My name is Anzaya Akatsa, I’m 59 and passionate about teaching. At university, I trained as an architect and spent 10 years teaching architecture at the University of Nairobi. My wife, Mbithe and I, have spent the better part of our lives teaching about marriage and parenting. Mbithe is 55 and she too is passionate about bringing out the best in people. She works as the Head of Learning and Development at Kenya Airways, where she is responsible for training staff at Kenya Airways and partner airlines. Together we have three adult children. Our youngest, Simbi, is 21, a law student with a gift for languages. Our son, Lamusia, is 26 and has a passion for finance and social impact investing. Our eldest, Subira is 28, she seeks to use her medical training to provide access to affordable health care. She is married to Andrew Levi, who combines a passion for theology and justice.
Mbithe and I began our involvement with the Navigators through our engagement with disciple-making while at the university. Since then and at different stages of our lives, we have found ourselves gathering people around us, seeking to walk alongside them, to understand and apply the Word in the diverse seasons of life. In the earlier days we focused on marriage, then early-stage parenting and teenage parenting. More recently, we have been developing an over-50s ministry on finishing life well, called TAMATI (Swahili for ‘completion’). We want to surround ourselves with people to help us think through what it means to be and remain Vital and Fruitful in old age; and become Living Memorials, displaying God’s faithfulness to his promises (Psalm 92:12-15). We seek to show that this stage of life can also be one of great contribution and provide a platform for revealing God’s character to the world. Our motivation for doing this has never been our own competence, but out of an earnest need to have people around us, to keep us encouraged, challenged and growing.
Simultaneously, we are taking our learnings from TAMATI back to people in their 30s and early 40s, to help them prime themselves for fruitfulness in their later years; by preparing well at mid-life. Along the way, we continue to raise leaders who will take over the ministries we have been engaged in. Meanwhile, we are also working to improve our workbooks which document the lessons that we have shared along the way, as well as make these materials available online for wider reach.
Above all, we want to concentrate on loving Jesus (obeying) and letting him produce lasting fruit through our lives. John 15:5, 16 is our life-long prayer. “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me, you can do nothing. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit-fruit that will last.”
-Anzaya Akatsa
