The Tate Family has served the Lord in Kitale, Kenya since January 2008. Their main ministry is indigenous church planting.

September 28, 2015

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Hello Friends. I am in an especially happy mood right now as I sit down to write this update.  As you know, we have been wanting to adopt Chloe since she came to live with us last October.  We just celebrated Chloe’s first birthday back on September 17th but unfortunately the Kenyan government’s moratorium on foreign adoptions is still in place. Thus, in the meantime, because we are not able to proceed with formal adoption plans, we thought it a good idea to obtain some more legal and permanent recognition of our status with her. So, for the past few months we have been in the courts here in Kitale trying to obtain legal guardianship for Chloe. This isn’t adoption, but it is an extremely important legal proceeding for us. In granting us guardianship the court would in essence be recognizing us as her legal parents and no one would be able to take her from us without a court order from the same court granting us guardianship. In other words, it legally places her in our family and gives us legal parental rights to her. However, up to today we have faced many delays and postponements in this legal process. Countless times we have thought we would receive the ruling only to be delayed again. We’ve jumped through all the hoops only to be postponed again. Today, finally, we have received the ruling from the court – We have been granted legal guardianship of Chloe! We are thanking God for this ruling and for placing Chloe into our family and now pray that the government will open up the adoption process to us as well. She is a precious blessing to us and in light of the recent and horrible discoveries about Planned Parenthood we are blessed and pleased to be able to care for and love one of God’s “little ones”. Lord, help each of us to be as concerned as you are about your “little ones” and all those in this world who are weak and helpless.

In other news, I also just finished teaching a week long class at a local Bible college just outside of town here in Kitale. The class I taught was hermeneutics (or, how to interpret Scripture).  The class was all day, every day from Monday to Friday with the final exam on Saturday morning. I was excited about being invited to teach this class at the Bible college because one of the best ways to see the Kingdom of Christ grow and spread here in Kenya is to help, teach and disciple the pastors of the country—and what better topic to teach them but how to properly interpret God’s Word. I found out how important it was to teach my students this topic as throughout the week I found out that their favorite method of interpreting the Scriptures was to allegorize the text (ie, replacing the original, intended meaning of the author with fanciful and imaginative substitute meanings). It was a grueling and tiring week but my eleven students were very bright and I grew to appreciate them all very much.

Finally, I want to give you my latest Pokot news. In my last newsletter update I reported my desire to visit a certain remote village in the bush in Pokot and to take the gospel of Jesus there to those isolated people. Since my last report I was actually able to meet with my contact and we had solidified my plans with actual dates and an itinerary. However, later that very day all my plans came crashing to the ground. I will not go into all the details but let me just say that it was obvious that God himself was closing all the doors for me to make this trip. We can have our own plans but ultimately God is in control and when He shuts the doors it is wise that we not try to force them back open. In fact, it appears that God has completely shut the ministry doors to Pokot to me, at least for the time being. I still desire to minister and share the gospel with these remote people and we will see how God opens things up and allows me to minister there, but for now I have no immediate plans to go. This makes me very sad but I comfort myself with the knowledge that the Apostle Paul also had certain ministry plans and had intentions on going to certain cities when God suddenly directed him to another city and gave him alternative plans. Again, I will try and trust in God and do all that He asks me to do. In the meantime I will pray for an opening up of the ministry back in Pokot.

Until next month, beloved.
May God’s peace and joy be with you.

For the glory of God in East Africa,
Roger & Julie Tate (and Emily, Amy, Josiah & Chloe)

rojuta[at]gmail.com
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