kenya. In that region, by the time I was being born, around the independence uh of Kenyan history, there was no church in that area, there was no Christian in that community. And I was born uh from a family where nobody knew Christ. So what I got exposed to was the African traditional religion, and like many African uh countries, men migrate to the urban areas in search of jobs, and therefore the boy child is normally left to be taken care of, to be raised by the grandfather as the male figure. So my grandfather being uh a strong worshipper and follower of the African traditional religion, introduced me to the worship of African traditional religious life. And uh that's all that I got to know about the sacrificing, about milking the cow and pouring a little bit of milk to feed the ancestors, about sprinkling a bit of milk to Mount Kenya, which was perceived as God to be able to uh give us rain for grass to grow, for cows to produce more milk, and life continues. So that was uh the introduction to my religious life as uh as I grew up.
SPEAKER_00:Wow, so um no Christian background, but obviously you you eventually became a teacher, an educator, which means you went to school.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, uh when I was uh uh around 18 years, it was time to go to high school, and therefore, and the high school required that uh every student joining goes with a Bible, uh, a pair of shoes and clears the school fees. And having come from a very poor background, then they sold the only cow that we had so that they could pay school fees, buy me a Bible and and the school uniform that I needed. I was very interested in knowing why the Bible and what is this book about, and uh therefore I decided to read it. And I having no background of Christian faith or anyone to help me understand how to read it, I just decided I was going to open at Radom and read from wherever it opens. And uh surprisingly, it opened at 1 John chapter 1. And I started reading right there from verse 1 that God is right and uh we have all sinned. If we say we have no sin, we make him a liar, the truth is not in us. And somehow, as I continued reading, my new Bible for the first time, I started feeling guilty inside me with the concept of Mount Kenya is the God, and with our life being hedged around, getting the rain from Mount Kenya, I definitely did not want to make that God a liar, who, in my understanding, was the mountain. So I kept reading, and as I got to verse 9, 10, I said, But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and he will cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That sounded like a solution to me, but the question was, how do I then confess? And there was no one to explain that to me. I kept asking for a long time, what does this mean? How do I uh confess? But one day, one of the people that I was bothering very much asking the question told me, there is a place where they do what they call a camp meeting for youth. And this camp meeting is done when the schools are closed, it's only in April. So if you can pay the price to walk there, I am sure they will explain all those questions you've been asking us here. Sure, I did. I waited April, I walked and found the conference. They answered my questions, and that's how I met Christ and I gave my life to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00:Wow, what a beautiful example, David, of that scripture that says that the the word will not return void, but will do what it's called to do. Yes. Um, and uh a good experience a good example of what we call of John Wesley called prevenient grace. God giving you access to that Bible. The key the first of all, finding that scripture, um it's interesting. I don't know if I ever told you this. This is a very similar experience to my how my grandfather came to Christ through a a text of scripture that was actually torn from a burnt bib Bible that he started reading and became curious about it, which led him to ask questions that were answered, which I guess uh explains why you have a passion to be the person that explains to those without Christ.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. Actually, when the the preacher explained this the scriptures that day in the camp meeting, he made an article and said, Who would like to come and confess their sin? And he had already explained what that means. Well, that is what I had actually gone there to look for an explanation. And then when he he said, uh, before I pray for you, uh I need you to tell me a few things that you'd like us to pray for today, so that when God answers them, you'll be encouraged to live a life of prayer because that's what we are introducing you to. And out of nowhere, probably from the spirit, I told him number one, I don't want anybody to have to walk for three days to find out what confessing is, what this gospel is about. And uh number two, I don't want to find any child waiting until they are 18 to put on a shoe and for a cow to be sold. Uh and and if God gives me a family, I wouldn't want them to have to go through the poverty that I went through. And he looked at me, he smiled, then he said, You got the answers to some of this. Uh, number one, you go tell your story yourself, and therefore nobody will have to walk for three days. Okay. I didn't know that he was introducing me to my lifetime of evangelism and sharing the gospel. And uh, and I was 18 that time. Then I didn't know that he was actually uh praying for me to get involved in all the compassion ministries and putting shoes in in other children's fees, uh feet, paying school fees for other children. It all came from there. Now I understand.
SPEAKER_00:Wow, David, that's interesting. Well, let's hold on to that thought because yes, we want to go back to that because one of the beautiful things about the organization that you lead is your commitment to compassion ministries, to like you said, putting shoes in the feet of children that couldn't otherwise afford it, making the gospel available to them, helping them to get an education and all of that. So, okay, fast forward then to sometime in the 1990s, I suppose, and now you've gotten an education, you are a teacher. Um how did you actually uh become at first, I guess, pastor David uh or evangelist David?
SPEAKER_01:Um God answered the prayer of that uh that man who led me to Christ. His name was Reverend Muirori. He God answered that prayer because I I passed my exams. Uh I was able to go to the university to be trained to become a high school teacher. And uh and and and I got the opportunity to grow as a Christian in the university through Christian Union. Um and when I was growing up as a in the university, doing a lot of missions in the Christian Union, Bible studies, prayer. Uh then I got uh posted by the teacher service commission, the government arm of teaching, to go and teach in a school called Karima Girls High School. In this school, there was no Christian union, there was no presence of God, so I went and I started the Christian union in the school. Uh the Lord used me even to read the principle of the school to Christ, the teachers, the students. It became just a nice place for discipleship, for growth. And uh that was uh in 1988, April. And uh after a few years, around 1989, there, uh it was almost uh uh certain that everyone knew Christ and the the gospel was was uh growing was being enjoyed and and and experienced within the school. And the question was, how do I take these people that have been discipling here in the school to practice evangelism in the neighborhood outside the school?
SPEAKER_02:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:And so we went to a nearby village called Donjero, all New Market, did evangelism, 200 people gave their life to Christ. Then the next question was, how do you disciple these people? Because you can't bring them into the school where I was teaching. And so we we started uh GOA or Glory Outreach Assembly right there, and uh that's how I became a pastor. And uh from that point, uh ministry grew and went on and on and on and on until um 2001, when the when I became the bishop of the churches that we have been planting.
SPEAKER_00:Right, yes. That's it's an interesting thing. You became a pastor because there were sheep to be shepherded. Yes, there were people that needed to be discipled. And um I love hearing those stories, David, particularly because I have been to Karimahai, you know, passed at least drove in front of it. Um I have I I've been to to the area where you grew up and where you ministered. And um, and I had the privilege of of being, I think I even preached at the the Yindunyon Gero Church, the the first Glory Outreach Assembly Church. That was in 1990. Uh it was April 1991. April of 1991. That was um, interestingly enough, David, um, about the time I was getting ready to go to seminary in in August of that year. That's when uh September of that year, that's when I started my uh seminary education to go serve on the mission field.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:So then um for a few years that church grew. You planted more churches. Around 2001, you had a budding, small network of churches. Five churches, five churches and a great group of leaders. I met them later on, but then that's where our lives intersect. That's why ILI offers you the opportunity, or somebody offers you the opportunity to attend ILI. And I remember you told me there were two two big takeaways from that training that you've received uh that helped change GOA. Uh do you remember uh what you told me, what those two takeaways were?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, um first, number one, um uh it became very clear to me how important it is to be able to know the my vision and my purpose, and not just to know it, but to be able to write it down. Um something that I had not not even had before. To to to think through it, to pray about it, to write it down. And uh apart from just envisioning that in a written way, to be able to go next step and and write down the mission on what I'm going to do to get to what I am envisioning, and even more importantly, uh to go beyond that and set a goal, one thing that I would uh do that would completely help me get closer to what I was envisioning. That lily changed me a lot, plus my my my my passion got so ignited for the harvest. Yes, when I got to see the picture of the world, and uh during that time for the five years, for the for the for the years from April 1991 to 2001, I had the five churches all within my community, my people around the school of Karema where I was teaching, familiar place. So when I came to the training, I learned that that is my Jerusalem, and that uh God still expected me to reach the entire world, uh which is bigger than my Jerusalem. And and during the training, I not only learned that, but also learned how to develop, to develop the Acts 8 1 8 plan. Yes. For for for my for my vision, which really uh helped me and changed my thinking. And I sat down and began to answer those questions. Uh, then I went back, sat with my readers, and we went through the same questions again. That is how our ministry just opened up and uh to where it is today.
SPEAKER_00:And Glory Outreach Assembly truly became a global reaching church uh with branches or churches in in Africa. Um I know you have connections in in and people in in Europe, in Switzerland, and in the United States, right? At least those. So tell us about where is Glory Outreach Assembly today?
SPEAKER_01:Today, Glory Outreach Assembly has uh 270 churches.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, stop, stop, stop there. Five in 2001. Yes, 25 years later, 24 years later, 200 and 270. 270 churches.
SPEAKER_01:And not just uh not just the 270, but very informed by strategy. Meaning that uh we have many of them within our Jerusalem, but we still have many of them within our Samaria, places that we would never have even considered uh reaching uh with the gospel, because they are different, definitely different from us. We have churches that uh are in what we call our Judea, resorting from that strategy. And when we talk about uh Europe, when we talk about uh Tucana and I Luanda, Burundi, Congo, those are our ends of the earth, all informed by our strategy.
SPEAKER_00:Wonderful, wonderful. Wow. And and that's that is very impressive. And God has really allowed you to uh to flourish in ministry and to reach a higher level. Um what are the main challenges that you faced along these all of these years as as the church?
SPEAKER_01:Um I may I faced many many challenges, many, many challenges. Uh I think part of the challenges had to do with myself as a person. Uh my background, we I didn't really have much exposure, uh, so I had to really uh uh really deal with that feeling that um here I now have an international vision, a global vision, and uh my background still keeps keeps uh keeps following up, following me up and limiting me in thinking. Um I dealt with that by simply seeing myself the way God sees me and uh and and listening to what God is saying and was able to deal with that. The educational uh issues also were quite major obstacles because with my education background, uh and now God has called me into full-time ministry into ministry, I had to go to resign from teaching, to address those limitations and those obstacles and go to a Bible school, pursue theology. Uh, and as I continue to see the need for leadership, uh even continue further and do masters in leadership and continue narrowing down to where God was calling me. Yeah, these are major obstacles that I dealt with. I also faced financial obstacles because the vision was becoming bigger and bigger with very limited resources. Right. And uh but I'm glad that uh through the training that I had received in the ILI, I was I was really learning about learnt about stewardship, and therefore I knew it's not really much about uh how much uh resources that I are within my disposal. It is how I'm using those and how I'm stewarding those resources. Uh of course, I learned how to mobilize resources for the vision, which uh enabled me to deal with the challenge of resources.
SPEAKER_00:Which is what you're doing right now. Which is what you have become a great mobilizer of resources, deploying resources from the the the richer parts of the world to put shoes in the hands in the feet of the children, right?
SPEAKER_01:Yes, yes, and the Lord has been gracious. He has uh helped us to share the vision, uh to be able to mobilize and get involved, more people involved. He has brought people along our way that even from Switzerland and other places, and we have invested in their lives and they have gone back and told our story, and the Lord has continued to bless us.
SPEAKER_00:Yes. Okay, so let's shift gears a little bit, and I want to go back to Kenya because there was something that I thought about talking to you while I was preparing for this. Um I I've read some statistics on Kenya. Kenya is 85% or 85% of Kenyans identify themselves as Christians. And it says um 33% are mainline Protestant. The Anglican Church is very is very important there, right? The Church of Kenya or Church of England. 20% are Catholics, uh, 20% are evangelical or Pentecostal or charismatic. And then there is a number, a 7% of the population of Kenya are part of what uh the statistics call African-initiated churches, which GOA, Glory Outreach Assembly, is one of them. Uh so that's where uh where GOA God fits. And so in that context, how could you you it's almost like you would say Kenya's been rich with the gospel. So what is your harvest in your Jerusalem or and even in your Judea? What is the harvest field? What are the challenges of a place like Kenya that considers itself to be Christian?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, the the those statistics are politically correct numbers uh because uh people uh as long as they have a baptism name or la or a name that they were given at birth by their their parents, uh whether they believe it or not, then they are considered in the 85. Uh as long as they are not uh subscribing to any other religion like Islam or uh Bhut Sim or any other, they are considered Christians. So, but um but that 85% also uh includes the one of our greatest challenge, which is the challenge of nominalism, where people will simply be identified as Christians, but in actual fact they are not. And some of them may never have even ever been to church at all, at all.
SPEAKER_00:It's more of an identity than a faith, in that case.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, yes, and that's a big challenge that comes with that. The other big challenge that comes with that is um is is uh uh uh associated to that nominarism is we and it is reflected in those statistics, is that uh if you are born in a family of the mainland churches, Presbyterian, Methodist, uh Catholic, if you are born in that line, the society considers you to be a member of those churches. And there is a very common statement that is usually used when there is religious conflict in many lural homes of Kenya, when the man uh uh the or the woman, the the the one, the father or the mother or the grandfather stands up and says, We will not have two denominations in this home. That is a familiar statement told to especially younger people who may have gone to school, gone to college, and and come into encounter with the gospel and uh became evangelical, spirit field, and came back home. And now they are trying to move away from what the family is identified usually as. Uh that's a big challenge. Big, big challenge. Of course, the other challenge of looking at things from those statistics is that missions uh is is uh is is easily misled into thinking that the nation is reached and therefore doesn't need uh any anybody to reach them. It doesn't, it actually, those statistics give puts people in a comfort zone that uh the nation is Christian, we can just relax. And therefore, what we have done is we have gone out in our mission uh philosophy of letting people know we do not look at the nation in terms of political boundaries, but we look at it in terms of people groups, uh, tribes. Because in the same 85% Kenyan nation, we have we had the Samburu in 2003, whom we went to engage for the first time, and they were asking us, who is this Jesus you're talking about? Is he President Kenyatta? Is he President Moy, the second president? Or is he the third president? And if he is as important as you're saying, why haven't we heard of him like the other presidents? And how much money has he paid you to come and campaign for him? To them, 2003, not long ago, a tribe in Kenya, Samburu, asked you thinking that Jesus is a political leader. In 2004, another tribe that we adopted, the Trucana, and we are asking them, Do you know Jesus? And they are telling us, ask the area chief. He is the one who keeps the register of everybody. There might be a name, Jesus, there in the neighborhood. Uh, they have no clue who Jesus is. And that now tells you that when we think of Kenya as an 85% nation, we will not notice that we have Samburu people, we have Trucana people, and many other least rich people groups who have not heard the gospel.
SPEAKER_00:So those are the challenges of those types of people. That really have no idea of who Jesus is. That is that is, I was gonna say fascinating, but it is also challenging because there are, you know, there could be in in there in any nation, in any political nation of the world, um, a situation like that. And there probably is, there are still um people, people groups out there that think that Jesus is um somewhat related to the president or the former president of the nation. That's a fascinating story, David. Now, I don't want us to miss one of the most beautiful aspects of Glory Outreach Assembly. You mentioned in the beginning about putting shoes in the in the feet of children who so that they don't have to sell a cow to buy shoes to go to school, um, or some similar experience. I know I've been I've been to to your uh your children's homes, I've played with the children in those homes. Um I have I have my own story of praying for the salvation of three children in a city called Naivasha and seeing them come to Christ years later. Tell us a little bit about what does what what is what has that vision of putting shoes in the feet of children become? What do you do as Glory Outreach Assembly uh for the children?
SPEAKER_01:Uh it has become a beautiful, beautiful story of transformation. Started with uh one young boy, Born Fesminer, when I went to preach in Karatina Market, and I was speaking, preaching about John 3.16, God's love, and the boy reasoned. There were many people in the market listening to the gospel, and then I made an autocall, whoever would like to give their life to Jesus, and people came to the front, a big, big number of people. In the middle of these adults is a boy, small, tiny, 11-year-old boy with his glue. And I, as usual, I said, Lift up your hands, be believe God from a sincere prayer in your heart, made them lead them into a repentance prayer, and they got saved. I said, now you go and look for Bible-believing churches in this area, connect yourself, be discipled. Let's meet in heaven or somewhere.
SPEAKER_00:A typical evangelist. Exactly. Meaning, right?
SPEAKER_01:Yes. And everybody is thanks me, shakes my hand, and they are excited. But the boy remains right there with his glue. Says, uh, I say, bye. He says, No. I want to go with you to the place you have been describing.
SPEAKER_00:Explain the glue to us. Why is he what why does he have glue on his hand?
SPEAKER_01:The glue is uh the street children use glue to fight the hunger pungs. So when they they because they have no food, when they sniff glue, they feel they feel hungry. And sometimes they feel high, high. So they they they they they don't recognize.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it's um it's actually not just any glue, it's a it's a shoe maker's glue that is highly toxic, and that gives you a quick high if you sniff it up your nose. So just just to explain that. So okay. So what was his name again? Boniface. Boniface. All right, so Boniface is sitting there, standing there next to you. Then what nap what happens?
SPEAKER_01:I was not able to beat him in the argument of leaving him behind. So I decided to turn on my my pickup and and drive away, and he jumped on the open part of the pickup, he jumped into her.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:This guru. And I said, Well, he's gonna jump out because it's normally a tradition. The street kids will normally jump on open trucks. If there is anything they can eat, they go eating there. Yeah. But when it is you when you're driving uphill, they jump out. They jump out, okay. And they can jump out with something that you you that you had in your book.
SPEAKER_00:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:So I said, Oh, this I have nothing in the boot. So he'll jump out. The guy, you know, jump out. And finally, I ended up going with him to my house. And uh he became the first orphan that we ever took into the homes. He changed my perspective, my thinking. We of obviously we had managed to get the boy out of the street, but we had not managed to get the street out of him. So he came with all his street habits. You give him food, he pours on the floor. And he wants to eat from the floor. He says, I am not worth eating from a plate. You give him a bed to sleep. At night, when I wake up, I find him just sleeping on the floor. I said, I thought he has fallen from the bed. He said, I'm not worthy sleeping in a bed. Wow. That took nine months to get that street mentality out of him and to make him feel part of the family, feel loved. And that completely changed my thinking. And uh I I went on from there, bringing in more and more as the opportunities allow. And long story short, our compassion story has 1,000 uh kids who have passed through our hands. They have been loved, they have given education, palented, taken care of, that being the only home, gone to the universities and colleges, got jobs, and some of them have come back to give back to manage. And it is such a sweet story to see some of the kids we brought up are the ones managing those schools now. They're the ones managing those homes. Uh, others are coming to church to serve uh as leaders in those in the church. And from that one boy uh today, uh, those 1,000 kids have gone to different places. And currently we have eight orphanages where we have about 400 orphans in the home today, as we speak, and God is taking care.
SPEAKER_00:So you and your community are raising 400 children, having raised over a thousand. Um why when I went to Kenya, I was also exposed to another harsh reality of the African um uh world. Why so many orphans?
SPEAKER_01:Many reasons. One reason is because of the war. Most of the African countries have experienced war or conflict or domestic violence or conflict in one way or the other. The result of that war or that conflict is children abandoned by people running away for their lives and um and eventually fighting their way to the street. So war is a major, major, major cause. Uh, Kenya has been peaceful for the better part of our history, but we we we have become uh a refuge uh for the nations around us.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:So you'll find a lot of uh refugees and kids from different Burundi, Congo during uh Luanda during genocide, uh, Congo, South Sudan, Somalia. We have some of the largest refugee camps because of that, which eventually leads to a lot of children in the streets. Other than war, the second main cause is uh is the diseases, particularly during the season when we had HIV AIDS pandemic. Yes. Uh many, many, many parents died, and uh other and kids were left alone. Daughters, uh uh mothers of daughters died and took their kids to their grandparents who could not take care of them. And that's why one of the homes for GOA is purely for HIV, positive kids. HIV positive kids. Yeah, that's a major, major, major, major reason. Plus a bad on children because nobody wants to watch their child die in their hands uh because of stuffing. They would rather put them somewhere in the street in the hope that a good Samaritan will come and pick them.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, that's a sad. I remember being um at uh at your former home, and I think it was you that pointed to a village across on the other side of the hill, said that house is empty because the entire family died died from uh HIVAIDS. Um that was a long time ago. Fortunately, to today it is it is somewhat under control, but still the effects of that lingers. Um, and so David, quickly, um uh tell us a little bit about another aspect that I found beautiful is the conflict resolution. How did you end up uh dealing with um getting involved with peacemaking and conflict resolution as a as a church? This is not something that strikes me as something that a that a church would would embrace, but and yet it's been a big part of GOA.
SPEAKER_01:Yes. Um first we we we we we were contacted by people who had come to Kenya as refugees from Burundi, from Rwanda, uh who were who had lain away as a result of the genocide. And they we picked them and started taking care of them in Kenya. Uh some of them were already having a call and and uh visionally, so we brought them close to our leadership. In the process of that, living with them and listening to their stories, we began to hear how important or to see the need to go back to their country and and try to take the message of healing and restoration. And when we went there, we discovered that our message was being risened too and taken more seriously than than the bishops and uh the church in their country. And when we tried to find out why, they said because they think they feel that the church in their countries participated in the genocide directly or indirectly, and therefore they would not listen to them, but yet they were willing to receive the message from a church coming outside, outside their country. So we saw the need, and that gave us the opportunity to restore many families to preach message of reconciliation. Little did we know that God was preparing us for 2007 post-election violence in our own country. Because uh conflict broke, resulting from similar things of tribal issues as to who is going to be president, who is going to be voting who. And uh and so we added up again, the same methods, the same principles, the same uh style we had seen work in Luanda is what we brought into our own country. And we became uh instruments or agents of peace, reconciliation, and from there, needs went on manifesting themselves, including conflicts in families, including conflicts in churches, one church against the other. And so God just blessed us, and we ended up blooding ourselves as peace ambassadors, and uh to the extent that I was given a dire award for uh peace uh abazender in the country because of those initiatives. And this has opened many doors of reconciliation, arbitration, and uh and a few years ago our government said uh they the the cases in court have become too many, and because there are very few magistrates, and they said we would they would want to encourage mediation and other alternative uh dispute resolution means. So we have become part of that, and uh we are doing a lot of mediation, and my last born daughter who is who is uh becoming a lawyer, is completing uh law school, is leading us in mediation, which is officially recognized as a peaceful way of resolving conflicts, that you don't have to go to court.
SPEAKER_00:Right. And and that has that had also the effect of raising your profile as a leader in all of Kenya.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, it did. It did, and gave me an opportunity to to meet in very high-level uh dispute and conflict resolution matters, uh and uh which as an opportunity also for sharing the gospel.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely. It has raised the profile of GOA and your profile to the point that you would that during the conflict you addressed uh the Parliament of Kenya, right?
SPEAKER_01:Yes, exactly, exactly. That was that was uh a big uh highlight in in my life uh resulting from from those results.
SPEAKER_00:And a wonderful opportunity, as you say, for for GOA to proclaim the gospel through um this really sovereign work of God leading you in through all these years into this this area. Well, David, I so appreciate having had this conversation with you. Um I'm I am sure everybody hearing us um has. I believe we might have had a um a conversation that is long enough for two episodes. And so um that is this this is really wonderful. Thank you. One last word. What would an African seasoned leader like you um would have to say to those who are interested in leading, and interested in leading um for the kingdom of God in a in a in in in this season of our of our lives, of our history.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, I would uh like to uh speak to the viewer or listener and tell you tell them that uh uh leadership is extremely important for every all the way from the smallest unit of our family to the village to the nation to internationally. And uh everyone uh in one place or one time or the other has an opportunity to influence others, which is what leadership is about. And uh if we can do it and do it well, then we we will build a better world. Uh all these things we have been talking about, the peace and conflict and hunger and starvation and offense, uh we would reduce that if we are able to invest more in leadership. And especially if we are you can invest more in training of leaders so that we have more effective leaders uh all the way from the family unit uh who make the family their priority, and all the way to their churches and nations, we would have a better world, a better world where with systems that function, with uh organizations that are goal-oriented and uh and with servant leadership, with people who care and mind about each other. So leadership is important uh to every one of us individually, and it would be great if we can all invest in ourselves to become better leaders and invest in others to become better leaders.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely. Yes, I love that, David. At some level, everyone is a leader because everyone influences others. And so if you if you are a leader, and just like we said, everyone is a leader, and if you're interested in um exploring the eight core values of the best leaders, check out iliteam.org and um you'll be able to find ways that you can um enable yourself and train yourself to lead uh with a kingdom of God mentality. Um if you've enjoyed this episode, please help us to promote it, please help us to um spread it to others. Give us a like, make a comment, it helps the algorithm, and also share it with people whom um might be benefited from it. Now, also if they if you want to connect with Bishop David, Bishop David and GOA is um is doing uh an amazing job. David, how can they connect with you uh and with GOA?
SPEAKER_01:Uh thank you. Anyone who would like to connect with us, we are we are all over the place in the social media. You can just uh find us on Facebook, on Instagram, on TikTok, on LinkedIn, and in all those places we go by the same names. Bishop David Muneri Thagana. Everywhere in all those social medias, it is Bishop David Munieri Thagana, YouTube uh everywhere. And of course, uh we also have email addresses you which you could easily find there, bishop thagana at goaweb.olg. Uh that is that is that is my email. And I'm available. I'm available on every other every other means. I have I even have a website, personal website, which is davidtagana.com. With at davidtagana.com you will find you find me there, and uh you'll be directed to everywhere else. And of course, uh around the world. I represent International Leadership Institute and I'm excited to connect with people who are in the International Leadership Institute family or all over the world. We have seen God uh use this these eight core values uh and to build a global family of people who really care about leadership. Amen.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you. That's true. Actually, here's what we're gonna do: we're going to put all of those links that uh Bishop David talked about on our show notes, on the comments, on the comment section and the description of the video on YouTube. Uh make sure to check Glory Outreach Assembly, Bishop Taganah, all of his social media to see the amazing things that are going on all over this world. Thank you for watching. Thank you for being with us. God bless.