Welcome our new Pastor!

Hello Baldwin First UMC, and Ives Chapel UMC! Here we come! I am glad to share with you how God has moved throughout my life, and I am eager to get to know you, hear your stories and join you in what God is doing in your lives and the church!

My wife and I were born and raised in Kenya, Africa. Most of my family members still live in Kenya. My father is deceased. My mother lives with my brother, and my sister has her own family in another county. I am here in the U.S. with my wife Alice, and our three children as you can see above. They are grown-up children. Roy is twenty-six, Abigail is twenty-two, and Zachariah is eighteen. You may not get to see Roy anytime soon because he lives in Lincoln Nebraska.

My siblings and I gave our lives to Jesus when we attended Vacation Bible School and youth camp. After I graduated from High School in 1988, I joined Kenya Highlands University, Kericho. It was a mission school started by World Gospel Missionaries.

In the fall of 1991, I joined Asbury University in Wilmore Kentucky. After I graduated from the university, I went back to Kenya and served in a local church as an associate pastor. This is also where I met Alice and fell in love with her and got married in December 1994.

In the fall of 1998, Alice and I came back to U.S. to attend Asbury Seminary where I pursued Master of Divinity, and Master of Theology in world mission and evangelism. After I graduated from the Seminary, I was appointed to Chappell UMC, Nebraska in 2018.

While serving at Chappell UMC in Nebraska, I was commissioned as a Provisional Elder and later ordained as an Elder in 2014. After that I was appointed to Russell Trinity UMC in Kansas where I served until 2019. Currently, I am a senior pastor at Lenexa United Methodist Church until June 30th when I will move to Baldwin First UMC and Ives Chapel UMC.

I have faith that the best is yet to come, and I am excited to be part of the Baldwin community.

Shalom!

Rev. Ezekiel Koech