On November 5th, 1999 Fredrick Masha was in his second year of seminary at Kenya Baptist Theological College. There he listened to a sermon on his graduation day that was delivered by Dr. Lewis Carnell, an elderly missionary from USA from the Clerk’s Chapel. Masha felt called by God to assume the position of a Missionary through that sermon, particularly to evangelize to the unreached people groups. He was the first to kneel before the preacher during the altar call and the preacher dedicated Masha to that calling.
It is through this calling that the vision of starting an evangelical mission’s ministry came about. Unlike the overseas missionaries who are sent by their churches and international missions board, individual African churches are unable to send and support missionaries, but as an association of churches that are both nationally and internationally focused on missions, they can make it if they come together.
This is how the Chafisi Baptist International Evangelical Ministry (CBIEM) came about, who’s name was changed 7 years later to Committed Believers Evangelical Ministry Of Africa (CBEM – AFRICA) to accommodate more churches from other denominations who are also focused on missions and to allow them to join the team.
C.B.E.M – AFRICA was officially launched on September 2003, by Michael George who visited Masha in Africa two months after his visit to USA. The launching of the ministry was done at Chafisi Baptist Church, which is the ministry’s headquarters. The launching was witnessed by the first Kenyan Baptist and the first moderator of the Baptist convention of Kenya, the late Rev. Morris Wanje and the then Gede Association chairman Rev. Raphael Kazungu.
Through all of these years, God used the Waldron and the George families to facilitate Masha to realize the vision God has given him.
The first facilitation God provided through these two families is supporting Masha’s family’s needs while serving God in a full time basis in the mission field.
The second facilitation God has provided through these two families is supporting the ministry’s financial needs by giving them a generous heart to support, the willingness to sacrifice things to do so, and leading them to connect Masha with their friends and churches who also have aided in the ministry.
Before starting the mission work, God gave C.B.E.M – AFRICA a period of warming up. This period was between 2003 to 2008. During this period, Pastor Masha and his team were invited and hosted by churches to hold open air crusades in various areas. Masha was the main open air preacher, Pastor Gohu did revival to the team, and Pastor Anderson was the organizer.
God enabled Masha to hold about 11 open air crusades in various places on the coast province and connected C.B.E.M with the host churches. These churches are Majaoni Baptist church, Mshongoleni Baptist church, Fellowship Baptist church, Mijomboni Baptist church, Watamu Baptist church,Mgumoni Baptist, Trinity Baptist church, Matolani Light of God, Majajani Pentecostal church, Walea Baptist church and Kibabamche Baptist church.