Paul is not subtle about it. Writing to young churches, He repeatedly reaches for the image of children — believers who have come to faith but have not yet grown into the full stature of what Christ has called them to be. He urges them toward solid food, away from the milk that sustains infants. The implication, often passed over too quickly, is sobering: our spiritual development is far more childlike than most of us are willing to admit.
Proximity Discipleship names this honestly. To walk in proximity to Jesus — to draw near to Him, near enough and long enough that His image becomes visible in us — is not a quick process. It is the slow, sometimes disorienting work of growing up. It takes years. It takes repetition. It takes faithfulness in the ordinary moments as much as the extraordinary ones.
There is a scene in Mark 9 that captures this with remarkable honesty. The disciples have been with Jesus for several years at this point. They have watched Him heal the sick, cast out demons, calm the wind and the waves with a word. They are not newcomers to His power. And yet, standing on the mountain as Moses and Elijah appear alongside the transfigured Christ, they are undone. Mark tells us plainly: Peter spoke because he did not know what to say, and they were terrified.
Years of proximity. Countless miracles. And still — reduced to children, trembling, reaching for words that would not come.
What we often miss in that scene is what Jesus does next. He does not rebuke them. He does not withdraw in frustration. He stands in calm, sovereign presence, once again revealing Himself — who He is, what is coming. They were already on the road to Jerusalem. The cross was drawing near. And He was preparing them for it, step by step, scene by scene, even when they did not yet have the capacity to fully understand.
Here in Northern Kenya this afternoon, that account carries new weight.
We began a new training today in Nairibi, gathering pastors from Lontolio, Lorripa, and Nairibi — three new churches entering the Proximity Discipleship journey. The work is expanding, and with it, a growing sense that the Lord is doing something deliberate and deep in this region.
But it is the closing commissioning from the last few days in L’Moti that continues to linger.
One by one, each participant was asked to name someone — one person they felt called to reach out to, to pray alongside, to walk closer with in this Christ-life. The room shifted as they spoke. There is something profoundly significant about naming the one. It moves discipleship from concept to commitment, from aspiration to accountability. For each person who spoke, the moment carried its own gravity.
They did not just learn about discipleship. They began it.
That is the movement we are believing God for across this region: not merely the transfer of information, but the formation of lives — pastors who will name the one, draw near to the one, and in doing so, reflect the same patient, present love of the Christ who stood calm on that mountain, preparing His own for what lay ahead.
So here is the question this moment in Northern Kenya places before all of us, wherever we find ourselves today: Who is the one in your life?
The same Spirit at work in L’Moti is at work in your city, your neighborhood, your church. Proximity Discipleship is not a program confined to the bush pastors of Northern Kenya — it is the ancient, irreducible pattern Jesus modeled in the Gospels and commanded His church to carry forward. Draw near. Stay near. Let His image form in you. And then, with patient, present love, walk alongside the one He has placed in front of you.
Name that person today. Commit to pray for them. Take one step closer.
The commissioning that happened in a small room in L’Moti this week echoes the same commissioning that sounds across every continent where disciples are being made. We are all, in one way or another, on the road to Jerusalem — following a Christ who is calm in the face of what is coming, preparing us every step of the way. The work here in Kenya and the work in your corner of the world are not separate movements. They are the same movement, one Body, one Spirit, one mission.
If this field report has stirred something in you, share it with someone who needs to hear it. Better yet — share it with the one you are about to name.
Postscript — Prayer Requests
Would you continue to pray for our work here in Northern Kenya? Pray for safe travels as we make our way back to Nairobi on Sunday. Pray that the Holy Spirit would continue the work long after we are gone — that the seeds planted in L’Moti, Nairibi, and every village in between would bear fruit that remains. And pray that lives would be forever transformed in this region, to the glory of God.
— Mathew Luce, writing from Nairibi, Northern Kenya
From one man He made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and He marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from any one of us. Acts 17:26-27