And you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8

The genus of the Gospel Outreach Assembly can be traced back to the humble teaching career of its founder. As in the seaside calling of Galilean fisherman Peter and his brethren, with the greater promise of being made “fishers of men,” Jesus approached two high teachers Joyce and David Thagana with the higher calling to continue to an upper echelon as teachers, not of high students inside a walled school compound, but teachers of the Word to congregations spread in a global setting without boundaries. The couple, with several of their equally spiritually discerning and like-minded friends, heeded the call and set out from a lowly teaching to the ultimate teaching profession, as shepherds of the lost sheep of Israel.

The teaching profession at Karima Girls School had been a ground preparation for the greater ministry which God, at the appointed time, spiritually impacted upon these educational teachers, whose obedience saw them advance to the higher teaching calling of advancing the cause for the Great Commission.

From the first church planted at Ndungu Njeru in 1991, GOA embarked on a spiritual trailblazing mission to accomplish the task of being witnesses not only in Jerusalem, but even up to the uttermost parts of the world. Todate over 70 churches have been planted in Nairobi, Rift Valley, Nyanza, Eastern as well as Central Province and now with the latest venture in Nyanza.

From Ndunyu Njeru, GOA’s practical Jerusalem, the ministry stretched to its Judea in Nairobi on Apriil 14, 2003 starting a house fellowship in South C and not long thereafter the rented GOA city centre became the Nairobi GOA church.

GOA’s Samaria has been the venture mission outreaches to the unreached, as in Samburu, Marsabit, Turkana and lately to South Nyanza. The church planting trajectory to the uttermost parts of the world now translates into churches not only in Kenya but across the border into Uganda, Burundi and Congo.

On assuming the Nairobi urban ministry, Bishop Thagana and his wife continued with the sacrificial streak they had started with the starting of the Tumaini Orphanage in their residence. By the grace of God, and friends of GOA, some orphans have moved to a newly constructed—albeit incomplete—orphanage within Thagana’s compound. When completed, the orphanage will have a minimum capacity for 100 orphans and with its own school and modern boarding facilities, spacious kitchens and ablutions as well as playing grounds.

The fire of reaching out to suffering children has led to the starting of orphanages like Tumaini Kinangop , Beat the Drum , Strong Tower , Merciful Redeemer , Christ Compassion Rehabilitation Centre , among others.