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Ayamba Nkiri Prepares for Bible Ministry in Cameroon

Ayamba Nkiri, from the African nation of Cameroon, expects to graduate this year with an M.A. in intercultural studies from Fuller Seminary. But it will be only the first stop on his educational journey. Nkiri also hopes to earn his Ph.D. at Fuller before returning to Cameroon to fulfill his calling, to enable people to use Scripture in ways that will change their lives.

“Fuller is truly a place to receive needed ministry training, regardless of one’s calling,” Nkiri says. “Fuller’s faculty is outstanding. And in my opinion, the Fuller community is the ‘United Nations’ of the academic and ministry world. What I learned at Fuller transformed my thinking about missions, particularly in regards to contextualization and cross-cultural communication. Looking back, I think this is why I came to Fuller.”

Nkiri was 11 years old when he first knew that God would use him in some way to serve the people of Cameroon, but he did not know what that would be.

My mother had just been baptized in the Catholic Church and she was very happy about it. I asked her to say the Lord's prayer, and she spoke it in good English. Then I asked her if she understood it, and she said, ‘How do you expect me to understand it when you know I can’t speak English?”

Nkiri’s mother was required to memorize the Lord’s Prayer in English in order to qualify for baptism, but she didn’t understand a word of it. Nkiri felt sorry for her and he understood even then that his friends and neighbors could not know God if they did not understand what God was saying in their own language.

“So I went to the catechist and asked permission to interpret his sermon the next Sunday into our language for the sake of our people,” Nkiri recalls. “No one had ever done that in the history of the church in our area. The following Sunday, I went to the pulpit with the catechist, then I interpreted his sermon as he preached in English. I could see brightness on the faces of the people and their nods of approval.”

After the service, the people virtually “mobbed” Nkiri, thanking him for giving them the opportunity to hear God speak to them for the first time. Then an old woman, about 78 years old, stood before him and said, “Ayamba, God has used you today to tell me about him, and he will continue to use you for the rest of your life.”

At first, Nkiri did not know what that would mean. Then at age 17, he met a Wycliffe missionary who was translating the New Testament into Nkiri’s native language, and the missionary invited him to help him with his work. A few years later, the missionary told Nkiri that he felt God was calling him into full-time ministry.

“I strongly opposed it when he mentioned it to me,” Nkiri recalls. “I wanted to be ‘useful’ to my people and I did not see working with the Bible as one of those ways I could be useful.”

But in 1993, Nkiri heard God clearly say, “Ayamba, I had chosen you to serve me among your own people. Now is the time go.” He could no longer resist.

“When I finally accepted the Lord’s calling, I remembered what that old woman said. Then I concluded that it was time for me to join with God in his mission to my people. He has been faithful to me since then.”

Nkiri is married to his wife, Ojong, and they have four children: Manyo-ojong, 8; Etamaze, 7; Oga-enyongeta, 6; Oruntui, 1.

To read about more of Fuller's 2003 commencement participants, see: