April 2020 — pg. 22
urfmYou are the church
“Most of the people are $rst generation here. !ey
are very blessed to have a service in their own language,”
Munyakuri said. “Because we also want to make sure we
adapt to American culture, I start preaching in English
every Sunday, and I have someone else translate it.”
Cultural adaptation is not the only reason for the dual
languages in worship.
“We don’t want to be the church for just Africans,”
Munyakuri said. “Our worship team is now singing songs in
English so that we can invite other people who don’t speak
our language. ... We came here not only to bring the good
news to the African people but also to reach the people
around us.”
Unlike Munyakuri’s family that was originally drawn to
New Hope because they were Free Methodists in Africa, El
Shaddai primarily attracts African immigrants who are new
to Free Methodism.
“!ey just join because we invited them to the church,”
he said.
El Shaddai members are becoming prayer warriors like
their pastor.
“Prayer is one of our goals at our church. We emphasize
prayer most to the people. We want to encourage them to
learn how to pray, because when we pray, that’s when God
moves in the hearts of the people, and that’s what brings
revival to the nation, other places, and our heart,” he said.
“We emphasize prayer is like the foundation of our church.”
Prayer and fellowship don’t just happen at Sunday
services, and the church helps give its immigrant members
a sense of belonging.
“Our small groups, when we meet house to house in
prayer, encourage them. !ey don’t feel like there are
foreigners,” he said. “!ey don’t have the neighbors like
they used to have in Africa. So once you go to their house
and spend time with them in prayer group and praying and
reading the Bible, it makes a di"erence for them, and they
enjoy that.”
Location Challenges
One area of prayer is for El Shaddai to have its own
building.
A#er launching at New Hope, the church plant received
an o"er from the family of former Free Methodist Church –
USA Board of Administration member Norman Leenhouts,
the co-founder of Broadstone Real Estate LLC, to use space
for two years rent-free in a building close to downtown
Rochester. !e building meant that El Shaddai could hold
services on Sunday morning instead of waiting to hold
them on Sunday a#ernoon at New Hope.
“!ey the Leenhouts family owned the building, and
they wanted a Free Methodist presence there,” Munyakuri
said. “We said, ‘OK, we would love to go to a place where we
could worship in the morning instead of a#ernoon, because
it would be better and the church would grow more if we
had the space in the morning.’”
!e church began meeting in the building in 2017 (the
same year that Leenhouts died) and met there through
December 2019 when the building was donated to Youth
for Christ.
El Shaddai is now meeting at the Park Ridge Free
Methodist Church in Rochester’s Greece suburb on Sunday
a#ernoons.
“!e building is nice, and the people there are very
welcoming,” Munyakuri said. “!e problem is for the people
we are focusing ministry on, that’s not the best location for
us.”
Some members work on Sunday a#ernoon and can no
longer attend, and transportation is a major challenge since
the move.
“On Sunday, there is no bus over there,” Munyakuri said.
“We don’t have a way to get people to the church. ... I can’t
drive them by myself to the church.”
El Shaddai members hope to obtain their own worship
space closer to where most of the members live.
“My desire is that we raise money and buy our own
building,” Munyakuri said. “We think we will be sustainable
in the long run if we have our own place.”
He envisions an area of the church dedicated to helping
people apply for jobs and providing transportation to job
interviews.
“When they come to us, we help them to adapt to
American culture and $nd jobs for them,” Munyakuri said.
“I usually have dedicated time to take people for interviews
and applying for jobs for them.”
El Shaddai members are using fundraisers such as a
dinner with African food to raise money for a permanent
home, but they know that money alone is not enough.
“Even now as we’re seeking to buy the building, the best
thing we can do and the best support people can give to us
is that they can pray,” Munyakuri said.
Visit El Shaddai’s Facebook page at fmchr.ch/elshaddai for
video of worship services and to learn more about e"orts to
buy a church building in Rochester.+
/elshaddai