Long before Jectone Ayub became a pastor, he understood what it was like to be a young person searching for direction.
Growing up in Kenya, Jectone knew about God, but faith initially felt more like routine than transformation. As a teenager, he wrestled with questions of identity, purpose, education, and what his future might hold. It was during those years that he encountered the love of Jesus personally—and discovered the hope and direction he had been searching for.
Years later, Jectone sees some of those same questions in the young people around him.
But he sees more than their challenges. He knows their community because it is his community.
Today, Jectone serves as a pastor in a community where many people face poverty, unemployment, broken family structures, addiction, and spiritual disconnection. These realities shape the focus of his ministry, but they don't define the people he serves. Jectone's ministry is rooted in relationships formed by living, listening, and walking alongside them.
He visits people in their homes, spends time with students and teachers in schools, mentors young people, counsels families, leads Bible studies, and simply listens. According to Jectone, one of the most impactful parts of his ministry is being present—offering a listening ear, advice, and a word of encouragement in Jesus' name.
Sometimes, the fruit of that presence takes time.
Several young men once came to a youth program at Jectone's church simply out of curiosity. They had been involved in gang activity and struggled with substance abuse. Rather than seeing them only for the challenges they carried, Jectone and others in the church continued to walk alongside them through consistent mentorship, prayer, and a community that refused to give up on them.
Eventually, the young men surrendered their lives to Christ. Today, they are studying at colleges across Kenya, growing in their faith and participating in Christian unions on their campuses.
Jectone knew his community. But he also wanted to be better equipped to serve it.
That desire led him to pursue a Master of Divinity at Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology. With the help of a scholarship funded through Mesa Global, Jectone has received theological training that has strengthened the ministry he was already doing. Courses in pastoral care, theology, leadership, missions, and community participation have equipped him to preach and teach Scripture, counsel people through difficult circumstances, disciple young believers, and respond more effectively to the spiritual and practical realities around him.
For Jectone, however, being equipped also means equipping others.
He is now intentionally investing what he has learned in emerging leaders within his church and community, many of whom do not have access to formal theological education. Through Bible studies, leadership training, mentoring, and hands-on ministry opportunities, Jectone is preparing others to serve alongside him. Already, these leaders are guiding small groups, organizing outreach, leading worship, and caring for families.
This is why Mesa Global is committed to walking alongside leaders like Jectone—and the churches and communities they serve—for the long haul.
Local leaders already carry something that cannot be imported: deep knowledge of their communities, relationships built over time, and an understanding of the questions their neighbors are asking. Theological education doesn't replace that understanding. It strengthens their ability to faithfully serve from within it.
And as leaders like Jectone are equipped, that investment multiplies. One leader invests in another. New believers become disciples. Emerging leaders take responsibility for ministry. Churches become better equipped to respond to the spiritual and practical realities around them.
For Jectone, that is already happening. His vision for the years ahead is not simply to grow his own ministry, but to continue identifying, training, and mentoring leaders who can carry it forward—building a church where ministry is shared among capable, Spirit-led people rooted in the community they serve.
Because walking alongside a community for the long haul doesn't always mean being the one who stays. Sometimes, it means investing in the leaders who already call that place home.
