November 9, 2023

Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ,

In addition to all the additional responsibilities and tasks I have this month, I was also privileged by being asked by a group of students to conduct an evangelism seminar for their missions group. There is a missions club at the school called Antioch. They get their name from the first city and church in the New Testament that purposefully sent out foreign and cross-cultural missionaries. The church in Antioch on the Orontes, or Antioch Syria, commissioned and sent out Barnabas and Paul to take the gospel to the Roman empire and the Gentiles nations. It was a great, mission-minded church and second in importance in the New Testament only to the church in Jerusalem. But even the church in Jerusalem didn’t accomplish what the church in Antioch did, in sending out the first cross-cultural, foreign missionaries.

Anyway, the group gets its name from this great church. What impresses me about the Antioch group is their own mission-minded attitudes. This is a group of eighteen students who have a focus on missions, on sharing the gospel with people who have not heard it or are resistant to it. On November 24^th all the students in the school will complete their last final exam for the term. Most of them will take their break from school and go home to rest and be with their families until January. But these eighteen students of Antioch will not be going home right away. They have decided instead to spend ten days of their break going to Samburu in central Kenya. They want to minister to a large group of Masai people that live in that area. They will be going door-to-door (or more likely, boma-to-boma – translated hut-to-hut), holding an evangelistic crusade, and hoping to share the gospel with many of the Masai living in this area. (What do you do when you are going door-to-door and the house doesn’t have a door, only a sheet hanging over the doorway? You can’t knock, you have to call out “Hodi” – translated “hello, I’m here”). And get this: This is not a vacation for these students – they actually have to pay money to be in this group. I’ve heard of Kenyan missionaries being willing to go preach the gospel when they are being paid by western missionaries to do it. But to hear of a group of students who are willing to pay to be members of a missions club so that they can be involved with missions work in Kenya is rare indeed. I am so impressed with this group of students.

In the seminar, my main goal was to encourage them. Going to unfamiliar places and preaching the gospel to unfamiliar faces with unfamiliar cultures can be a frightening endeavor (this is something I know). I wanted to encourage them that God is with them, and His Word will not return to Him void but will accomplish what He sends it out to do. I also gave them some general tips to remember when going out to do this work: Pray, genuinely love and care for the people you will be ministering to, make your goal their good and not a conversion notch on your belt, be willing to listen as much as you are to talk, don’t argue and debate, depend upon the Holy Spirit who will do the work, remember that all you really have to offer them is Jesus, and pray. I taught them some simple methods of presenting the gospel and then gave them some time to practice and get familiar with sharing it. Did I mention how impressed I am with this group of students?

             Lord, God, I pray and ask that You would bless this group of students in the Antioch club. They are giving up part of their term break and expending their time, energy, and money to bring the gospel to a group of Masai living in Samburu land. I ask that You bless them and their efforts. I ask that You empower them with Your Spirit and that Your Word would proceed from them with power and effectiveness. I ask that through them You would bless the Masai people they are going to minister to. I pray that many of the Masai people would hear the gospel message of Jesus and some of them would believe. I ask that as a result of these students’ ministry that Your Kingdom would grow and expand and that Your name would be glorified and Jesus exalted. Amen.

Blessings to all,
Roger, Julie & Chloe

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.