Farewell & Future

August 24, 2023July 30, 2024 by Jonathan In Video Update 2 Comments

We left Kenya the middle of July and have been slowly getting settled into a house in NE Minneapolis. It’s been a somewhat hard and slow transition, but we are moving forward by God’s grace. We’re sure many of you are wondering what the future holds for us so we put this post together to try and answer as many questions as we could think of. Keep in mind, these are only our plans at this point, and subject to change according to God’s good purpose. And if you haven’t viewed our RVA farewell video, watch that below.

What’s new with your family?

Sophie graduated from RVA on July 11 and moves in to the University of Northwestern – St. Paul this Friday where she plans to study kinesiology, pre-therapy. Josh finished up his time at Holsby in Sweden and has been working at a temporary job before also starting at UNW with Sophie where he was accepted into their music program. The campus is about a 12 minute drive from our home.

Tiana is in the process of raising support for her new role with Campus Outreach (CO) to disciple students on university campuses. She’s not sure which campus she will be assigned to yet. If you would like to encourage or support her, please contact her at 651-888-0110 or tlesliefam@gmail.com.

Hannah and Henrik live literally a 3 minute drive away from us. Hannah cares for four beautiful children in her nanny job, and also supports Henrik in his work with students at UNW through Campus Outreach.

Since coming back we’ve made two trips to Iowa to move some things out of Jonathan’s parent’s farmhouse. You can read his reflections of saying goodbye to his family home.

We are so grateful to be so close to each of our children during this season!

How long are you in Minnesota?

Our plan is to be in Minnesota for a one year Home Assignment. We don’t have an exact date yet, but probably until mid-July 2024.

What are your future plans?

The short answer is that we feel God calling us to church planting in Nairobi! There is a huge need in Nairobi for more Biblical, gospel-centered, Christ-exalting, missions-minded churches to be planted. There are at least two reasons for this urgency. One, the prosperity and moralistic gospel have infected the Kenyan church to a great degree. Second, Nairobi is growing exponentially, and along with the rest of the continent, will one day be the center of global Christianity. If that’s correct, the genuine gospel must be kept at the center of African Christianity. We are so excited to join this small but growing movement of gospel-centered churches in Nairobi.

How are you preparing for this new mission?

Prayer – We can’t do anything without the Lord’s help.

We also won’t be doing this alone! Sharing this vision is a Kenyan couple we met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Brian and Julia Kiama. Brian finished his studies at the Trinity Fellowship Pastors College in Addis in 2022, is currently going through an ordination process, and was just accepted to the online Th.M program at Union School of Theology in Wales. Lord willing, Brian will serve as the lead pastor of the church plant. He and Julia have two children, Tadya and Adriel. We are praying for several more likeminded people to join this team!

Jonathan too will be going through an ordination process at our church, Cornerstone Community Church in Burnsville, MN, from where we hope to be sent out (with a few team members?) next year.

The church we hope to plant in Nairobi will be part of Sovereign Grace Churches and so we will also be attending a Sovereign Grace Church planters assessment in California early in 2024.

Will you still be with Africa Inland Mission?

This is still an area of uncertainty. We have been so grateful to AIM over the years and love their vision of reaching Africa’s unreached. At this point we’re just not sure if our vision of church planting in Nairobi is compatible with the direction they want to go. We will be in more talks with them in the coming months. Regardless, AIM will remain our mission during these next few months of our Home Assignment.

We have also been in communication with another organization called Global Outreach International, which has sent out several other Sovereign Grace missionaries. We’ll attend a one week orientation at their headquarters in Mississippi in October. It’s possible that a partnership with both organizations could be the best solution.

What about financial support?

We still rely on the giving of our supporters through Africa Inland Mission. If you currently support us financially, we would be so grateful if you would continue your regular support to get us through this U.S. based preparation season and then launched into church-planting in Nairobi next year. If you have more specific questions we haven’t answered, please feel free to reach out. If you decide for some reason to discontinue your giving, we understand – and would love you to notify us – we promise not to make you feel guilty! If possible, it would be helpful if you could continue giving through the end of the year.

If you don’t currently support us financially and might be interested in getting behind our gospel-centered church planting vision, please reach out as well. You can contribute online by clicking on the “Give” tab above.

How can we pray for you?

• Praise God for helping us get through some health challenges, packed up in Kenya, and transitioned to a new home in Minneapolis that is so near our children!
• Pray for us as we continue to transition, set up our MN home, and for Josh and Sophie as they start school at UNW.
• For this year of preparation – Jonathan’s ordination, church planting assessment, decisions about mission organization, and building a team to join us.
• For the Lord to put together a unified, culturally diverse and complementary gifted team to plant Sovereign Grace Church Nairobi.
• To be given an extra measure of faith for what seems an impossibly huge task.
• Help in intentionally connecting with friends, family, and supporters during this year.

How can we get in touch with you?

Jonathan: 612-479-1232, jlesliefam@mac.com

Lilli: 612-380-0159, lilli.leslie@gmail.com