Nathan and Carrie Radford serve the Lord in Kitale, Kenya. Their main ministries include indigenous church planting, a prison ministry, and a hospital ministry for mothers with premature babies.

August 1, 2016

Dear praying friends,

We hope this update finds each of you doing well. Thanks so much to each of you who sacrificially give, pray for us, or encourage us in any way. We truly appreciate each of you and thank you for your kindness.

I (Nathan) am now back in the United States. It was definitely an interesting few weeks at the end of this term. As I have said before, there were repeated break-in attempts at our compound over the past few weeks. This is very unusual for Kitale. After my family left for furlough, I stayed at a safe guest house in Kitale for a few weeks while closing down. I thank all the staff at the guest house where I stayed, as they were wonderful. While I was at the guest house, there were two attempts at our compound. One was during the morning hours at the compound next to us, and another was at night along the front road. We are thankful both attempts were unsuccessful for the thieves but we remain vigilant to keep our family safe. We have worked hard to increase our security on our compound and for the past several weeks it has been quiet. However, a couple days ago, we found out there was yet another attempt at our compound. It occurred during the day, which is unusual and shows the boldness of the thieves. There were at least 2 thieves, possibly more, who cut through the hedge and barbed wire (that we just installed) at the back of our compound.  Our day guard confronted the thieves and had his hand hurt by a machete (panga in Swahili) during the process.  Our day guard was successful, though, in capturing 2 thieves, tied them up and turned them over to the police.  We are hopeful that turning them over to the police, as well as planting new thornbushes all around the compound will deter more thieves from attempting to break in. We have also gotten a third guard dog to help keep the compound safe as Kenyans fear dogs almost more than other security measures.  Please pray for the police and all the security companies, that they would work hard to catch all these thugs. Our trust is in the Lord for all these matters. I love Proverbs 18:10 which says “The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe.” We will keep you updated on these matters.

It was a difficult final few weeks, but I thank the Lord that I am now safely back in America with friends and family. Family is so important, and I am looking forward to spending quality time with them. After being out of the United States for two years, it was both overwhelming and wonderful to step foot on American soil. I am now in a stage known as “reverse culture shock,” where it will take time to adjust back to America. It was neat to fly over the Middle East (Iraq, Iran) on my way home, as this is part of the world I have never been to.

Please pray for all the ministries while we are on furlough, as well as our friends and partners, the Tate family. There is much to do over the next few weeks, such as finalizing the missions presentation, getting a missions DVD done, doing a family prayer card, etc. I will soon be scheduling churches for our furlough, so if you are interested, you can email me at: naterad@yahoo.com. I will also send a DVD to those who are interested in the work that God is doing in Kitale, Kenya. I have learned that God doesn’t need us, but we certainly need Him. We can do nothing without Him. How we need to pray regularly, read the Bible, seek His will, and follow His leading. Weneed Him for everything. Psalm 86:11 says “Teach me thy way, O Lord; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name.” May this be the sincere prayer and desire of our hearts.

We will keep you updated.

Blessings.

Nathan and Carrie Radford
P.O. Box 4150
Kitale, Kenya
East Africa, 30200
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.