Making a new start in a foreign country is difficult. Gilbert and his four brothers and sisters grew up in Kenya, supported by their father who lived away from home and their mother who worked for the government.
“We worked very hard for everything we had. We were not like other children who had things served on a silver platter,” said Gilbert. In the year 2000, he came to Johannesburg to live with his sister in a one-bedroomed cottage. She was a member of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God and introduced Gilbert to the church. When she lost her job, she went back to Kenya. “Things became difficult for me. I was unemployed and could not afford rent or to feed myself. I moved out and lived in an abandoned house, however I did not stop coming to the church,” he said.
Gilbert could not afford to go back home. He later met someone from home who offered him a place to stay, but that man too lost his job. So Gilbert again found himself on the streets of Johannesburg, living in an abandoned house without water or electricity. He slept on the concrete floor sharing the place with a friend who had a wife and three children. “I met someone in the church who used to sell houses and he introduced me to the business.”
Gilbert told the Universal News that he registered his own estate agency. He also wanted to own a bakery but he did not know anything about baking. As he continued coming to the church and taking part in the movements of faith, his housing business did well and his life improved as he found more clients. In 2005, he bought himself a 10- roomed house and later got married.
“Through my commitment to the chains of prayers as well as the Campaign of Israel, God confirmed His word concerning my life,” he said. His dream of owning a bakery recently became a reality when he bought a bakery shop in a busy suburb of Johannesburg. Today he has nine people working for him and is living a happy and fulfilled life.