Our CLC Kenya Story…

By Muthoni Mercy

In the early days of World War II, a young couple, Ken and Bessie Adams, heard Jesus’ call to” feed my sheep.” Together they worked with the Friends Evangelistic Band in England, holding tent meetings and visiting homes. On many of these visits, they found that they had been preceded by others who left literature. Ken declared,

“I cannot stand by and not do something about spreading the truths of the Gospel.”

So he and Bessie visited homes armed with good Christian literature.  (Below is a photo of the first CLC Bookshop in Colchester, England)

Fired by his passion for literature distribution, Ken rented some upstairs rooms in Colchester, named “The Evangelical Publishing House”. This took place even when the government was severely limiting publishing and the opening of bookshops in wartime England. The Adams felt led to align themselves with the WEC International, with plans to help that organization establish bookshops in England.  Requests, opportunities, and funding began to present themselves to Ken and Bessie, resulting in the formation of CLC as an autonomous ministry established on 1 November 1941.

By the end of the war, there were six literature centres across England and a work serving German Prisoners of War. Growth continued with God’s grace and blessing and today CLC serves in over 50 countries where more than 700 men and women of diverse nationalities have joined hands to feed a world hungry for Christian literature.

CLC Kenya was established in October 2007.

My memory of CLC Kenya starts here: It’s August 2009, a dear and close friend had forwarded my resume to the General Manager for the post of Sales Executive – so I had to go for the interview. Having studied Finance and Banking at the university, I was desperate for a vacancy in a bank or a finance institution not a sales job. However, the banks were not calling…

To honour this friend’s efforts (he had been the Warehouse In-Charge at CLC Kenya for two weeks or so by then), I dragged myself to CLC Kenya offices at Valley Arcade in Nairobi. I met a vibrant GM, Edith Wamalwa. What was supposed to be an interview turned to hours of candid conversation on several ‘random’ topics. It was evident, by the end of the lengthy conversation, Edith and I were going to be a strong team!

Though initially I did not want the job, I did take it and over a decade later, I cannot regret any of the steps that followed. I had three months to learn the book Industry, the customers and start moving the books and Bibles out! The GM had a very unique and rare personality – very tough but very understanding. She pushed me to my potential, made me re-do emails over and over till they were perfect, and just expected results – good results no matter what!

It was an enormous task but four things were working strongly for me. Firstly, my boss (the GM) was very supportive and we shared a very good relationship – to date. Secondly, my friend handheld and guided me through those initial scary moments when I did not know what to do. We got married two years later 🙂 – I am digressing so this should be a story for another day. Thirdly, the rest of the team was really good and we shared a unity that I later found out is very rare in most work-places. Fourthly and most important, I was on fire for God. I could hear Him very clearly, I could sense His presence with me right there at CLC Kenya. And He backed my work with signs and wonders – literally!

Being a very aggressive young woman back then (I am very old now), I could not see any other way but to succeed in my new post. I went wide and wide to any organization or bookshop that cared to listen to me. In the process, I moved masses of books, impacted many readers, sold books worth millions of shillings and made many lasting relationships. I moved books I was passionate about and loved to hear the testimonies that followed.

When I started at CLC Kenya, I owned one book – it wasn’t mine really! Someone had lent me the book many years before, I moved from one county to another and lost track of who that person was so I could not return it! Eight years later, my household owns over 1,000 books and we love reading, the little ones included.

Our ministry has journeyed for 13 years. There have been good moments, awesome moments, miraculous moments, not-so-good moments, discouraging moments but most important, we have the NOW moment.

We celebrate the gifted staff we have journeyed with, those that sacrificed too much than anyone could ask of them, those that gave their all to CLC Kenya as unto the Lord. And most important, those that soldiered on even when the circumstances said otherwise.

We celebrate the doings of the Lord, His backing the ministry with signs and wonders, the testimonies, the lives impacted and most important, the moments that deserved thanksgiving to God but we did not see them until much later.

We celebrate the partners who stood by us in the good and ugly times. Those that went out of their way to make the partnership work and most important, our brothers and sisters in the book industry in East Africa and Africa at large.

We celebrate the team at the International Office. People who lost sleep thinking about how to improve our ministry in Kenya. Those that got us into partnerships that have lasted a decade and some that did not last but the effort and good intention is very clear.

We celebrate the local support system we enjoy. Partners and Directors that do too much at zero financial income to them because they believe in the mandate we have as a ministry. Those that have encouraged us, praised us, criticized us and helped make us better.

We celebrate the coming together of the CLC larger family, thanking God for the CLCs in about 50 countries world wide and celebrate how the wider body has helped us become a better ministry both directly and indirectly.

We reminisce about the decade that has been.

Put on your seat belts, let’s embrace the next decade!