April 9, 2025

Greetings in the Name of Jesus Christ,

We are currently in between terms here in Kijabe and so there is not a whole lot going on. I am currently preparing for my next set of classes, but the students are all on break and back home (except for the international ones) and so things are a bit quiet. That gives me a little time to get my classes prepared and my heart prepared for the return of the students later this month.

Since there is not a whole lot going on currently, I will relate a funny (I mean, frustrating) situation I went through this month. So, here in Kenya we have many government documents that we need to keep up to date in order to remain in the country. When I say many, I mean MANY. One of those documents is an Alien ID card (I think the name has recently changed to the more innocuous Foreign National ID). Once you get it renewed it is good for two years. So, two years ago when my ID expired, I applied for a new one, jumping through all the required hoops and payments and trips to Nairobi to accomplish the task. I was supposed to receive my new card within three weeks. After a month went by and I still had not received my card I started inquiring to see where it might have escaped to. I was told there was no problem but that I just needed to wait, and it would come. I kept checking every month after that in order to try and get my new card. I kept on being told the same thing for about a year until someone finally admitted to me that it might have gotten lost and that I should file a formal inquiry into the situation, which I did. A month later I checked to see what had become of my formal inquiry. I was told it never made it into the system and was probably lost. I filed another one. The next time I inquired as to its status I was told to be patient because it was being looked into. Finally, last month, I was told that my card was officially lost and that I would need to re-apply for a new one (I would have to make a new application and pay the fee all over again because the fee I paid for the last one, that I never received, couldn’t be used for the new application). Thus, I reapplied, repaid, and made the necessary trip to Nairobi with my filled-out documents in hand so that I could go to the seventeenth story of Nyayo House (where the immigration department is housed), get fingerprinted, and submit my application. When I took my documents into the office and sat down in front of the immigration officer, she typed some things into her computer and then she asked me why I was applying for a new ID before picking up my previous one. I told her that it had been lost in their system for almost two years and that this is what I was told to do. She told me to wait and got up from her desk and left the office. I waited. Three minutes later she returned, with my lost Alien ID card in hand and handed it over to me, looking very smug. Here was my card that had been lost in the system for almost two years, and she had found it in under three minutes. I couldn’t believe it. However, when I looked closely at my card that she had just retrieved for me I noticed that it was going to expire in ten days. That’s right. It had been renewed two years ago, sat inside someone’s office for two years, and now would expire in ten days. I asked the immigration lady if I could just go ahead and apply for my new card seeing that this one was going to expire in ten days, I already had the renewal application documents in my hand right now, I had already paid (again) for the new application and was already in Nairobi at the immigration office. She promptly told me that I couldn’t apply for the new card until my previous card (the one she just gave me) was expired because the computer wouldn’t allow her to do it. So, I left her office with my card ready to expire in ten days and waited until it expired. Once it expired, I drove back to Nairobi to reapply. Arriving at the office I was told that the system was down and not functioning because the government had not paid their fees to the outsourced company that wrote the program. The outsourced company had shut down the system and was holding it hostage until such time as they would get paid. As of yet it hasn’t gotten paid. I now have an expired card in my pocket with no way to renew it. At least I had a valid card for ten days!

If you wish to minister the gospel of Jesus in Kenya, these are some of the things you have to learn to put up with.

For the glory of God in Kenya.

Blessings to all,
Roger, Julie, & Chloe

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Contact Info:

Roger & Julie Tate
Moffat Bible College
P.O. Box 70
Kijabe, Kenya 00220
rojuta@gmail.com

For ministry donations:
Pastor George Sledd, Treasurer of BFM
P.O. Box 471280 | Lake Monroe, FL 32747-1280
or click here to donate to BFM online.