Foundational Teaching from Colossians; Battling the Flu
The Tate Family has served the Lord in Kitale, Kenya since January 2008. Their main ministry is church planting.
May 30, 2019
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Thank you, Lord, for Your mercy and grace, especially (this month, at least) for mercy and grace towards your missionaries doing your Kingdom work. This missionary, for one, desperately needs it.
I need God’s mercy and grace to do the work He has called me to do here. I can’t help thinking “Maybe I shouldn’t be trying to be a pastor of a church here”. The culture is against me. My inability is against me. Satan is against me. Kitale, in general, is against me. Even nature is against me (yea, I got really sick this past month). But God is for me and I don’t yet feel like He has changed what He wants me to be doing. Thus, I need to trust Him and obey Him and keep doing what He wants.
Things at the Upper Room Baptist Chapel are progressing. I’ve been wondering if a Sunday would come when nobody would show up. I thought that Sunday had come a couple of weeks ago. When 10am rolled around nobody else was there. When 10:07 rolled around there was still no one else there. But at 10:08 someone showed up and a few more trickled in after that. But our attendance that day was only 6. I worried that the low attendance would stay low but the next week we were back up to 16. Again, it is not about numbers. URBC is about proclaiming and living the Word of God and we will continue to be faithful to do just that.
I have finished preaching through the book of Colossians at URBC. The great foundational teachings of this book are vital to the people here in Kitale. Through this book, we at the Chapel learned who Jesus really is, who we are in Jesus, and what Jesus has done for those who trust and follow Him. If we could just learn and master this one book of the Bible, we would go a long way in our walk and relationship with God and in the Kingdom of Jesus. Last week I began a new short series preaching through some of the Psalms. It will be short because I obviously will not be preaching through every Psalm. I will probably only preach through 4 or 5 of them before moving on to something else, maybe to return to Psalms again at some future date. Last Sunday I preached through Psalm 1. It would be difficult for me to say whether the message was good or not (although I pray that it was). You see, I got really sick with the flu. I prepared my message while sick with the flu. I preached my message while sick with the flu. Then I came home and collapsed on the couch. Even for the next two days I was pretty much incoherent on the couch while sick with the flu. I am even late writing this update because I have been sick with the flu. It was a pretty nasty bug that Chloe and I shared but hopefully Julie will avoid. I will have to ask my Chapel members whether the message last Sunday was coherent or not. I am very glad to be feeling better now.
In family news, we have more transitions facing us in the near future. Amy turns 19 in June and then in July she will be graduating from Rift Valley Academy where she has boarded and gone to school for the last five years. Following graduation, she will be leaving Kenya and returning to the States to go to college. I’m sure I will be providing more on this transition in the months to come but I want you all to be praying for Amy (and us) even now as she prepares to make this huge transition in her life. [Read Amy’s testimony here.]
Until next month, beloved.
May God’s peace and joy be with you.
For the glory of God in Kenya,
Roger & Julie Tate (and Amy, Josiah & Chloe)
rojuta[at]gmail.com
Visit their blog!
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.
Read more
Teaching through the Book of Colossians
The Tate Family has served the Lord in Kitale, Kenya since January 2008. Their main ministry is church planting.
March 28, 2019
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
I mentioned in my previous newsletter that I wanted Julie to write the next report. Since writing that I have heard that Baptist Faith Missions wants to hear from the missionary wives for the May issue of the newsletters. Thus, I will be writing this one and Julie will be writing the next one.
Julie’s newsletter will probably be more exciting to read than mine because the best I could say right now is “things are going on”. That isn’t very exciting but it describes the ministry I am doing right now. I’m preparing for messages, practicing new songs, telling people about the Chapel, teaching, teaching, teaching and lots of stuff, stuff, stuff. I think most pastors would probably relate to me saying “I just keep on grinding”. I’m not just “going through the motions” and I’m not burned out or anything. I’m just in a weekly grind. But I do try and break out of this grind as much as possible. And Kenya allows this to happen too. Take today, for example. My car was at the mechanic and my motorcycle developed a flat tire. I pumped air into the tire and limped the motorcycle to town to get the tire fixed. While the mechanic was fixing it I saw three old guys sitting on a bench doing nothing. I walked over and sat next to them. The conversation went something like this. Me: Is this your guys’ job sitting here doing nothing but watch people walk by? Them: Yes, but at least it is interesting. Me: Have you been doing it long? Them: Pretty much. Them: What do you do here? Me: I’m trying to start a church here in town just over there in that building on the third floor. Them: Are you like the other pastors in town, do you teach what they teach? Me: I can’t say what they teach but as for me I teach what’s in the Bible. Them: Really? That’s not what the other pastors here teach. But you don’t teach the whole Bible do you? Me: If it’s in the Bible I teach it and if it isn’t in the Bible I don’t teach it. I want people to know what God has said so that they can follow Jesus. Them: Do you teach from the Old Testament too? Me: I try to show that the Old Testament points to Jesus, prepared God’s people for the coming of Jesus and in every way brings us to Jesus. Them: And now Jesus has come. Me: Exactly, Jesus has come just as the Old Testament teaches, and he has died on the cross for us so that we can live in his kingdom and have eternal life. Followers of Jesus live under a new covenant that Jesus started. That’s why I focus on the New Testament because it teaches us more about Jesus. Them: This is very interesting. How many people come to hear you teach this? Me: Not many, about 15 per week. Them: That’s not very many. Me: Not yet. Maybe you would like to come and hear the teaching. We meet right over there in that building on the third floor at 10am every Sunday. Them: Hem, Haw, Hem, Haw, well, we’ll see. But when you need your motorcycle fixed again, you know where to find us. Me: But you just sit here doing nothing but watch people walk by. Them: Yes, but at least it is interesting.
At this point in the conversation my tire was fixed so I paid the mechanic and left to finish my business in town. Pray for these three old guys. None of them made any commitment to come so I don’t expect to see them on Sunday (not that commitments to come to church make any difference in whether people come or not, do they?). If they come they will hear me as I preach and teach through the book of Colossians. As I preach through the book of Colossians I love this epistle more and more. In it we see the grandness and awesomeness of Jesus, we see the mystery of Christ is in us, we see that Jesus is sufficient for everything and that we are complete in him, and we see that Christ is all in all. Those 15 or so that come each week are also enjoying the teachings of Colossians. I’m pretty sure none of them have ever been taught through a book of the Bible in this way before. May God bless these 15 who come every week and if God wants to bless us with more who want to hear Biblical teaching, we will be ever more thankful for that too.
Until next month, beloved.
May God’s peace and joy be with you.
For the glory of God in Kenya,
Roger & Julie Tate (and Amy, Josiah & Chloe)
rojuta[at]gmail.com
Visit their blog!
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.
Read more
