[00:01:26] Stephanie Gutierrez: Welcome to this episode of the Modern Day Missionaries podcast. Today I’m so pleased to have Dr. Sammy Wanyonyi with us. Welcome, Sammy.

[00:01:35] Sammy Wanyonyi: Thank you so much, Stephanie. It’s good to join you on this wonderful podcast.

[00:01:41] Stephanie Gutierrez: It’s great to have you. And everybody, Sammy is the founder and lead evangelist for Shine Ministries, and he is passionate about sharing the gospel of Jesus around the world. He holds a doctorate in global and contextual leadership from Bethel University and Seminary. And he was born in a small village in Western Kenya, where he felt a call to take the good news of Jesus to the nations at age eight.

And Sammy, I got to hear a snippet of your story when you were sharing it recently at a conference we were at, and it’s a pretty good story, I have to say. This doesn’t have anything to do with the podcast, but I have to ask, can you remind me, you told me how many brothers and sisters you had? I was blown away. It was a really large number.

[00:02:22] Sammy Wanyonyi: okay. Yes, it’s a very significant number. Um, it’s a whole mission field in and of itself. So, that is 23 siblings. Um, yeah, we are 23 siblings. So, quite a few, quite a few of us. Um, you know, I’m, I grew up in a polygamous family. So, my dad is married to two wives. And he came to Christ after, you know, he had gotten married to his two wives.

Actually, it’s a little different. He married my mom, and then my mom became a Christian, and then, um, he resented that. So he decided he was going to marry a second wife, to kind of spite my mom. But then she prayed his second wife, and him, into the kingdom. Um, and so God took it all and turned it around.

And now we all know the Lord. And, um, most of my siblings, they’re pastors, they’re evangelists, they’re, you know, missionaries like me, uh, taking the gospel of Jesus around the world. And it is such a marvelous story of the grace of God.

[00:03:31] Stephanie Gutierrez: It really is. That is wild. So did you decide to have a ginormous family like you grew up in or shrink that down a little bit?

[00:03:41] Sammy Wanyonyi: I, um, you know, I wanted to have 10. Actually, that was my wife. But me, when we got married, I said, you know, I’ll go for two, and she said ten. So then we began negotiating down and up, and so I said three, she said, okay, nine. Um, but she came down to six, I still stayed at three. Uh, eventually, you know, um, you know, so I ended up, we ended up with three.

Um, now we do have a few, yeah, we do have some, um, so we had like six miscarriages, no, seven miscarriages. Um, and so we ended up with 10. I mean, so God gave us, uh, each one of us, you know, he gave us 10 total and, uh, uh, three here and six, seven there. So, so yeah, So it’s, uh, one way or the other, you know, we are a family of 10. Of, of 10 kids.

[00:04:46] Stephanie Gutierrez: which is such a good perspective to remember. You’ve got family waiting for you. Yeah.

[00:04:52] Sammy Wanyonyi: Correct. Yeah.

[00:04:54] Stephanie Gutierrez: Wow. So you grew up in a, with a busy home life and then now you’ve got your family with your three kids and then you travel all over. We were just talking about how you’ve been in Ethiopia a lot recently and you’re traveling all over the place, doing missions work, evangelistic work.

And so Sammy, when I was thinking about, um, what we wanted to talk about today, it was a pretty easy topic to know what I wanted to ask you about. And that is talking about staying consistent and grounded in our faith amidst an ever changing schedule. Because I know for missionaries, we have schedules typically that are constantly in flux, whether it’s visitors coming into town, hosting missions trips, uh, they themselves traveling, being in other countries or cities, or going back to the passport country to raise funds, whatever that might look like, there’s always people popping in and popping out.

And consistency is not a standard in the average missionary schedule. And your, your schedule is no exception to this, but Sammy, what’s so evident about you is how passionately you are in love with Jesus. I noticed that from the moment that we met. And so,

[00:06:03] Sammy Wanyonyi: Well, thank you.

[00:06:04] Stephanie Gutierrez: Yeah, thank you. Thank you for being so evident about it. It’s not something that you have to wait to find out. You can really can see it all over you. And I know when we have schedules that are all over the place like that, keeping anything consistent is challenging. And the most important thing we want to keep consistent is our relationship with Jesus. And so I’d love to just talk to you about that a little bit today. How is it that you stay so close to Jesus?

And so I’d love to start it off by asking how long you’ve known Jesus. We referenced that a little bit in the beginning. And how long have you served him as a missionary and evangelist?

[00:06:38] Sammy Wanyonyi: That is a great place to start. Um, so I, you know, I mentioned briefly that, uh, my parents, you know, how they came to Christ at the beginning. Uh, I happen to have been born just after my dad had come to Christ. So now we were officially, quote unquote, a Christian family. Um, and, uh, God was, uh, moving in the circle of our family at that time, uh, as a kid.

And so my mom tells me that I asked her when I was four, I don’t remember it, but she tells me I asked her when I was four, uh, to pray with me, uh, to lead me to Christ. And, uh, and so it was through the influence of my mom. Um, of course, I remember the, my earliest memories that I remember is that I’ve always loved the Bible. That I’ve always loved the Lord, but of course there has to be that moment of encounter with the Lord. And for me, um, I was a kid, uh, but it really got solidified when I was eight years old. That this time I was in, uh, uh, going into third grade. Um, I wasn’t by any means, you know, uh, perfect bright kid or anything like that.

I was actually, I used to be like the very last kid in the class when everybody else is getting it, I wasn’t getting it. But then, uh, I had this moment, I was praying with one of my siblings, he’s older than me, and he came home, he challenged us, he said, you know, um, I got this encounter with the Holy Spirit when I went to the church college. Uh, he was in, he had just gone off to his first year in college and so he challenged us. He said, you know, I got an encounter with the Holy Spirit and would any of you, uh, want to encounter the Holy Spirit in your life? And so we’re just like, okay, what do you mean by that? You know, we are kind of asking questions and, uh, so he explained it and, uh, eventually I was like, I want, you know the encounter with the Holy Spirit.

And, uh, you know, in our little mud hut, uh, I knelt down, um, he laid his hands on me and began to pray over me. Uh, and lo and behold, I had this powerful moment of encounter with the Holy Spirit. Um, that is how I began to actually speak English as a, uh, I didn’t, I hadn’t learned English at that point.

And it just came to me in the moment. I was praising God, I was worshiping, I was, um, declaring all these amazing things about God that in perfect, flawless English that I didn’t do before. So often people ask me, where did you learn your English? And where did you get your accent? And I’m like, you know, I got it from the Lord. I got it from the Holy Spirit.

Um, and back then everybody was just like, Where did this kid learn English? And, um, but my parents then, my dad, who is a lay evangelist, he would bring me along, uh, to various places where he would be preaching, uh, because after he came to Christ, he felt a call, uh, to be a lay evangelist to his community.

He could not be ordained because he had two wives and, uh, all of that, and, uh, he felt like the Lord did not ask him to send away any of his wives. He had to keep them. Um, and so being an honorable man, he opted to continue to preach the gospel, even without the, you know, the formal ordination, and he’s done that all his life, and so he’ll bring me along, uh, to share the gospel.

Uh, so, technically, I started ministry when I was eight. Um, but, uh, officially, um, I felt a strong call to be a global missionary, uh, back in 96. Um, at that point, I was, uh, in my early twenties and, uh, working for an airline company, um, Air France. And one time I was praying, asking the Lord about my life and what vision he had for me when I, um, when the Holy Spirit began to intimate to me that God had a bigger vision, uh, for me to go to the nations. um, as a missionary evangelist.

Um, and so, uh, obviously it felt intimidating because I mean, I’m a village kid. I grew up in a small little village. Bare feet, most of my life up to that point. And so for God to come and drop on me this huge vision to go to the nations, as an evangelist, as a missionary, uh, t had to be him. It had to take his miracle, uh, to be able to do that and, uh, I thank God that I did, uh, follow, uh, in that, uh, you know, as I continue to follow and then he made it clear he was calling me to, uh, to America as a primary field and then to the nations of the world, uh, as a missionary event.

[00:11:29] Stephanie Gutierrez: I love hearing that you were called to the States because boy, in the States, do we need missionaries and missionary evangelists. And so the work that you do traveling and sharing it all over the world, you also have, like you said, that base here in Minneapolis. And would you share for just a second about the work that you do in the Twin Cities?

[00:11:48] Sammy Wanyonyi: So here in the Twin Cities and, uh, in the near future here around the rest of America, um, we are working with the nations, um, like we have, uh, like in the Twin Cities we have, uh, over 100 different nations, over a million people, uh, from all these nations of the world. About a third of the Twin Cities population are first and second generation immigrants.

Um, and then majority of them do not know the Lord, uh, Jesus Christ as Savior. In fact, just before this podcast, I was meeting with, uh, our missionary leaders within the Somali community and, uh, the Somali community is 99 percent, um, Muslim, uh, 99. 999 percent. It’s one of the most un evangelized, unreached, uh, peoples of the world.

And so we were meeting with them to strategize how do we continue to advance the gospel within this community. Um, and so our passion here in North America is to rally the church, um, and believers from all kinds of backgrounds. All churches to see the priority of sharing the good news of Jesus in a demographically changing America.

Um, the nation is changing rapidly and as projected in the next 15 years, America will be a majority minority country. And yet, in these minority communities, in the current minority communities, 90 percent um, put together, 90 percent don’t have a sitting relationship with Christ. And so there is this continuing paganization of America.

And we are saying, you know, God has a different plan and a different agenda. Um, He has an agenda to see these nations worship Him, according to Revelation 7 9. People from every tribe, every tongue, every nation. And so today, America is at a crossroads and a great opportunity, greatest missionary opportunity of any other time in American history to see, to have all these nations here.

There is an opportunity for an awakening, a rebirth of a new America that advances the gospel of Jesus. And that is what we are here providing that fork in the road that people, the nations must turn one way or the other when they encounter the cross at the crossroads.

[00:14:19] Stephanie Gutierrez: I’m so happy you and your family are here, Sammy. Thank you.

[00:14:23] Sammy Wanyonyi: Thank you.

[00:14:24] Stephanie Gutierrez: Okay. So you’ve got stuff going on here in Minneapolis, in the United States, in countries all over the world. A lot going on. What are some of the ways that you are able to stay grounded and connected to Jesus when your day to day looks so different?.

[00:14:46] Sammy Wanyonyi: Uh, great question there. Um, you know, first of all, um, yes, I’m a missionary, but I look at myself not as a missionary first. Um, at first, I’m a follower of Jesus, and I’m in love with this Jesus. Actually, one of the things that God has been doing, uh, with me the last, I would say the last, uh, seven months––I’ve been working on this, especially, uh, since October of last year. I began waking up early in the morning. I’ll be up at, uh, three, um, in the morning. Actually, it was kind of fascinating because I was, I was, I was, As soon as it will get to 3:29, and I don’t know why 3:29, but 3:29 I’ll wake up, and I look at my watch, and it is 3:29.

So it happened a couple times, then I thought, hmm, there’s something about this. Then when it happened a third time, I thought, The Lord is calling me into something. And so, um, I began to get up, uh, you know, at 3:29. And one of the books, one of the passages of scripture that he began to highlight to me was the book of Song of Songs.

Um, and it talks about, you know, the beloved and, you know, there’s the song of, the romance that goes back and forth between, um, you know, the, the lover and, and, and, uh, her beloved. And, uh, in that, you know, the Lord was showing me, um, our relationship, the priority, uh, of our friendship, he and I.

And, um, not that it was something new, but it’s as if he was calling me even deeper, uh, into that place of greater depth. And, and so that has actually continued for a while. Um, it’s now seven months and, but I remember after that, you know, I’ll just spend time with the Lord. Not that I was praying for things.

I wasn’t. I was just enjoying the presence of the Lord and going back and forth, sitting with Him. Now, from that place of intimacy, then He shares with me His burdens. He shows me things. I go into the Scriptures and they open wide. Uh, and there is this life or living exchange between me and the Lord. And then from that then flows my mission flows, my missionary activities.

Um, and so instead of starting with the missionary activities and then, oh, now I gotta find the Lord, I start with the Lord and then he shares his heart. And from the place of sharing his heart, then we can move together, into what already doing. Now, I remember that point, one of the things that I was really being burdened with was actually raising funds and resources for our ministry organization.

Um, and I know as missionaries we deal with that all the time. Um, and for me I was dealing with that challenge. Of course, we have staff we’ve got to take care of and our resources were kind of dwindling and, um, and I was a little bit concerned and I’m thinking, Oh, I’ve got to write letters. I’ve got to, you know, call, make phone calls and I’m going to, you know, I need to do all these things.

But in that moment, the Lord, um, was like, no, no, no, be still, spend your time with me. And so I began to spend that time with the Lord. Uh, you know, the, the worries, the concerns, all those things, they, they, they dissipated, not that it was resolved, uh, it wasn’t, um, cause I was looking at it and I’m going, you know, we have all these activities, we have all these actions, um, and we were needing to raise about, you know, 1.5 million dollars, uh, and I’m thinking to myself, How am I gonna do this? I need to be working harder. I need to set up more meetings. But the Lord was like, no, spend more time with me. And I did.

And, um, you know, one of the things that God amazed us was, uh, after, as I continued in that season, um, you know, and then in January, we were having a, we were planning an event, um, and I didn’t get a lot of response. I got, you know, nine, ten people to show up. Ten people to show up. Um, and of course naturally I was a little nervous because I had sent out more than 400 invitations as a missionary. You know, wanting to raise these resources. And so ten people show up out of the 400 I’ve invited. Um, but guess what? God used those ten to actually meet that need of 1.5 million.

And I was blown away. I was blown away. So here was God showing me. Um, and it wasn’t like I’ve done this many times. No. Um, in, I was stepping out in more faith, trying to say, okay, we need this resources. Um, and as much as it was tough and difficult, um, yet he said, you know, calm down, spend time with me.

And so every morning I’ll be, I’ll be reading Song of Songs, um, and I’ll be journaling Song of Songs, um, I’m like, am I going to be preaching out of this? Not really. It’s me and the Lord, the love, uh, friendship that is going on between He and I. And then, uh, from place of friendship and worship and communion.

And then he did a miracle. Um, and it is, uh, I mean, he took care of my schedule instead of me trying to locate those 400, trying to call them all and say, Hey, you know, if you can give, um, you know, trying to divide up the number between the 400 people and the 4, the 390 that are not going to show up and saying, Hey, if only you can give maybe a thousand or 10,000, the Lord was like, No, leave it to me.

And the ten he brought, he used those to provide everything we needed to meet that goal. Um, and so that, that is really, I mean, one of the things that God has been teaching me. Um, and, and, it doesn’t matter, you know, what, the, um, what the burden could be. It could be in the middle of organizing, you know, a conference and there’s a lot of logistics and of course we strive to be excellent, um, but yet the priority has to be the Lord himself.

Otherwise our conference could be a great activity, but, um, if it’s not flowing from that place of intimacy and then we are missing out.

[00:21:31] Stephanie Gutierrez: Yes. And what a great reminder you started it out with that we are first and foremost, children of God before we are any job description or calling even that he’s given us. Yes.

So Sammy, you really explained an example of how you did that at a time that it was difficult for you. What would you say to a missionary who feels like their schedule is out of their control, like it’s being dictated by everyone else and they’re struggling to find those moments that you talked about?

[00:22:03] Sammy Wanyonyi: Yeah, I think the best example that comes to mind of how we might be able to control that, um, we look at the example of the apostles in Acts chapter 7, chapter 6, um, when the body of believers is growing rapidly and it’s as if there’s a demand on their time. There’s a demand from the community. Uh, there’s a demand, um, you know, from those coming to Christ. They, they, they need to learn the cultures and, you know, um, so that they can help this community, new big community of believers, be able to advance, uh, well.

Uh, but they said, No. What is our priority? Um, and so they kind of drew that circle around them and they said, looking at everything in front of us, what is God’s priority for us as the apostles?

And they came to a conclusion that their number one priority was prayer. And their second priority was the preaching of the word. And therefore, anything else outside of that, God had to have someone else within the body that could be able to handle, uh, those details. And, it’s not that, you know, those other people had any less, uh, of a calling or anything like that.

In fact, they were recognizing in delegating that everybody is called and everyone has a part to play. And so they looked for, you know, the Bible says men that were full of the Holy Spirit, like Stephen, like Philip, you know, and we know Stephen was, uh, you know, I mean, the first martyr, uh, he had the same zeal like the apostolic zeal.

Well, and you know Philip, he was a full fledged evangelist, um, but at this point in his journey, he was, you know, still in the formation stage, I believe, and, uh, they, they delegated him as one of those leaders that then took on that extra responsibility. Um, part of recognizing and actually working in humility is recognizing that, you know, God has all of us called the church, um, all of us to labor together, to co labor together.

If we feel like we have to do everything, uh, then there is a problem. Uh, there’s a problem, probably there’s a problem of pride that we gotta deal with, uh, because we are not trusting God enough that he has other people that are sufficiently gifted and sufficiently equipped to take some of the roles and responsibilities.

Or it’s a problem of deficiency of wisdom. Moses, when he had all these people taking his time, his father in law Jethro came to him and said, come on, my son in law, you are not acting wisely here. Look, delegate this responsibility, you know, choose from the leaders, let them come and then let them judge, uh, between, let them judge, um, for their own families and lines and lineages so that you are not spending all day, um, sitting in this place.

First of all, it’s unhealthy for you physically, uh, and tiring. And you’re sitting in one place judging for all of Israel, two million people. It is crazy. Uh, and I mean, I can’t imagine how busy that was for Moses trying to judge, uh, for everybody and, uh, provide God’s counsel. It’s absolutely crazy. As much as he was trying to walk and, uh, you know, in a godly way, he was doing a good thing, but it wasn’t, uh, the best thing that he was doing.

So, um, in our missionary activities, uh, yes, there are seasons when we may have to do a lot, and I’ve had seasons like those. Uh, when for example, when I was newly launching the organization, I did a lot. But then, you know, slowly God began to bring people and recognizing that God has many, whether they are volunteers, whether they are board members, um, whether they are even new believers, being able to find time to train them.

Um, or like now, I’m actually training my kids to help. Uh, my 14 year old writes all my thank you, uh, most of our thank you notes. Now, I do write some, but, uh, he handwrites a lot of them, uh, and it’s, that’s, that’s something that I like doing and, you know, I, I, but then it takes a lot of time and, of course, I want to put a personal touch. But my son, he’s like, Dad, you know, I can help you write that, and he’s a good writer, so he comes, he created for now, you know, he signs on behalf of his dad and he says, you know, I’m writing on behalf of my dad, but he’s getting trained in the process, and he’s growing as well as a disciple of Christ.

[00:26:58] Stephanie Gutierrez: So it sounds like you’re saying by taking on too much, by not having clear, uh, clarity really in our calling, we can end up adding on good things that are not necessarily God things for us that can take away from that time that we need with the Lord.

[00:27:15] Sammy Wanyonyi: That’s correct.

[00:27:16] Stephanie Gutierrez: To your point, I mean, the apostles had things, had things they were called to do.

Stephen, Timon, Philip, they had things they were called to do. One was not better than the other, but by having clarity in what it was that God had called them to do, it helped them to have more time to make sure they were connecting to God. Because no matter what we’re called to do, that is the one thing we’re all called to do is have that connection with the Lord.

[00:27:39] Sammy Wanyonyi: That’s correct.

[00:27:41] Stephanie Gutierrez: Sammy, has there been a season for you? Where you have struggled in this area and what did that look like for you and how were you able to get back on track?

[00:27:51] Sammy Wanyonyi: Um, yeah, I think, I mean, we all, uh, go through seasons when, um, you know, either we feel extremely tired, because there’s a lot going on, um, or, yeah, yeah, either we, you know, we feel tired, we feel exhausted, um, we may feel even lonely sometimes, and we are struggling, uh, during those times as we are trying to do what God has called us to do.

I’ve been there, um, there have been seasons like that, and one of the things that I have done is to, first of all, recognize that something, you know, I need to make some changes and adjustments, um, and that I’m missing out on things and moments that are critical, uh, between me and God. Um, and so, first of all, recognizing it is important. Uh, denying it is a problem. Uh, you know, if we say, nah, I’m okay, I’m all right, you know, uh, even though you know you are not spending your time with the Lord, you know that you are not spending time in the Word, um, but you’re like, oh yeah, God knows, you know, He understands, and you’re excusing yourself, uh, the first solution is really recognizing that yes, there is an issue here that I need to, uh, address because if I’m losing priority, the priority of my connection with the Lord, um, my mission doesn’t count. I will end up doing things in the flesh rather than in the spirit. Uh, I’ll end up, you know, doing things that are good. They may be good from a human standpoint, but they are not necessarily kingdom, uh, best things.

Um, and so what I’ve done is recognize it and then if when I recognize it, stop, um, and say, okay, I need time with the Lord, uh, everything else can wait, you know, whether it is taking, um, you know, a retreat. It could be a one day retreat, or it could be, it can even be an hour in the moment of a day. Um, or it can be a month of, uh, of retreat.

Now I know sometimes it’s hard to find a month away, but I think it’s a good, is a good discipline, uh, often to find those moments, so if it’s a moment in a day, or it is, um, a day in a week, or it is a week. in a, in a year, or in a month, uh, for that matter. And just saying, you know, I recognize the agent, uh, the things that are pulling on me, but I will keep my priorities right, and I’m gonna stay and connect with the Lord.

And often what ends up happening is that, you know, when you could have spent so much time trying to do all these things, uh, the Lord will give you a solution. Um, as you spend time with him, that is so simple and you’ll accomplish so quickly what you would have spent so much time trying to accomplish. Uh, that’s the irony of it, that in spending more time with the Lord, we get to spend less, um, on the things that could have spent all of our time worrying about and being too careful about, uh, and yet will have still missed out on the excellency of it.

But here we are, we’ve spent so much time with the Lord, and he gives us so much breakthrough that everything comes out in so much excellence that there’s no way to explain it other than that the hand of God was on it. Yeah.

[00:31:30] Stephanie Gutierrez: It is. It’s so deeply logical. It’s like tithing or being generous with the Lord, giving to the Lord. It does not make sense to give your money or your time to the Lord, to somebody who’s looking in from the outside. Even as Christians, sometimes we can think, how can it be possible? that I give you money or time when I need that. And yet he always is faithful to multiply it. You’re so right.

So Sammy, if I can get real practical, then let’s talk for a second about the way that you spend time with the Lord when you’re in your home versus how you do that when you’re traveling in someone else’s home or in a hotel. What are some of the things for you that no matter what you stay consistent with?

And then maybe what are some of the things that you are flexible with or that change depending on where you’re at?

[00:32:19] Sammy Wanyonyi: Yeah, so when I’m in my home, you know, like right now, of course, I say, you know, I get up at 3:29. I gotta put that in, you know, 3:29, because it’s just funny, uh, because it happens every single night. No alarm needed. Um, and so I know, okay, I get up, sometimes I drag myself out of my bed slowly, um, you know, but I make sure that I go to bed in good time.

So by 9, I’m in bed. So I’m getting my six good hours of sleep. Um, and then, so yeah, so that consistency is important. Um, you know, I know I’m okay, I’m going to be in bed by 9, uh, latest 9:30, you know. And then, so when my 3:29 comes around, I kind of get up, whether I’m dragging myself or whether I get up quickly.

Uh, either way, it’s not always necessarily a pleasant, all the time. Uh, but then, of course, as I take more time to connect with the Lord. Um, there is such a, a joy and a depth that comes in those moments. I’ll spend my two hours or so, you know, just soaking in the presence of the Lord. Um, you know, worshiping and staying in the word and journaling and, you know, all these things.

Uh, and then typically at about, you know, 5:15 I begin my writing. Uh, so I spend, you know, an hour, an hour and a half, uh, doing some writing. Uh, I’m working on some books and things. Uh, so I spend that time writing and of course I’m coming from a place of prayer, so I feel the inspiration. Um, it makes writing easy.

Um, so then I know, okay, uh, at about 7AM I try to get, you know, the kids are up. We homeschool, uh, and it’s my responsibility as the dad to get the kids ready, uh, in the morning. Uh, so I get them breakfast. I, you know, those that need showers, I make sure they’re getting showers. You know, Beth, our youngest, um, and make sure, you know, everybody’s ready so that when my wife is ready to get started with school, um, they are ready.

And so, I know that hour between, you know, 6:45 and 8:00, that’s getting the kids ready. And then, uh, at 8:00 on the dot, uh, we every, you know, Monday to Friday, we have our staff prayer time. And so we dedicate the first half hour of the day, uh, to the Lord. It’s, uh, it’s, again, it’s like a tithe. As a minister, we say, you know, our priority, uh, is with the Lord.

And so we provide those 30 minutes. Uh, we check in, in prayer, um, you know, usually by phone, uh, actually by Zoom. And so we, uh, we zoom in for prayer and we spent 30 minutes together, um, you know, over devotional and then prayer time. And then after that, I delve into the rest of the schedules. Um, now there are times when I have early morning meetings, uh, breakfast meetings.

So, in situations, you know, I will adjust and be available to those meetings, but I kind of try to stay consistent. Um, and then of course the rest of the day is full and then I get back home by 5PM and um, and then, you know, I spent the evening with with my family and with the kids and, uh, whether they are going to activities like Awana.

Like tonight, I know I’m, I need to get home by 4:45 so I can take them to Awana. And yeah, and then we come back and, you know, read our Bible together, pray together and, uh, everybody goes to bed. So that’s kind of how my schedule looks like, you know, Monday to Friday at home. Uh, but then I’m also traveling a lot.

And when you’re traveling, um, you are in different time zones. Um, you are in different cultures, and it comes with its own stresses and strains. Um, and, uh, uh, so when I’m, for example, when I’m traveling, Like now, I’m headed to Ethiopia in a couple days, um, that is a nine hour, no, eight hour, you know, difference, uh, in schedule.

So, I, I, I take care of my body. I try to, um, to sleep between here and Amsterdam, for example. Uh, so, and then when I get to Amsterdam, between Amsterdam and, and, uh, and Nairobi, and then Nairobi to Addis Ababa, um, I want to stay awake during that time so that when I get there, I can go to bed and sleep at night, um, and, and, you know, That’s kind of how I try to manage my jet lag.

Now, it’s not always successful, uh, but I try as much as possible. I mean, I’ve flown almost two million miles now, and back and forth and around the world, and it’s just, uh, it can be crazy. Um, and then, of course, staying hydrated, uh, making sure that I’m staying hydrated. I try to avoid eating too much so that I’m not bloated. So I can be able to travel lightly.

Um, and then when I get to my hotel room, of course, um, in any hotel room I go to, I always pray first and just, you know, dedicate the space to the Lord and invite the Lord’s presence, uh, like everywhere else. And, you know, you want to invite the Lord’s presence in there.

Um, and then, And just ask the Lord’s help. You know, God, I need some good rest. Give me grace.

Now, when we are doing our large festivals, it can be very, very exhausting because typically we are working with, you know, thousands of people. Um, there’s the organization, of course, and, and the demand is on whether you’re doing TV interviews or radio interviews or, you know, podcasts, you know, and all of these things, uh, that are demanding.

And then you’re on. different promotional things that you are carrying out all at once. Um, then you’re going through culture things, uh, navigating all those changes and things. Um, and so part of what I, you know, I, I, I try to maintain the same priority. My relationship with God first. Other things second.

My relationship with Christ first. I check in with my family and I talk with my family. Um, and, and that helps me, you know, stay rooted and connected with what is happening at home. Um, and then, you know, whatever else is going on, uh, can come after that. Um, and so that’s kind of generally how I would approach it and, uh, leaning into the Lord’s presence.

Um, usually when we’re doing the evangelistic crusades, of course, you’re praying for thousands of people. Um, but again, That’s why we, you know, like, like, like, uh, like Moses, you know, we say, okay, we got to train people to help with prayer. Uh, if I’m having a crusade with a hundred thousand people, it’s unrealistic to expect that I will be praying for a lot of those people.

And often, um, you know, most of those people, they may come wanting you as the evangelist to pray for them, but you want to be wise, you know, and you want to stay in humility, knowing that the anointing of God is on all of us. everyone. Um, and so we train lots and lots of counselors to be able to handle those times of prayer, uh, that are needed or prayer counselors.

Um, and so if we have a thousand prayer counselors, uh, or 2,000 prayer counselors, um, it makes the work easy at the end of the day. And you, you preach, you, you know, you lead people to Christ and, you know, when people come for prayer, The other people do it. The church does what the church does, which is we all get to minister to one another.

Again, it’s a question of prioritizing.

[00:40:09] Stephanie Gutierrez: Yeah. And that’s what we saw Jesus do too. I mean, he trained up his disciples to be able to go out and do the work as well. So it’s interesting that this is a theme that’s coming up today, Sammy, is training, training other people and enabling them and empowering them to do work. I don’t think we think necessarily about how can I connect with God better.

The first thought we have is not typically train up other people. It’s how do I fit one more thing in, or how do I carve things out? Um, but you’re talking about a way for us to say no to some of these other things is to really prioritize training other people, whether it is local people there in the community, people on our team, other missionaries, I mean, anybody training up people so that you can do.

Precisely what God’s called you to do and so that when you have your time with the Lord, you’re not coming exhausted every time, barely able to read the scripture in front of you on the page because you’re so tired. Not that God isn’t with us in those seasons, as you said, we have those seasons, but we got to know when a season suddenly turns into a lifestyle.

And that’s not what God’s calling. So I love that you brought up this theme of training. So, okay, that’s one thing our missionaries can put into practice today, looking at their schedules and saying, what is something I could train somebody else to do? Or who is someone God might be calling me to train?

And I’m actually keeping work that God is intending me to give to them. What is one other practical step that a missionary who’s listening to this, who’s feeling overwhelmed. could do to, uh, begin to take steps to get closer to God.

[00:41:50] Sammy Wanyonyi: Yeah, so I appreciate that, you know, you caught that, you know, the training part, um, because it’s so key. It doesn’t matter what area, you know, even in the area as intimate as fundraising, you know, where you need to connect with partners, um, you know, being able to train other people, and that’s, that’s something that myself, I’m, you know, working on, um, that, you know, okay, I gotta, I gotta, you know, I’m going to raise up people that will help me with development side of things so that I’m not having to meet with all the partners. They can help, you know, in that process and I can be able to focus on preaching and communicating the word and teaching the word.

Another area that I think, uh, that could be helpful is leveraging, you know, partnerships. Leveraging partnerships with, whether it is with other missionaries, uh, with other organizations.

Um, so for example, I know, yes, we are an evangelistic organization, and I could be spending a lot of time trying to develop our own shine branded, you know, training material. But yet here is another organization that has that material already developed. What if we leveraged their partnership in what we are doing?

What if, you know, we, it’s not so much the logos, but it is the mission and being able to be present to, um, to others, recognizing who else is in this area that I’m serving. They may have slightly different mission, but it’s complementary. So how can I leverage what they’re doing to complement my part so that I’m not too exhausted?

Ethiopia, for example. We recognize that, you know, there’s a, there’s another ministry there called One Minute Gospel that, uh, are doing some work there. Now they, our ministry, we come and we have an evangelist, you know, me, uh, and, uh, you know, we’re coming, we are mobilizing a whole city and, you know, we are working with thousand churches and, um, but then there’s this ministry, they have this very good resource.

They don’t have the capacity to mobilize a thousand churches. We do, um, but we haven’t developed the resource they have. And so what we did, we were like, okay, guys, what if we partner together? We have mobilized these people, uh, they are ready. But instead of me trying to develop all these resources from scratch, you have the resources.

What if you came and you did the teaching, um, the training, the equipping, so that we are ready for the mission? We focus on the big things that we are doing, but the underlying, the preparational phase of things, you are helping us do that and we are helping you by mobilizing the people that we are connected with.

And that is a great partnership that we have at the moment with this organization. You know, we’ve gathered all these pastors and they do all the training, um, on evangelism or you know, like we are also partnering, for example, with, uh, like we go, we go Eaglebrook Church here in the Twin Cities. It’s a big church here.

They have these amazing leadership and vision, um, tools. Um, but we have all these networks across the world. And so we thought, what if we partner together on this? Uh, you do the training and we do the gathering, and then. Together we are equipping so that when we win souls to Christ, they’re coming to ready congregations, to pastors that have been prepared and equipped and ready.

And you have helped us do that. And it’s a partnership that I’m loving. And so leveraging partnerships, I’ll say that is one of the other ways that we can be able to lessen the burden on ourselves. Yeah.

[00:46:04] Stephanie Gutierrez: Yes, we host retreats for Spanish speaking pastors and missionaries. And in this, the past year, year and a half, we have begun to do more collaborations or partnerships with, with other ministries. It, like you said, leveraging the things that they do well, like they might have a space to be able to host the retreat that they’re able to donate.

And then we’ve got pastors we’re bringing in or, or, you know, partnering with other people to, other organizations to identify who are the Spanish speaking pastors who would most benefit from it. And to your point, it allows us to do so much more when you’re not feeling like, I have to do this all myself.

But I think that we don’t do it sometimes because we’re afraid. Well, who gets the credit and, and who gets the fundraising or all the things that come to mind. Um, when, to your point, this is the kingdom of God and when we all work together, we can have not just double the impact, but I think 10 times or more the impact.

[00:47:00] Sammy Wanyonyi: Yeah.

[00:47:01] Stephanie Gutierrez: I was not expecting these themes of like team and organization and partnerships to come up again as a way to get closer to God or to create more space to connect with God. It makes so much sense and I really appreciate you letting the Holy Spirit speak through you to bring up some unexpected.

Poignant, really powerful things that I think people can put into practice. They’re very practical. Sammy, could I ask you, would you pray us out and pray over all of our missionaries today as we close?

[00:47:33] Sammy Wanyonyi: Absolutely. I would love to do that. Yeah. Father, we thank you, uh, for the insights that you give to us, the inspiration that the Holy Spirit grants us. And we thank you, uh, for this opportunity to encourage your servants, um, far and near, those that are laboring in the mission fields, uh, bringing in, uh, the harvest.

And we pray for them today that as they listen to this, you will star up in their hearts. Um, ideas, insight, wisdom on how to go about, um, loving you deeper and walking closer with you. Uh, we ask Lord that you give them wisdom as they are handling their schedules, uh, time with their families that Lord you will grant them grace, um, to know how to navigate that process as a whole.

And I pray that the little nuggets that we get, we’ve gotten to share here will be a blessing to each heart that listens in. to this podcast. And I thank you for Stephanie. Thank you, Lord, for her family. I bless them today. I bless this, um, this, this, this enterprise that they have committed to as a mission, uh, to encourage other missionaries.

May you equip them even with greater and more impactful tools each and every day. May you fill them with a power and the presence of the Holy Spirit. We give you thanks for you are faithful. May you be glorified. In Jesus mighty name, we pray. Amen.

[00:49:08] Stephanie Gutierrez: Amen. Sammy, thank you so much for taking the time to come share with us today. We really appreciate it.

[00:49:15] Sammy Wanyonyi: It’s a great pleasure and thank you for having me on your podcast. I pray that God takes this and blesses it and multiplies it to our many missionaries out there. And thank you to all our missionaries listening in, praying for you, trusting God that he helps you, great help, gives you great help as you minister to his people.

[00:49:37] Stephanie Gutierrez: Amen to that. Well, thank you again for being with us, Sammy. And to everyone who joins us today, we will be posting links as to how you can connect with Sammy and find out more. And we look forward to seeing you on our next episode.