May 8, 2026 Show with Keith Underhill on “Planted by the Providence of God: 22 Biblical Foundations for Church Planting & Missionary Work”

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This is Chris Arnzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, wishing you all a happy Friday on this eighth day of May, 2026, and I'm so thrilled to have on the program for the very first time ever on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, Keith Underhill, a church planter in Kenya, East Africa, for 40 years, from 1975 to 2015.

And today we're going to be addressing a book by Keith, Planted by the

Providence of God, which is 22 Biblical Foundations for Church Planting and Missionary Work.

And it's my honor and privilege to welcome you for the very first time ever to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, Keith Underhill.

Thank you. It's a privilege to be with you and share my story. In fact, I have heard nothing but the most wonderful and the most fondest things about you from not only my very first pastor, when

I became a born -again believer in the 1980s, Mike Gaydosh, when

I was saved and baptized at Calvary Baptist Church of Amityville, Long Island, which later became

Grace Reformed Baptist Church of Long Island in Merrick. And one of my subsequent pastors to Mike Gaydosh, Mark Romaldi, who before he became one of the pastors at Grace Reformed Baptist Church, did travel to Kenya with the initial aspirations to become a missionary there, but God had different plans, obviously, he became my pastor.

But it's such a joy to finally make your acquaintance and have you on the program.

First of all, as we always do on this program when we have a first -time guest, we have our guests give a summary of their salvation testimony, which would include the religious atmosphere in which they were raised, if any, and what kind of providential circumstances our

Sovereign Lord raised up in their lives that drew them to himself and saved them. And we would love to hear your story.

Thank you. I should say that I'm speaking from Liverpool in the

United Kingdom. If Cumberland Valley has its people, then

Liverpool is a great place for soccer and for pop music.

And of course, in the past, it used to be one of the great ports of the world. Now, do you call it soccer over there?

Well, we do. I use the word soccer instead of football because you wouldn't understand that. Well, I actually did.

We do call it soccer or football. Okay. Yes, so that's where I come from.

My parents were not Christians. They didn't go to church.

And so I was brought up in that atmosphere where education was everything.

Then around the age of 10, a neighbor boy kept bothering me, come to Sunday school.

It would have been in the afternoon while I used to enjoy my stamp collections and listening to Top of the

Pops at three o 'clock, I think, in the afternoon. But I finally gave in.

Now, my character is that if I start a thing, I keep going. So although I don't think

I understood anything of what was going on, I kept on going. I became, believe it or not, a

Sunday school teacher, a youth club leader. I got myself baptized by sprinkling at the age of 14, but I didn't know anything really about the

Lord Jesus and the salvation that I needed. As with all of us, we can look back and we can see

God's providence at work. That's one of the reasons why my book is called Planted by the

Providence of God. One traces God's activity through the whole of one's life.

From the fact that my parents were somewhat international, I traveled as a teenager, but I went to university.

Again, it wasn't my first choice, a place perhaps you can't pronounce called Aberystwyth.

But I went there to study geography, and my roommate, imagine, was a mature 18 -year -old believer.

He asked me when I got into the room, because we were two in the room, are you a Christian? Well, of course

I said yes. So his next question floored me. When do you have your quiet time?

Well, I had to be a bit deceptive, didn't I? Of course, occasionally I'd prayed and read my

Bible, but I said, oh, in the morning. So from that day on, at 6 .30 in the morning, up we got together and had our quiet times.

I don't know exactly when I was converted, but I know in those three months, God was dealing with me.

I heard the truth through my friend Brian. I joined the

Christian Union, where we heard wonderful teaching Saturday by Saturday. At that time,

I wasn't in a good church, but those influences gradually brought me to an assurance of salvation, that the

Lord had saved me, he changed me, and that I wanted to live for him.

Praise God for that. Now, did you join that fine Baptist church in Aberystwyth, Wales, where my friend

Jeffrey Thomas was pastoring for decades? I did, but I actually was in Aberystwyth a year before himself.

When he came, a number of us immediately migrated to Alfred Place English Baptist Church under his ministry, and he began with Genesis 1 -1 and Matthew 1 -1, and we thought it was absolutely wonderful.

We just thank God for the building up we had as young people.

In fact, that became the church that eventually sent us to Kenya in 1975. Wow, and I'm assuming, since that church had such an instrumental part in your

Christian journey, that you discovered the doctrines of sovereign grace very early on in your

Christian journey. Really right from the beginning, because even the

Christian Union there, we would say it was Reformed. All the preachers who came, mostly

Welsh preachers with their unique style of teaching, but experimental religion, almost all of them would have been

Reformed men. So we were really privileged. Amen. Now, when did you realize and how did you realize that the

Lord had placed a burden on your heart to travel to Kenya of all places?

Kenya of all places. You know, it's very hard to work through everything that went on.

I was a geography student, so I was interested in the world for a start. I traveled as a young person.

My parents had exposed me to the world. When I got to college, there were lots of overseas students there.

In fact, in the hall of residence where I stayed, there were a number of Africans. Now, I don't know whether I sat with them because I was interested in Africa or I got interested in Africa because I sat with them, but that's what happened.

That's what happened. That was one thing. I studied geography there at college and was able to study

Kenya. Again, I don't know quite why I did it, but I did it. We had missionary prayer groups for each continent, and we were expected in the

Christian Union to join one of them. Well, I joined the Africa one. And you know, when you pray and you hear of a need, if you're praying sincerely, you have to pray,

Lord, I'm here. If you want me to fulfill that need, I'm willing.

It's very interesting in Matthew chapter 9, Jesus tells his disciples to pray that the

Lord of the harvest will send out laborers into his harvest field. But the next chapter, and I wish the chapter division wasn't there, the beginning of the next chapter, what happens?

Jesus sends them out into the harvest field. I can't help but think there's a connection there.

There was one experience I had. I don't put too much stock by it, but it happened.

There was a missionary bookstore at the Christian Union meetings on a Saturday, and I remember going and picking up a book, flicking through it, and the word

Sudan stared me in the face, the country in Africa, Sudan. I picked up another book, and the same thing happened.

I was at the end of 1964, and really,

I felt that was the Lord directing me. I would love to have gone to Sudan because I heard that it was 90 % unreached with the gospel, but in 1965, it was closed to the gospel.

But those are all the initial providences that God brought to me to direct me in that way.

Let me just say one more thing. If you had told me as a younger teenager, you're going to become a public speaker,

I would not have believed you. I was a shy, still fairly shy person, and certainly to stand up before people to speak was something

I'd hardly ever done. So this was the Lord's doing. I was actually at the beginning when

I was converted in the Methodist church, seeing that many of the students were not converted.

So as a young Christian, I picked up Hendrickson's Commentary on John and began Bible studies and saw a few people converted through that.

And so that was all God's confirmation of the direction in which I wanted to go.

Well, tell us about your initial reaction when you first arrived in Kenya and what was it that you faced and what was the religious atmosphere of the place?

Well, I went in 1968. I finished my degree. I did teacher training. I was advised for a testing of my call to go as a teacher.

So in 1968, I went as a young 22 -year -old into the depths of Kenya, quite a relatively remote place called

Meru, to a new secondary school. What was my reaction? I was absolutely overjoyed.

Wow. What a privilege to be amongst people who are friendly.

For example, a few weeks after I arrived, six men who had their background in the

East African revival had heard a believer had come to the school and they came to visit me.

There we sat in a semicircle, pictures in the book. And we shared our testimony, just like I've done today.

And you know then immediately where you stand with a person. And these were people over the next two and a half years

I had the deepest fellowship with. What a privilege to go to a place and find people you're one with in the

Lord and to see everything then in your experience in the country through their eyes.

So that was my overall reaction. For me to leave after the two and a half years of teaching was a real wrench because I loved it and loved the people.

And I believe they loved me too. And the theological flavor, if you will, of Kenya, were there any

Reformed Baptists there? Were there any Reformed Baptist churches there? Or were you basically starting and participating in new territory when you were planning to begin planting churches there?

Yeah. Well, it was 1975 after my training in America, Westminster Seminary, and getting married.

And we started in Kenya in 1975. There was a fledgling supposed

Reformed Baptist church in a town called Thika just north of Kenya. You mentioned

Geoffrey Thomas. He and Leonard Gutchard actually studied at Westminster together for a year.

In fact, Geoff was the best man at Leonard's wedding. So there's another providence. Ten years before, there's been that Kenya connection.

So that's the only Reformed Baptist that we knew. There were a few Reformed Presbyterians, but by and large, the

Reformed faith was absent. In terms of the makeup of Kenya, it's mainly

Christian in name. Eighty percent would claim the

Christian faith as opposed to Islam or traditional religion. That 80 percent,

I divide it, it's very rough, but just for the sake of convenience, in just three groups, there are the

Catholics, who are by far the strongest single grouping. And then there are the

Protestants, including Pentecostals, Charismatics, and so on. And then there's the one that we're not familiar with.

It's called the African Independent Churches, a multitude, some of them very large churches that rebelled against the missionary leadership of churches and wanted their own leadership.

One would say quite rightly, but they wanted more than that. They wanted a very African form, and that would include polygamy, maybe, for example.

So that's the makeup of the country. I would say that the phrase that's used,

Christianity in Africa, is a mile wide and just an inch deep. There's so much, but it's just cultural.

You ask a person, are you a Christian? Yes. Why are you a Christian? Well, I was born in a Christian family.

Basically like the southern United States. Yes, I think

Kenya is very much more like the States than the UK where I live.

So the great need is more than the Reformed faith. We believe the

Reformed faith, the biblical faith, the doctrines of grace, people need to be saved.

May I just say one other influence that's been there? I mentioned the East African revival that began in Rwanda in the late 1920s, spread to Uganda, and then into Kenya in the 1940s, 1950s.

And it really, I don't know about revitalized, but it brought multitudes of people into a saving relationship with the

Lord Jesus Christ as they confessed their sin. I'm using their language now.

They were broken before the cross and put their trust in the blood of the

Lord Jesus Christ. We had a very interesting, for me at least, session at the recent

Banner of Truth conference here in Britain, just in April, where there was actually a paper on the

East African revival that will give you a big clue of a profound influence in the

Anglican Church of England, Presbyterian and Methodist churches. Because when missionaries came, you can imagine in the early part of the 20th century, most of them would have been liberal, wouldn't they?

Because at least if they're from Britain, that was a prevailing influence. So that's what we had to face.

I found true believers among the revival brethren, as they called themselves, not to be confused with Plymouth brethren.

And how quickly did you realize, I want to spend many years in this place?

I mean, was there apprehension at first? Was there regret in any shape or form?

Or were you quickly given a heart and a love for the

Kenyan people? That happened when I was a teacher.

There was no question about, we're only here for five years, 10 years. We were here committed for the foreseeable future, as God willed.

As I said, the people were welcoming. We sought to live among them instead of in a mission compound.

And we were accepted. In fact, people today say,

Keith, you're more Kenyan than we are. Yes. Well, I know that your book, it contains 22 biblical principles, foundations for church planting and missionary work.

I know that the likelihood is there will be many more listeners who have an interest in church planting in the

United States than in a foreign country. Although there may be listeners who do have an aspiration to be on the mission field and may even be on the mission field now.

But are the lessons learned, since they are biblical, I'm assuming that they would be applicable even to people who are desiring to plant a church or churches, plural, right in the

United States where most of my listeners are. I do have listeners in at least 28 foreign countries because I've heard from my listeners in those countries via email.

But the vast majority of my listeners, I believe, are in the United States. So would these principles be applicable to those folks as well?

The short answer is absolutely yes. I think that when we make the distinction between missions being going outside your country as opposed to within your country,

I think that's a false distinction. I say all the time that, yes,

I went basically to Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, but there's no difference between Nairobi and Northampton.

We have a Northampton in Britain. You have one in Connecticut or up in New England.

There's no difference. Then we have a Westhampton and a Southampton and an

Easthampton on Long Island. Well, I don't think we have a Westhampton. I don't know that one, but people are the same, aren't they?

Even the sins that are characteristic are the same. After we read the

Bible, the Bible doesn't come out of America or out of Britain. It comes out to the

Middle East and the very same things we read in the

Old Testament are the things that we see. The solution is the same, isn't it?

It's the Lord Jesus Christ and his cross and faith in his name.

Godliness is basically the same. Godliness begins from within the heart, within our thoughts and desires.

It's only the expressions that can be different. I had mentioned already polygamy.

That's something that most of you are not involved with, but it's endemic there.

I would like that distinction to be gotten rid of.

In fact, I never wanted to call myself a missionary. Always a pastor, really, because that seems to me to be the biblical description.

So yes, the basic principles are the same. I think in the book,

I make it very simple. It's preaching, preaching the gospel. That's where it starts.

That sounds so elementary, and yet how many times have

I heard that missionaries go on the field, but they don't preach or they hardly ever preach?

I heard of one country, Yemen, where there are 100 missionaries and only 10 of them ever preach.

The other 90 don't even consider they should be preaching. They might be doing a wonderful job.

But that's not the job of the Great Commission. What is their job if they're not preaching? I mean, meeting physical needs?

Yes, and they're showing the love of Christ by their lives, which is great, but it needs explanation, doesn't it?

I think this is one of the problems of missions today. There's little preaching.

So that was the first thing, preaching, and then you make disciples. You teach people.

You build them up. And then the third thing is training of leaders. That surely is what we do anywhere in the world.

So when you begin preaching in an area that you hope and pray, you will successfully plant a church.

Where do you do this preaching? Is it outdoor evangelism? Is it preaching in an established church?

How do you go about doing this? The particular example

I have in Kenya is the Rendili people up in north -central

Kenya, who are one of the most traditional people who 30 years ago were almost entirely unreached with the gospel.

So it's God in his providence again who directs. Of course, you could go and just preach, but actually you can't because you don't know the

Rendili language. So you can preach the most wonderful ministry in English, but hardly anyone's going to understand you.

So typically, I believe what the Lord does, he brings you into contact with somebody who knows the language, who is converted or is under your influence, and you go up with him.

That's what we did in Rendili. Can I tell a little bit of the story?

Oh, yes, definitely. The Rendili people, they're about 60 ,000. As I say, they're very, very traditional people, but they are prized as watchmen in Nairobi because they know what it is to fight with wild animals.

So they're brave. Number two, they don't know English or even the other language of Keneswili.

So it's hard for people to bribe them because they can't talk with them.

And so they come down for five years or so as watchmen, earn a bit of money, and then send money back so they can buy some animals.

But you get to know them. That's God's providence. If I may talk about this, because I think this is the theme that should come out all the time, how do you get into contact with them?

Well, one day in 1996, there's a knock on the church office door where I'm working.

It's a Somali. Now, you say, what on earth is a

Somali Muslim doing knocking on a church door? Well, he says,

I know English. Most of my people are going to go to America and be resettled.

And so I would like to teach them English. Well, I'm usually cautious.

I immediately responded and said, I'll give you all the materials you need. That man professed faith in Christ.

Immediately he did that, the Somali community ganged up against him, went to the police with a false accusation, and he was arrested and put in the police cell.

A false accusation of what? Murder. Wow. Murder.

Yeah. So the police had to take it seriously. Two of his friends, two of his

Somali friends said, let's go visit and let's see what's happened. Remember, he had professed faith in Christ.

So he directed his two Somali friends to a lady, actually, go and talk with this lady called

Sarah. And they did that. Well, the rest is history now.

She sent them to Trinity Baptist Church in Nairobi, of which I was a pastor, and they in a shortish while became believers themselves.

Now, one of them, Abdi, very common name, Abdi, he was drinking partner with the leader of the

Rendili community in the slum area of Nairobi.

Do you see how God has done it? He's built all these bridges. Amen. And so the

Rendili people come to church. They're not looking for Christ. They're looking for handouts because they know that churches are very kind.

But over a few years, a number were converted, and then we were able to send them back to Rendili to start a church.

Wow. You know, when you mentioned Nairobi, that triggered a memory, and I did receive an email back in 2021 from a listener named

Susan Matuku, M -U -T -U -K -U, who is looking for a biblically solid church.

And I remember I referred her to three churches, and one of them was

Trinity Baptist Church of Nairobi, and I have met

Moronge Igueta, and I also referred her to Emmanuel Baptist Church of Nairobi and Grace Baptist Church of Nairobi.

Okay. And I don't know if she ever visited any of them, but I hope she did, and I hope she found a church home in one of those places.

But that just goes to show you, you never know where people are listening to my program. God's providence is just wonderful.

Amen. And the internet is wonderful. Yes, even though Satan has a field day using it,

God uses it in a much more powerful and meaningful way, obviously.

And we have to go to our first commercial break, and if anybody wants to listen—I mean, if anybody wants to send in a question,

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I am now back with Keith Underhill, a church planter in Kenya, East Africa, for 40 years, and we are discussing his book,

Planted by the Providence of God, which features 22 biblical foundations for church planting and missionary work.

If you have a question, submit it to ChrisArnzen at gmail .com. Give us your first name at the city and state and country of residence, and we will get to those of you who have submitted questions already as soon as possible.

But I just wanted to get some more of the background of Keith's ministry stated and detailed.

And so, the getting to know people in the area where you are prayerfully envisioning planting a church, well, first of all, in this specific case, you mentioned the language barrier, but is

Kenya a place that is dominated by the English language, or is

English a minority? Tell us about the breakup of that. Yes, linguistically,

English and Swahili are the official languages. English is the language of education and of government.

Swahili is a trade language coming from the coast of Kenya, and with the traders in the old days, they spread it as they moved throughout

East Africa. But it's not well known. It's taught as a foreign language, like we learn

Spanish or French in our schools, I think. And then there are about 45 different language groups in Kenya.

So, you go 50 miles, and another language is the vernacular, and it goes like that around the country.

Now, how many of those people, percentage -wise, would be bilingual, at least bilingual, and understand

English? Every educated person, and now education is compulsory, knows

English, Swahili, and their vernacular. Well, increasingly in towns, they don't know the vernacular, but many, many are trilingual.

And so, you had to obviously get an interpreter for yourself to get to know the people of the area that didn't speak

English, correct? Yes. And so, by God's providence, you need that contact, don't you?

You can't rely on a non -Christian there. In fact, the first thing

I do in an area, I tell them, how do you translate justification? And they give me the word, which

I don't understand. Then I say, translate it back to me, will you? And so, in Swahili, it's kuhesebi wahaki, which literally means to count, or to be counted,

I should say, to be counted righteous. So, I say amen to that. You got it right.

So, you need somebody you can rely on, don't you? Maybe I can go back.

I gave you the example of Rendili. The 40 years, well, 37 of those years from 1978, were the establishing of the

Trinity Baptist Church in Nairobi. Now, that didn't start from nowhere, didn't start with me preaching somewhere.

I'd been a teacher 10 years earlier in Meru. A number of students were converted and I kept in contact with them.

We'd come out as a family initially to that town just north of Nairobi called Thika, had some contacts from there.

So, with those few contacts, we started this church in Nairobi in 1978.

Indeed, they said, please, Keith, you come and start this reformed church, although we didn't tend to use that language for quite a while because it means nothing to people.

And were the people that began assembling there, were they non -Christians, were they nominal

Christians, Christians in name only, a mixture? Who was attending this?

Obviously, God was drawing them. The initial contacts were all believers. In a sense, you don't have to, of course, but it's wonderful when you can have five, six true believers, you begin the church, you look to them to bring their relatives, their workmates, their friends, and see to grow the church that way.

And the introduction of the doctrines of sovereign grace, since these were

Christians predominantly, were these rebelled against initially, or were they seemingly eager to learn about them and not becoming upset?

I remember when I first heard that reformed theology, I didn't think

I would ever believe it. And even though I was requesting baptism in a church that I discovered was

Calvinistic, not that I knew who John Calvin was, but they were explaining the theology known as Calvinism to me, and I told them before I was baptized,

I love you guys, I respect you, I want you to be my shepherds, I want this church to be my church family, but I don't think

I'm ever going to become a Calvinist. And I eventually did, by God's grace, when a

British gentleman in my congregation, Nigel Stone, who is an older gentleman, approached me, and he said in his very deep

British voice, I understand you're having difficulty embracing unconditional election, read this.

And he gave me George Whitfield's letter to John Wesley on election, and my first reaction after reading that was, oh no, this is true, but I still hate it.

But within a couple of months, I fell in love madly in love with those teachings. So what was the reaction to these people who assembled the

Trinity Baptist Church in Nairobi? Well, the few to begin with were already understanding it, but that's not my method, particularly to say this is what's called

Reformed theology. I think for 10 years, we never used the word

Reformed or Calvinistic. So I believe, let's preach the

Scripture, and our method was to do that. I remember

I began the church going to the Beatitudes. What's a Christian?

This may not sound very good, but there are more fundamental questions. Obviously, we know that what we call the

Reformed faith is the biblical faith. But when you call it

Reformed, it's as if it's one view as opposed to another.

But when you expound in the Scripture without saying this belongs to this particular camp or that particular camp, the people who love the

Word of God and honor it and submit to it, they imbibe it without those labels.

And so that was always my method. And so was this really—I remember you said that there was one small, struggling church that identified in some way as Reformed, but was this the first thriving

Reformed Baptist church in Kenya? Yes, in Nairobi, yes, it was. Yeah, the one in Thika never really got off the ground in terms of anything serious.

And so how does this provide an example for the pastor who wants to plant a church here in Pennsylvania or the pastor who wants to plant a church in Liverpool in England?

What are the lessons that you learned planting a church in Kenya that they could apply to their own efforts?

I've got to make the assumption that there are one, two, three people who you already know.

We're talking about church planting specifically. So whatever you've done in terms of preparation, in terms of visiting someone in their home or having a

Bible study, you've got two or three people who understand what you're about.

That's necessary in order to begin meeting. It might even be too few.

So what we would say in Kenya, if you want to plant a church, start a

Bible study. And the reason for that is—and I'm going to talk about Kenya here—people will come on a

Sunday because that's what people do. If it's nearer than their church, they might just come because of that reason.

But if you have a Bible study on a Wednesday evening, someone's got to have more interest than simply coming for Sunday worship.

So you have that group that God gives you, we trust, and then a time comes when you have taught them, they've imbibed what you've taught, and you suggest or you work towards starting

Sunday meetings. That's always been the method we've had pretty throughout the country.

How did you promote these? Was it mainly word of mouth or how the people discovering the

Bible study? Yes, word of mouth.

Again, you see, in God's providence, I was a teacher. I got contacts there.

Some of those people came to Nairobi because that's where the great labor opportunity is.

I was in Thika. I had contacts there. And so God in his providence has already given you a few people who are with you.

And it comes to the time when they say, we're not satisfied where we are.

We need a church where the word of God is faithfully expounded. Please, will you, or we agree together to start that church.

Mind you, that's a great struggle. I mean, in Kenya, it was very slow.

You've got charismatic churches that begin in six months, they've got hundreds of people. And there you're struggling with a handful.

And you wonder if you're doing the right thing. So one of the great lessons that we had to learn was patience.

As we say, Rome wasn't built in a day. It actually took 30 years before there was very significant growth.

How many years? No, 30. Wow. 30, actually 32.

It grew to about 100. We had some struggles.

May I say, I'm going to 2010 now. In 2010, things really began to take off.

Actually, not just with us, but in the countries. Since that time, 15 years ago, many, many

Reformed Baptist churches have been planted now. I think there are probably 10 in Nairobi, five or 10.

I don't live there anymore. I left 10 years ago. What happened was two young men came to the service.

And after the service, they bounded up to me as I stood outside. We always greet people outside in Kenya because the climate is nice.

And they said, we're born again. We're Reformed. We're Calvinists.

And I looked at them in disbelief, because I'd never hardly ever come across anybody that I didn't know at that time who was

Reformed. Well, I subjected them to an inquisition for 20 minutes to find out.

And I was convinced they were university students. What they'd been doing, they'd been listening to John Piper.

They were rap young men who were very good at composing rap songs.

And they'd heard John Piper's teaching, even on Definite Atonement, as a rap.

It was quite impressive, actually. And so they said, where can we get this teaching?

So they would go around to different churches, two of them, one to one church, one to another church.

And they would be in communication with one another in the service. They said, sometimes we just had to listen to something else through our headphones.

The teaching was so abominable. Or we would walk out. And they finally came to Trinity Baptist Church.

This is their story. They couldn't believe what they heard. And I'm saying this because it gives you an appreciation of what's going on in the country.

These are university, thoughtful people. They're looking for the truth.

The Bible is read. We read a chapter every week in the morning service and evening service.

They thought that was a sermon because a few comments were made. The singing was there, a cappella.

No guitars, no pianos, no musical. I love a cappella music. Good. We're together.

Then, as they say, we heard preaching. I was preaching. We heard preaching for an hour on Ephesians 1, 13 and 14.

We couldn't believe how someone could rivet our attention for an hour to the

Scriptures. That's why they bounded up at the end. They were absolutely delighted.

And from that time, scores upon scores of young people, college -age young people, come into the church.

The church has grown to about 150 members now, and two other churches have been planted.

So those who were members of that church, many have been hived off to those other churches.

So there's been great growth in the past 15 years in the internet.

John Piper, John MacArthur, particularly those two, have been very influential in bringing the doctrines of grace to people.

I believe this is true not just in Kenya. It's true in Nigeria, Zambia, South Africa.

We thank the Lord for the internet. Amen. And I'm assuming that the very doctrines of God's sovereignty that you preached there in Kenya also gave you the patience to wait for such a long time for any substantial fruit to be born because of the very doctrines that you believe and that I believe.

We know that His sheep will hear His voice. He knows them, and they will follow

Him. And that is very often, sadly, not the case.

From what I've heard from men who go out on the mission field from non -Calvinist and Arminian backgrounds, very often mission boards are very impatient.

They want to see numbers, and if the numbers aren't quickly being produced as far as souls coming to Christ, they're yanked off that mission field because it's so man -centered, man -based.

But you really hung in there.

And isn't that true that that has been a motivation of Reformed missionaries for centuries?

When I was in seminary, I met with a non -Calvinist man who was going to Uganda.

And basically I said to him, I don't know how you're going to cope in Uganda. You're expecting people to listen to you, but they're dead in sin.

And you don't have the voice of an angel, even that wouldn't be good enough, would it? But you don't have all those gifts so that people are going to follow you.

And I told him, just what you said, my confidence is that God has his people where I'm going, and that my labor in the

Lord will not be in vain. That doesn't mean that you go and within six weeks you've got an overflowing corrugation.

It might mean that you labor for 30 years. We have seen fruit, but that's when the most fruit came.

I've often used the example, I hope I've got it right, of Fraser. I think he's

J .O. Fraser, who worked in China. This is a story at least that I know. I think this is in the 1920s.

He worked among people called the Lisu in China. And he went up the hill and down the hill.

So we're talking preaching, preaching, seeing hardly any fruit. He died and almost immediately the fruit came.

Are we willing for that? Well, I am a dogged person by nature, but I believe the

Lord gave that grace. That was Carey, wasn't it? He said, I'm a plodder,

William Carey. And it was seven years before he had his first convert. And we've got that encouragement, brother, because Christ has died for people.

He's ransomed people out of every tribe, people, tongue, and nation. And we believe he's reigning, that he's sending forth the

Holy Spirit. We believe that the Word of God is still powerful. And so we preach it, we preach it, we preach it.

And we look to him for the lasting fruit. For many others, the fruit's not lasting.

Although I must say, if you read my book, I'm quite blunt that there are many, many people and church plants that never went anywhere.

And how young a man were you when you entered into this mission field in Kenya? Well, in 1975,

I was 29. 29? Yes. So let's see, you retired then at 69.

70. I got to my, I left just before my 70th birthday. And that was 16 years ago.

No, that was 10 years ago. Okay. 2015. Yes, I'm 80 now.

Okay. Wow. Well, praise God. Well, we have to go to our midway break right now, and we'll get to some of the questions that have come in from our listeners.

But we also want to hear more about the biblical principles of church planting and missionary work that our guest has featured in his book,

Planted by the Providence of God. If you want to get in line and have your own question asked and answered, send it to chrisarnson at gmail .com.

chrisarnson at gmail .com. And by the way, I want to give a shout out to my friends and listeners on the opposite coast of Africa from Kenya.

I don't know if it still exists or if they are still airing my show, but the

Free Presbyterian Mission in Liberia launched a radio program, or a radio station,

I should say, back somewhere in the 2018 area.

At least that's when they contacted me. And they began airing my show. I don't know if they still are.

I don't know if the radio station still exists. But obviously, folks from Liberia had been listening to my show, and I hope you're listening today.

And particularly, David D. Canio. Sorry if I'm mispronouncing your name,

David. But we are going to be right back after these messages from our sponsors, so please do not go away.

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And last but not least, if you are not a member of a Christ -honoring, biblically faithful, theologically sound, doctrinally solid church like Trinity Baptist Church in Nairobi, Kenya, Africa, well,

I have helped people all over the planet earth find churches that are faithful from our audience and sometimes even just a couple of minutes from where they live, and that may be you too.

So if you are without a church home that's biblically faithful, send me an email to chrisarnsen at gmail .com

and put I need a church in the subject line. That's also the email address to send in a question to our guest,

Keith Underhill. That's chrisarnsen at gmail .com. Give us your first name at least, city and state, and country of residence.

We have Gordon, and I hope I'm not mispronouncing the city's name, Sepulpa, Oklahoma.

And Gordon says, How much opposition theologically did you face from neighboring churches, cults, and other religions, and how militant did the opposition get?

I also was curious if you were able to fellowship and cooperate in any way with churches that are not

Reformed. How much opposition did we face?

Nothing that was in our face. We were a small church in our own corner, as it were, as Reformed churches have been growing.

Of course, there's always the opposition. People say, I don't believe that.

It's more words, but not action. In fact, when we explain the

Scripture, I think you're less likely to get that militant opposition.

One thing I do remember, Gordon was trying to join a fraternal which was dominated by charismatic pastors, but saying,

We can't cooperate with you in evangelism if you insist upon the altar call.

But it doesn't go further than that. They do their thing. We do our thing.

So, Kenya is a country of freedom, of religion.

It's only in certain areas dominated by Muslims where it's very hard for Christians to preach openly.

Great. Thank you, Gordon. We have Lucy in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada.

Lucy says, What is the

Muslim population to the area of Kenya where you ministered, and did you ever feel endangered?

Well, you actually just somewhat answered that question, but anything else to say about Lucy's question?

There are certain areas of Kenya, the northeast and the coast, that are dominated by Muslims.

The coast, because it's cosmopolitan around Mombasa, there's not a lot of problem.

But in the northeast, where it's totally Muslim, and the Al -Shabaab, you may have heard of them, also are active, then it's very hard for someone to be a

Christian. We did know a few Somalis who became

Christians, and one of them was put under an international fatwa, because he was fairly well known.

And another one was attacked to be killed, but he survived. And I know another

Somali pastor who was shot and killed in Kenya. But we ourselves,

Kenya is a very, as I said, a very open country, a very free country where at least until today,

Christians have been welcomed. Praise God.

And let's see, we have Teresa in St.

Augustine, Florida. I believe that's how they pronounce it in Florida, rather than Augustine.

And Teresa says, can you tell us more about the culture of Kenya, where you ministered?

Is it very rural or urban, and things like that? Teresa, that's a very big question, because if somebody asked that question about America, how would you possibly answer it?

It's so varied. Even in Pennsylvania, and even in Cumberland County, where I live, we have all of that.

We have a more of an urban flavor, we have a rural flavor, and we have a suburban flavor.

So, we've got everything. Yeah, two of my children studied at Geneva College in Pennsylvania, so we're quite familiar with east and west

Pennsylvania and the difference. Nairobi is where we lived, although we had opportunities of preaching the gospel in different parts of Kenya.

If you're talking of Nairobi, again, like the city of Philadelphia, there are the prosperous parts and there are the less prosperous parts.

In Kenya, there are gigantic slums in Nairobi. Again, you asked about where we planted the church in Nairobi.

It was middle class, professional, where we lived.

In particular, we called it an estate. I know in America you don't call it an estate, but a housing area. People were

Christian for the most part. What were the struggles?

It's like anywhere, people think they know what Christianity is and they don't know. They may just be

Christians in name. They may be Christians who think that they're saved by works.

That's very, very common. They may be influenced by the prosperity movement.

One is constantly seeking to bring the simple gospel of the

Lord Jesus Christ and that we're saved by his death and by his death alone as we seek to bring it to people.

I'm not sure of the percentages, but at least half, if not more, of Kenyans live rurally.

There are certain areas I know, the more remote areas like Pocot in the northwest, things like polygamy are endemic.

I can talk about the Pocot people. I was there, in fact, in March this year, where a number of churches have been planted.

The struggles are illiteracy because education has just come into the area.

The struggles are absolutely endemic polygamy. You're not a man until you've got more than one wife.

Right now, the other struggle is a gold rush. With people being poor, when gold is discovered, then people rush there.

That, of course, creates a lot of confusion culturally and socially. It just depends where you are.

I hope that helps you. It's hard to give a blanket description.

Alrighty. We have Ralph in Oildale, California, who says, what kind of wildlife is common in the areas of Kenya where you ministered?

May I make a sort of joke? Cockroaches? Mosquitoes? I know that's not what you're asking.

In Nairobi, there's occasionally a stray leopard, but that's very occasional.

There's no wildlife. Although, I think 50 % of the wildlife is outside the actual parks.

When you go to more remote areas, you can see zebras, giraffes, antelope, and wonderful birds.

Things like that. Up in Rendili, I've even seen lions and cheetahs. Kenya is a wonderful place for wildlife, may

I say. We were greatly privileged to be able to go again and again.

If I could just say one little thing, just for your interest here. It must be unique that there's a park, a natural park, just outside the border of Nairobi.

Nairobi is a big city of, say, 5 million. It isn't small. I dreamt of getting a picture of a lion, just wild, a jet aircraft coming to land at the airport and the one skyscraper of Nairobi.

I got it one day, only that it was dark. It was getting dark, so it didn't come out very well.

That is the beauty of Kenya. I could go on and it's creation by God, the mountains, the plains, the animals, the birds.

It's a wonderful country. But where you lived, you had no fear of walking outside of your home and seeing a lion on your driveway or anything?

Oh, no. Not even in the remote rural areas. Oh, no.

That's not Kenya. I am now going to wait to ask any more listener questions because I really want you to dive into more biblical principles that can benefit those in church planting.

Please begin. I know that we will not have time for all 22. You've already given some, but we'll give as many as possible.

I think what I'd like to do is be very, very simple and remind us all that before Jesus left this world, he gave one commission to his people to accomplish.

Do you know what it is? It's in every gospel in one form or another. It's in Acts 1.

Go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the

Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to observe whatever

I've commanded you. And lo, I'm with you always to the end of the age.

That's how we know it's current, isn't it? It's not till the apostles died, but it's to the end of the age.

And so there's the blueprint. It involves going.

Disciples are made in person. It's not enough to drop Bibles, if I may say so, even to have a radio program like this one.

But people need to see disciples in action.

They need to see how a Christian acts in trials.

I was reading John Newton's works, and he's got an account of the first hundred years of the church.

When he gets to Paul's journey to Rome by boat, he says

Paul had to have the shipwreck. And you wonder, wow, that's a bold statement,

Mr. Newton. And this is what he says. Everyone knew he was a Christian, that he was going to Rome as a prisoner.

They needed to see how a Christian reacts when there's a big difficulty.

Do they trust the God who they say they believe in? And so on.

And so it's going, and then it's making disciples, learners, followers, not just truth, but truth put into practice.

I think the word apprentice is a good word, somebody who learns by seeing.

And so the disciples walked about with Jesus, didn't they? They heard him teach, and they saw what he did and how he dealt with people.

And then the way that's done is by baptizing, which is just the short form. That's a church ordinance.

So that involves the formation of a church through people being baptized and then teaching.

And it's such a big thing, isn't it? It's not just teaching them the basics, it's teaching them everything that Jesus has taught, but not just to learn it, to do it.

So it's to mold people into Christ -like Christians.

And the encouragements to do this are, he's with us. And then at the beginning, verse 18 of Matthew 28, the encouragement is, all authority is given to me in heaven and on earth, so that we're not on a fool's errand.

He sends us, he has something for us to accomplish. And so that's the very, very basic principle.

In the book, I've got other principles like the local church.

We were sent by a local church. We believed that this is the church, the local church's business.

And I must say, I was so blessed having such a supportive church in Aberystwyth all the time we were there in Kenya.

I think that's a short form. A lot more could be said. Well, we do have a listener that asked something that you haven't brought up yet.

We have Teddy in the

Woodlands, Texas, or the Woodlands, I don't know how you pronounce that, over in Texas.

Teddy wants to know, were there any cults or aberrant religions that were rivals to your church in Kenya?

Wow. They are legion in Kenya. The prosperity so -called gospel,

I think it could almost be the dominant thing they've come, particularly from Nigeria, like Winner's Chapel, gigantic auditoriums they're building, a big following.

And then there's a local one, which is a man who calls himself, he's a former professor at university, he calls himself the mightiest prophet of the

Lord. Wow. One of his greatest attributes is humility,

I've heard. It's known that people wash the streets before he comes.

It's that. Wow. And so we don't face opposition from them in that obvious way, but clearly they have a great attraction for people.

People are being swept off their feet by all these different groups. And every single cult you can think of is present in a country like Kenya.

All the ones you know, and all the ones you don't know. Because as I said earlier, the African independent churches, like the

Church of Christ in Africa, like Roho, which means spirit, like Africa, Israel, Nineveh, all sorts of ones that are locally grown.

Now, did you say Roho? Because I think I've even seen churches in America with that name. I did. Roho, it's

Swedish for spirit. Huh. I wonder if there's a connection. Well, it's interesting you said that this false prophet, that they wash the streets before he comes into town.

I've heard here in Carlisle that they wash the streets after I leave. But we have to go to our final break right now.

And if you do have a question, please submit it immediately because we're rapidly running out of time.

chrisarnsen at gmail .com. Give us your first name at least, your city and state and country of residence.

And by the way, I have a big surprise for all of you who have submitted questions so far.

You're all going to receive a free copy of the book we have been addressing, Planted by the

Providence of God by Keith Underhill, compliments of our friends at Broken Wharf who published this fine book.

And I'm just urging all of you, once you read it, please give it to a pastor or someone you know that has the intention to participate in church planting.

We want to make sure that the books get into the hands of people who will make the most use of it.

So please pass the book on to somebody in ministry that you trust will be valuing this book.

But we are going to be right back after these messages, so please do not go away.

I'm Dr. Tony Costa, professor of apologetics and Islam at Toronto Baptist Seminary.

I'm thrilled to introduce to you a church where I've been invited to speak and have grown to love,

Hope Reformed Baptist Church in Corham, Long Island, New York, pastored by Rich Jensen and Christopher McDowell.

It's such a joy to witness and experience fellowship with people of God, like the dear saints at Hope Reformed Baptist Church in Corham, who have an intensely passionate desire to continue digging deeper and deeper into the unfathomable riches of Christ in His Holy Word, and to enthusiastically proclaim

Christ Jesus the King and His doctrines of sovereign grace in Suffolk County, Long Island and beyond.

I hope you also have the privilege of discovering this precious congregation and receive the blessing of being showered by their love, as I have.

For more information on Hope Reformed Baptist Church, please visit hopereformedbaptistchurch .org

or call 631 -696 -5711. Tell the folks at Hope Reformed Baptist Church of Corham, Long Island, New York, that you heard about them from Tony Costa on Iron Sharpens Iron.

When Iron Sharpens Iron Radio first launched in 2005, the publishers of the

New American Standard Bible were among my very first sponsors. It gives me joy knowing that many scholars and pastors in the

Iron Sharpens Iron Radio audience have been sticking with or switching to the

NASB. I'm Dr. Joe Moorcraft, pastor of Heritage Presbyterian Church in Cumming, Georgia, and the

NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Anthony Uvino, founder of thereformrookie .com

and co -founder of New York Apologetics, and the NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Pastor Tim Bushong of Syracuse Baptist Church in Syracuse, Indiana, and the

NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Eli Ayala, founder of Revealed Apologetics and staff member with the

Historical Bible Society, and the NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Pastor Josh Miller of Grace Bible Fellowship Church in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and the

NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Joe Bianchi, president of Calvi Press Publishing in Greenville, South Carolina, and the

NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Pastor Jake Korn of Switzerland Community Church in Switzerland, Florida, and the

NASB is my Bible of choice. Here's a great way for your church to help keep

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Consider restocking your pews with the NASB, and tell the publishers you heard about them from Chris Arnzen on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.

Go to nasbible .com, that's nasbible .com, to place your order.

I'm Pastor Keith Allen of Lindbrook Baptist Church, a Christ -centered, gospel -driven church looking to spread the gospel in the southwest portion of Long Island, New York, and play our role in fulfilling the

Great Commission, supporting and sending for the spread of the gospel to the ends of the earth. We're delighted to be a part of Chris Arnzen's Iron Sharpens Iron Radio advertising family.

At Lindbrook Baptist Church, we believe the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the inspired

Word of God, inerrant in the original writings, complete as the revelation of God's will for salvation, and the supreme and final authority in all matters to which they speak.

We believe in salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. This salvation is based upon the sovereign grace of God, was purchased by Christ on the cross, and is received through faith alone, apart from any human merit, works, or ritual.

Salvation in Christ also results in righteous living, good works, and appropriate respect and concern for all who bear

God's image. If you live near Lindbrook, Long Island, or if you're just passing through on the

Lord's Day, we'd love to have you come and join us in worship. For details, visit lindbrookbaptist .org.

That's l -y -n -brookbaptist .org. This is Pastor Keith Allen of Lindbrook Baptist Church reminding you that by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves.

It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast of the

Lord's blessing in the knowledge of himself. And don't forget, folks, that this program is paid for in part by the law firm of Buttafuoco and Associates.

If you're the victim of a very serious personal injury or medical malpractice anywhere in the

United States, please call my longtime very dear friend and brother in Christ since 1991,

Daniel P. Buttafuoco, attorney at law, and please tell him that you heard about his law firm from Chris Arnzen of Iron Trip and Zion Radio.

Call Dan at 1 -800 -NOW -HURT, 1 -800 -NOW -HURT, or visit

Dan's website at 1 -800 -NOW -HURT .com, 1 -800 -NOW -HURT .com.

Also, I want to remind all men in ministry leadership that you are all invited, whether you're a pastor, elder, deacon, even a businessman making a difference for Christ in the workplace, you are invited to the next free biannual

Iron Trip and Zion Radio pastors' luncheon, which will be held

Thursday, October 1st, 11 a .m. to 2 p .m. at Church of the

Living Christ in Loisville, Pennsylvania. It's absolutely free of charge, and this

October we will feature for the first time as our keynote speaker David A.

Harrell, who is the pastor of Calvary Bible Church in Jolton, Tennessee, and he's the author of a number of books, including the book he is addressing at the luncheon,

Why America Hates Biblical Christianity. That's Thursday, October 1st, 11 a .m.

to 2 p .m. at Church of the Living Christ in Loisville, Pennsylvania, and not only is admission free and your meal free and your opportunity to share fellowship with colleagues and ministry free and your opportunity to make new friends and get reacquainted with old friends all free.

On top of that, everybody who attends will get one heavy sack, possibly two heavy sacks, of free brand -new books personally selected by me and donated by generous

Christian publishers all over the United States and the United Kingdom. In fact, Broken Wharf Publishers, who published the book that we are addressing today,

Planted by the Providence of God, our last pastor's luncheon that featured

Dr. Conrad M. Bayway of Kibwata Baptist Church of Lusaka, Zambia, Broken Wharf provided free books at that event.

So, please, if you are interested in attending, submit your registration to chrisarnson at gmail .com,

chrisarnson at gmail .com. Make sure you give us your first name at least, your city and state, and your country of residence.

And we have a question or a couple of questions here from somebody that you know, somebody that we've already mentioned in the beginning of this program,

Pastor Mark Grimaldi of Trinity Reformed Baptist Church of Portland, Tennessee, who was at one time one of my pastors when

I was still on Long Island, and he was one of the pastors of Grace Reformed Baptist Church of Long Island in Merrick, New York.

And Pastor Mark says, let's see here,

Chris, please send my love to Keith and his family. If you can, ask him how his wife is doing and how missions have affected her and their children.

I have you on mute accidentally here, but go ahead now, brother. Thank you,

Mark, for your greetings. Priscilla is doing well, thank you very much.

We're here in Liverpool, part of Reformed Baptist Church, with a lot of opportunities of ministry.

We're here with two children and two grandchildren as well.

How has our experience affected? That's a very good question and still being worked out.

As far as children are concerned, they loved Kenya, and if they could go back to Kenya tomorrow, which they can't, they would gladly go back.

It was a wonderful experience, them being brought up in Kenya. Of course, being there in the tropics can take its toll on people, and my wife certainly felt the heat increasingly as she grew older.

But I think we can say to God's glory, it was a wonderful experience for us, and I always thought

I would finish my days there in Nairobi. Before the program finishes, brother,

I'd like to say something about unreached people. Why don't you say that now? Say that now.

Okay. Oh, by the way, I just wanted to quick give a plug to Pastor Mark's church,

Trinity Reformed Baptist Church in Portland, Tennessee. The website, for those of you who would like to explore everything you need to know about Trinity Reformed Baptist Church of Portland, Tennessee, is sovereigngracechurch .net,

sovereigngracechurch .net, and that is Trinity Reformed Baptist Church of Portland, Tennessee, pastored by my dear friend of many years and one of my former pastors,

Mark Romoldi. But feel free to go ahead about the unchurched, brother. Unreached.

It should be a great burden for us that there are still millions, if not billions, of people who are called unreached.

It depends how you define it. Very roughly, you can say these are people who have never heard the gospel in a language they can understand.

I mentioned the Rindili earlier on, that 90 % of them 30 years ago had never heard

Jesus Christ. I remember meeting some like that. We do believe that the scripture teaches us that unless people hear the gospel, they cannot be saved, and it's incumbent on us to take the gospel.

I can't develop it. There's about 40, 50 pages about the opportunities God gave us in Kenya in the book.

There are still vast swathes, especially between what's called the 10 -40 window, 10 degrees north, 40 degrees north, especially across Africa and Asia, where most of the unreached people in this world are found.

You could pray for places like Sudan, Darfur, we've all heard about,

I think. Maybe you've heard of Nuba, especially Darfur, where there's been fighting.

I can't go into the details, but there are opportunities to plant the gospel there where it's never been spoken before.

Think of Somalia, where there's never been a public presence of the preacher of the gospel.

There's a brother who's working. He was converted in Nairobi.

He's working in Ethiopia and broadcasting the gospel over the airwaves in the

Somali language. Pray for them and pray for the unreached people.

Go to Joshua Project on the internet, and there's an untold wealth of information there.

I do believe that we need to be burdened for the unreached of the world.

Amen. And I don't know if you have a...

Oh, I have a website right here. I hope it's the same one, joshuaproject .net.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. It's done by the Southern Baptist. It's full of information. joshuaproject .net.

Yes. Yes. And well, I guess we have time for a couple of more questions.

Amethyst in Jupiter, Florida asks, can you provide any interesting stories of locals in Kenya who you led to Christ?

And she says, and especially if they were, quote, unquote, unlikely converts.

That's a very good question. There are many who have professed faith.

I think of the people in Pokot in the Northwest who come from a cattle raiding culture where they consider all cattle are theirs.

And so cattle of neighboring tribes are a fair game.

There's one called, name's not coming to me now,

Locarissa is his family name. And he was the leader of cattle raiding. And well, who would think that a man who's involved in everything that goes with cattle raiding, that he would be saved.

So there are many, you know, there are many examples, aren't there, of people who were drunkards.

But probably the most amazing one is a

Muslim man who heard his imam speak against Christianity.

And that led him to seeking out Christianity. It had the opposite effect.

And the Lord saved him. And he devoured the scriptures once he became a

Christian. He's the one on the radio in Ethiopia.

You see God's mighty transformation in people who you wonder, could they ever be saved?

But the Lord is able to save the soul of Tarsus. There was one brother who said, if God can save Muhammad, that was his name, then he can save anybody.

And praise the Lord for the power of the gospel. Hallelujah. Well, if you could just conclude with a few words of summary of what you most want etched in the hearts and minds of our listeners today before we go off the air.

My great burden, brethren, is that we have the world in our sights.

There's no excuse today. The world's at our fingertips. And the day of so -called missions is not over.

We need, as individuals and through our local churches, we need to be praying, supporting the works of the gospel in all different places in the world.

And it'd be God's providence to bring one place to you and another place to another.

But this is the commission that the Lord Jesus Christ has given.

And there should be no excuses. Like I might get malaria. You might get malaria.

It's true. You might be poor. That's very true. There might be all sorts of inconveniences.

But we laud the missionaries, don't we, who have gone before us. We laud the Judsons and the

Carys and the Through Gates of Splendor missionaries who lost their lives trying to take the gospel.

And I've finished with this. My theme verse,

I could put it this way, is Acts 20 and verse 24, where Paul tells the

Ephesian elders as he's leaving them, he says,

I do not account my life of any value or as precious to myself, if only

I may finish my course and the ministry I received from the

Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

Hallelujah. And I just want to make sure all of our listeners have all of the pertinent websites for you.

First of all, Keith Underhill's own personal website is

KeithUnderhill .com. KeithUnderhill .com.

Broken Wharf, the publisher that brought this book into print, planted by the providence of God.

They can be found at BrokenWharf .com. Wharf is spelled

W -H -A -R -F as in Frank E. BrokenWharf .com.

And don't forget about the Joshua Project that Keith mentioned, joshuaproject .net.

That's joshuaproject .net. I hope you all have a very safe and happy and healthy and Christ -honoring weekend and Lord's Day.

And I hope you all always remember for the greater