Information from CCOG’s Evans Ochieng in Kenya

Evans Ochieng

The Continuing Church of God recently placed Evans Ochieng in charge of its congregations in Kenya.

I asked Evans Ochieng Kisiengo, to provide some information about himself to share. He once was part of the Global, then Living, Church of God.

Today, he sent me the following:

I was born into the family of Prisila Oloo and Christopher Kisiengo. My parents were Catholics who were keeping Sunday. this is where I grow since it was the only denomination which was common in My area. Funny thing that I was not baptized in the Catholic religion.

I tried several times when my elder sister and my age mates were going for baptism, but I was always failing. The reason I can’t tell because it happened in such a way that is impossible to tell…

I met a pentecostal preacher when he was teaching about baptism and was explaining how baptism can only be done in the river or a lake not by a small water in the glass or any container. I was surprised because he was explaining how Jesus was baptized in the river not by sprinkling water or poring in the face. And he read the books of 1 John 2:6 (Anyone who says he is a Christian should live as Christ did) Psalms 119:105( your words are a flashlight to light the path a head of me, and keep me from stumbling. Verse 106 (I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again and again: I will obey these wonderful laws of yours).

I was shocked when I heard all these verses and turned my mind from being a catholic and changed to be a pentecostal where I was baptized in water…

Every time I was studying the bible, I found that the bible is guiding us to keep the sabbath not Sunday, since it is one of God’s ten commandments (Exodus 20:8-11;-Remember to observe the sabbath as a holy day.Six days a week are for your daily duties and your regular works, but the seventh day is a day of sabbath rest before the lord your God. On that day you are to do no work of any kind, nor shall your son, daughter, or slaves-whether men or women-or your cattle or your house guests. For in six days, the lord made the heaven, earth and sea, and everything in them, and rested the seventh day and set it a side for rest). And it is a sign between God and Mankind.( Ezekiel 20:11;- There I gave them my laws so they could live by keeping them. If anyone keeps them, he shall live. And I gave them the sabbath- a day of rest every seventh day-as a symbol between them and me, to remind them that is is I, the Lord, who sanctifies them, that they are truly my people).

Even though I was studying God’s sabbath I was still keeping Sunday but under pressure, because when I was asking my pastors questions about sabbath, they were giving me negative answers and were ready to fight me because they were considering me as a person who is bringing division in the church.

Many people accepted my teachings about sabbath but before the pastor most of them turned away from me and siding with the pastor simply because of fear. So it was a big problem to me till one sabbath day
morning when I made a decision in my mind to trace a place where I can get those who are keeping God’s sabbath. On my way I met SDA members who were moving for sabbath services. When I talked with about which day they are keeping, they told me that they are keeping sabbath. That is how I became a SDA member…

I stayed in SDA till I became a preacher who can move every place to preach. One day when we went to open a new sabbath school, I was the guest speaker for that occasion. It was a wonderful preaching and many turned to be SDA members and it was a total success to the church. At late hours we were in bible study, but among us was a man who had been a co-worker to WORLDWIDE CHURCH OF GOD. This man started to go against our teachings like:

1;- How we are keeping passover. In SDA we were partaking passover 4 times a year. And the bible says ones year. (Leviticus 23:5)

2;- How we were preaching about going to heaven after resurrection for 1000 years. The bible says no going in heaven for 1000 years but instead Christ is coming back to rule on earth for 1000 years…

He had two booklets in his hand. And since I was wondering if he was biblical, I received those booklets from him to study them. They were titled “God’s Holy Days or Pagans Holidays?” another one was “The Gospel of the Kingdom” by Armstrong.”

This is how I was called in God’s church where there is a whole truth and is a pillar of the truth. 1 Timothy 3:14.

I was baptized in WCG where I stayed till Tkach brought apostasy in God’s church. This was the time I decided to walk out from WCG. We stayed for some period before we joined any group.

It later happened when I was reading the book of Ten Commandments by Dr. Roderick Meredith. I decided myself to place where Meredith was. Because I knew that according to the book he wrote, he could not follow false doctrine of Tkach. This is why I joined Global Church of God. We kept the feast of Tabernacles with them that year. Again after the feast we got a massage again that Global is divided, when Larry Salyer and his team went one way and Meredith and his team also one way. It was a sad story actually. I decided to join Living church of God with Meredith. In LCG I hosted five different groups. Because of character issues with a minister there that LCG would not resolve, I refused an ordination from him and decided to affiliate with another group. Later I had hands laid upon me and was ordained.

I have been serving as a Church of God minister in Kenya for more than 10 years.

In 2013, I contacted Pastor Dr. Bob Thiel of the Continuing Church of God (CCOG). I knew of him back when I was part of the Global and Living Church of God. I was interested because of the zeal to do the work that CCOG had. I contacted him as wanted to learn more about the work that the Continuing Church of God has been doing.

After reviewing many CCOG articles, looking over CCOG literature, sending many emails, meeting with others here, and having conversations with Dr. Thiel, I asked to represent the Continuing Church of God as a minister here.

At present I am overseeing 20 congregations in Kenya and one in Tanzania and now do so as a minister for the Continuing Church of God. There are also others in Tanzania that I hope to meet with who are affiliated with the Continuing Church of God.

Evans Ochieng sent more information than this about himself, and I hope to have that included in the next edition of our Bible News Prophecy magazine.

(As far as the character matter of the LCG minister when Evans Ochieng left, let me state that I heard something about it back then and prayed about it, but at the time was not convinced I (or LCG) knew all the details (I learned more about it later, which confirmed what I heard). I agree with Evans Ochieng’s decision to refuse the ordination then and understand why he left LCG at that time. Others there also have had other character issues, which is why I had to leave when I did.)

Evans Ochieng is able to visit the congregations so that congregations can get direct messages and other information. Few in his area there can watch our videos over the internet as most do not have computers nor regular internet access. He also is able to directly supply literature, some of which we are now printing in Kenya, in both English and Kiswahili.

Some items of possibly related interest may include:

Continuing Church of God The group striving to be most faithful amongst all real Christian groups to the word of God. To see how CCOG has done so far, here is a sermon Continuing Church of God (CCOG) first year anniversary: What has been accomplished? Here is a written link to a version of that sermon in the Spanish language: Aniversario del primer año de la Continuación de la Iglesia de Dios: ¿Qué se ha cumplido?
CCOG.ASIA We in the Continuing Church of God also have the url www.ccog.asia which has a focus on Asia and has various articles in Mandarin Chinese as well as some in English, plus some items in other Asian languages. 我们在继续神的教会也提供此网址 www.ccog.asia, 关注于亚洲并且有各种各样的中英文文章，其中一些用菲律宾语翻译的文章也正在进行中，准备添加到这个网站中。
CCOG.IN This is a website targeted towards those of Indian heritage. It has a link to an edited Hindi translation of The Mystery of the Ages and is expected to have more non-English language materials in the future.
CCOG.EU This is a website targeted toward Europe. It has materials in more than one language (currently it has English, Dutch, and Serbian, with links also to Spanish) and it is intended to have additional language materials added.
CDLIDD.ES La Continuación de la Iglesia de Dios. This is the Spanish language website for the Continuing Church of God.
PNIND.PH Patuloy na Iglesya ng Diyos. This is the Philippines website Continuing Church of God. It has information in English and Tagalog.
The Final Phase of the Work What is the final phase of the work? Who will lead it? Do you have the courage to support it? Here is a related YouTube video titled The Final Phase of the Work. The written article has been translated into Spanish La Fase Final de la Obra.
Leading the Final Phase of the Work Matthew 24:14 teaches “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come ” will be fulfilled and RCG is not the group doing this. Who is leading the final phase of the work? What did Herbert Armstrong and the old WCG teach about that and about prophets? Does Bob Thiel meet the criteria that the Bible and the old WCG set? What is the proof? What has the Continuing Church of God been doing? This is a sermonette length video.
Why Bob Thiel Left the Living Church of God Several have speculated reasons, but here is the truth. (En el idioma español: ¿Por qué Bob Thiel dejó la Iglesia del Dios Viviente?)
The Bible, Peter, Paul, John, Polycarp, Herbert W. Armstrong, Roderick C. Meredith, and Bob Thiel on Church Government What form of governance did the early church have? Was it hierarchical? Which form of governance would one expect to have in the Philadelphia remnant? The people decide and/or committee forms, odd dictatorships, or the same type that the Philadelphia era itself had? What are some of the scriptural limits on ecclesiastical authority? Do some commit organizational idolatry? Here is a Spanish language version La Biblia, Policarpo, Herbert W. Armstrong, y Roderick C. Meredith sobre el gobierno de la Iglesia. Here is a link to a sermon titled Church Governance.