September 17, 2020

Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ,

It has been an interesting month to say the least. For the last few weeks Julie has been in the United States on a much-needed trip to visit family. Since we haven’t had a furlough since 2013, we do not get back home very often to visit parents and children. So, it is good that Julie be there for a little while to see our very missed family members. So that means that I have been here in Kenya alone with Chloe.  That, I guess, is what is making this month so interesting. But Chloe and I have been surviving and getting along OK. I have learned to pick my battles with her. The day I am writing this update is actually Chloe’s birthday. She turned six years old today. That is hard to believe! She didn’t come home to live with us for another month after her birthday but I was contemplating this today: Six years ago today an unknown Kenyan girl, from an unknown Kenyan village gave birth to a 2 pound baby and this event would change my life forever. I didn’t know it yet, but God knew it and His plan was to bring her to our home. Chloe would change our lives, we would change hers, and we would be linked together forever.  All according to God’s plan (which he would unfold for us in the weeks following her birth).

Ministry at the Chapel has started up very slowly. Our first week after restarting from the Covid shutdown we had 5 in attendance. The second week we had 6. The third week 7. The fourth week 8. Seeing a trend here? Well, we were going in the right direction as far as attendance is concerned but then we hit the fifth week. On the fifth week we had 2 – myself and Victor. So, I thanked God for Victor.  Victor faces some mental challenges but he loves Jesus, is a humble and loving man and he rarely misses a service at the Chapel. In fact, he usually shows up an hour early to clean and help me get everything set up. As far as I know, Victor has no job and no income but I have on multiple occasions seen Victor take a loaf of bread or a bag of chips that I have bought for him and immediately open it and give half of it to people on the streets. He has a big heart. So, on week 5 I thanked God that Victor was at the Chapel, even though there was no one else there. Victor and I sang a few songs together, talked about God and some things in the Bible, prayed for a while, and finished our service. Week 6 we then had ten in attendance. We will see where the trend goes from there. My goal is to get back to where we were before Covid hit. I am not referring to numbers in attendance but to closeness, to relationships, to spiritual growth, to glorifying God together, to the Kingdom of Jesus, and to the overall desire to see the ministry develop and progress.

Please keep our Chapel in prayer and pray that my wife gets back here soon.

Blessings to you all,
Roger, Julie, Amy, Josiah & Chloe

CONTACT INFO

Roger & Julie Tate
P.O. Box 96
Kitale, Kenya 30200
rojuta@gmail.com

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