Missionary Update: Roger & Julie Tate in Kenya [March 2012]
The Tate Family has served the Lord in Kitale, Kenya since January 2008. Their main ministry is indigenous church planting.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
The short rains have kicked in here in Kitale. It rains every day again. These rains are needed so that the ground is ready for the farmers to plow and plant. These rains last only a couple of weeks, though, and then the dust season should return for a while. The skies are rumbling with thunder far off even as I speak. The rain is nice as it washes the dust off of everything and is refreshing. Thinking about rain reminds me about one of my favorite verses in Isaiah. Isaiah 55:10-11 says “For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, And do not return there, But water the earth, And make it bring forth and bud, That it may give seed to the sower And bread to the eater, So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it”. What a great promise to remind us that God shall accomplish all His purposes here in Kenya. The work that we do and the words that we speak in his name are not for nothing. He will take our feeble efforts and our ineffective words and somehow make them serve his purpose of bringing light and salvation to lost and dying people. If that is the case then I say let the rain fall on us in torrents and floods.
The works here are progressing, maybe not exactly according to my plan but certainly according to God’s plan. (Just returned to my computer after a short hiatus I needed to take to rescue Josiah’s pet goat. Pet goats are one of the “benefits” of living in Africa). I love to worship God with the Kenyan people and teach them from the Word of God. In recent lessons I have taught them about some of the basics of a relationship with God: Salvation, baptism, prayer, daily devotions, and the functions of a church. Some people know a lot already and some know practically nothing. Most are willing to follow the teachings of any man who calls himself a pastor. One of the cultural things that is taught here is that instead of immersing a person in water when baptizing, the person can just walk under a flag. I’m still not sure where that came from or the significance of it but it is still a common practice. Another strong cultural practice is to receive a baptism card when baptized. While there is nothing inherently wrong with receiving a baptism card, in Kenya these cards can be used for identification, job applications and so on. This makes a person want to be baptized just to receive that card and not because he is identifying himself as a follower of Christ. These and other errors can only be corrected by teaching them to live their lives according to the Scriptures and not according to man-made rules of religion. It is a long, uphill battle that we face.
Finally, my family and I are excited about the upcoming visit from my parents, Norm and Mary Tate. They will arrive inKenyajust five days from today. This will be their second visit to Kenya since we arrived in 2008. On their first visit in February 2009, the Tate family here in Kitale was about to enter a long, difficult battle with culture fatigue. My parents witnessed us falling off the cliff and into the dark abyss of depression and fatigue. Hopefully, they will not have to witness this plunge again this time. It will be so good to have them here with us for the month since we so very much miss ALL of our friends and family from the States.
Until next month, beloved. May God’s peace and joy be with you.
For the glory of God in East Africa,
Roger & Julie Tate (and Emily, Amy, & Josiah)
P.O. Box 761
Kitale, Kenya 30200
rojuta[at]gmail.com
Website
Click here to donate to BFM.
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Missionary Update: The Radfords in Kenya [March 2012]
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 and premature babies.
Dear praying friends,
Another month has come and passed so quickly, and we are now already in the month of March for the year 2012. I am amazed at how fast time passes, and how we need to serve the Lord while there is still time and opportunity. One of my favorite quotes is: “Only one life will soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last.” This update will share ministry progress as well as family updates.
This past month was a sad month in the life of our family. My grandfather, Mr. William Harris, passed away in February. What great childhood memories I have with him, and what a special member of our family he was. He is greatly missed by all in our family. We are thankful that he trusted Christ just a few days before he passed away. What an answer to prayer this is, and a reminder to never give up praying and to persist in prayer. It reminds me of the verse Luke 18:1, which says, “And He spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint.” May we never stop praying, no matter how discouraging things may appear or seem. We thank each of you for your prayers, love and encouragement that you gave to my grandfather over the years.
Our daughter Camille turned 1 year old this past month. That is hard to believe. She is now getting close to crawling, but not quite there. Please pray for us as parents, that we would lead and guide her in the ways of the Lord and be the example to her that we need to be. We are so thankful to have her in our family.
The church planting ministries are continuing well, for which we thank the Lord. My friend Roger Tate and I have been working to begin house churches in the Kitale area. It is exciting to watch those who have been coming to put into practice what they have been learning. Some of our goals are that the works would be sustainable and reproducible. In other words, that the people can sustain the ministries without us, and that they can reproduce to others what they are learning. Some of those coming have already led others to Christ. Others have shown or expressed excitement to teach others as well. Praise God! We are so excited about this and will keep you updated of these ministries.
The Annex prison ministry is continuing well. We have progressed through several of the lessons of “Firm Foundations – From Creation to Christ.” The men seem to be enjoying their study of the Word of God and growing spiritually, for which I thank the Lord. It reminds me of 1 Peter 2:2, where the Bible says, “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby.” It is exciting to watch that God is doing in their lives and we will keep you updated of this ministry.
Please continue to keep us in your prayers. We need the Lord so much for all that is going on here. One thing I have discovered long ago is that the Lord doesn’t need us, but we certainly do need Him! Pray that we would stay close to Him, rely on Him, and trust in Him to lead and guide us and to follow where He leads. We appreciate each of you so much and thank you for your heart for missions. We will keep you updated.
In Kenya,
Nathan and Carrie Radford
P.O. Box 4150
Kitale, Kenya
East Africa 30200
Click here to donate to BFM.
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Missionary Update: Roger & Julie Tate in Kenya [February 2012]
The Tate Family has served the Lord in Kitale, Kenya since January 2008. Their main ministry is indigenous church planting.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
I want to sum up the last month with the following two words: Exciting challenges. That might seem like an oxy-moron to some. This is true even for me as I have to remind myself repeatedly that the challenges we face truly should be exciting because God is working and doing things and He can overcome all challenges. Obviously, I would like everything we do to succeed and go smoothly. That’s my nature. I really don’t like challenges and difficulties. But I guess if everything went exactly how I wanted and all things went smoothly then I would be less dependent on God and more confident in my own abilities (which I am learning are quite limited). Anyway, that’s my pep-talk to you and to me. So, what are some of the exciting challenges? They center around the groups that we have started and hope to groom and mature into churches.
In the first group we have difficulty starting on time and having people show up at all. Last week we waited and waited to start the meeting and by the time we realized only the host couple was going to show up, it was too late to actually conduct the meeting. But, the exciting thing is what the host couple has been doing. They have been putting into practice the things we have been teaching them. The wife has been sharing her faith to multiple people every week and so far has led three people to Christ. She has exciting stories to relate to us of people trusting in Christ each week. Now the challenge is getting these people to come to the group meetings so they can start to learn how to follow and love the Lord Jesus. The husband wants to take the lessons and the model we are teaching him and start another group with some people he witnessed to a couple of miles from his house. This would be a major goal coming to fruition, to see a group or church reaching out to start another group or church all on its own and without the direct intervention of the missionary. This would bring on a whole new set of challenges. We will see how it goes.
In the second group we saw the members who were coming dwindle down to just two. This was discouraging but the exciting part was that one of the members who was coming faithfully wanted to move the group to his own village (he was coming from about five miles away) so that some of his family could come. We decided to move the group out to his village and start the lessons from the beginning for the benefit of his family. I was expecting about four or five people at the most. There was already that many people there when we arrived and over the next fifteen minutes the crowd grew to sixteen people, not including me and Nathan. We were crammed into the little house very tightly and I was beginning to get very nervous about my Swahili abilities but God gave us a good meeting and I think many of these people will return again next week.
As of this week we will also start our third group. This group will meet for the first time this Sunday and I don’t know how many people to expect. A friend of ours got us into contact with the elderly man in whose house we will meet. He is a believer but the only church in his village is a church that he says looks a lot like a Catholic church and he doesn’t want to go there. This is a village of people who are from the Bakusu tribe and I am hoping that they all at least speak Swahili (this is not a given). The greatest challenge for this week might be in finding his house again. He lives about 20-25 minutes from my house in a remote village. It will be difficult to find again and the only way I can see to get there is on the motorcycle as I don’t think the car will make it to his house. We pray that God will use this man and his household to start another church of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Until next month, beloved.
May God’s peace and joy be with you.
For the glory of God in East Africa,
Roger & Julie Tate (and Emily, Amy, & Josiah)
P.O. Box 761
Kitale, Kenya 30200
rojuta[at]gmail.com
Website
Click here to donate to BFM.
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Missionary Update: Roger & Julie Tate in Kenya [January 2012]
The Tate Family has served the Lord in Kitale, Kenya since January 2008. Their main ministry is indigenous church planting.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Our new year has started off well even though it is very hot and very dry. It seems as if the roads are always treacherous to traverse on my little motorcycle. They are either very muddy or very sandy. Either way we always have to be careful.
Ministry with Nathan is progressing nicely. We have started up two new Bible study/worship groups this month. Obviously, our hope and prayer is that these groups will eventually become churches of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one group has four members in it, three men and one woman. The second group has two members, both men. These are small beginnings for the new year but are definitely seeds of new churches. To become churches is what we will train them and teach them to be. This is what we are modeling for them as well. We are trying to teach them to obey what they have learned from the word of God, even if they only know a very little. The great challenge for me is to conduct these meetings in Swahili. It is still very difficult for me to understand Swahili but we want to speak in the heart language of the people. But speaking and listening to Swahili for two or more straight hours at a time can be exhausting. There are many other challenges as well. In our second group, it dawned on me while I was teaching that the young man sitting next to me was illiterate. This poses difficulties that are hard to overcome. I wanted to teach him how to share his faith and present the gospel to his friends and family. I had some simple points I wanted him to write down so that he could easily remember them later. However, he couldn’t read or write. I suddenly had to change my approach to teaching him. The most prevalent and biggest challenge is still the problem of dependency. We still do not want to do anything that a) they will become dependent upon or b) they cannot reproduce on their own. So, when Nathan suggested that we bring some books to the meetings for resources, we quickly decided that it wouldn’t be a good idea because later the group members would want those same resources (from us) when they went to start new groups. It is also why we are meeting in group members’ homes. Even though their homes may be very small and made of mud, I believe it is still the best place for us to meet. Later, when they go to start new groups or churches they will be able to reproduce quickly and not be tied to the model of a church building (The picture I have included is the small house that the second group meets in. We hope this little house later doubles as a meeting place for a new church).
The small house one of their groups of believers is meeting in to worship. They hope this house later doubles as a meeting place for a new church.
This whole non-dependency approach is still definitely swimming against the current. Most Kenyans just don’t get it or understand why we are here. Just for example, 10 minutes before I sat down to write this update I received this anonymous text message. I will reproduce it for you complete, with no corrections for spelling or grammar: “Hi pastor we are really suffering of u come in kaenya to help the poor but nothing u have done Nathen is telling wrong things that’s our crises as Church”. Of course, what this person has said about Nathan is a lie but the whole message reveals the common mindset: Missionaries are to come to Kenya in order to give handouts to all those who want them. Most people want the handouts but not the gospel. Beloved, if you pray for nothing else, please pray for us in this arena.
On a lighter note, I did attend a wedding this past Saturday. I was told the wedding started at 10:00am. When I told the pastor that I would be late because I had a Bible study group from 10-12 he told me to just come when I could as the wedding would probably start late. I arrived at 12:45pm. The bride still had not shown up to a wedding that was supposed to start at 10:00am. She didn’t show up until 2:15pm. Then, when she arrived, it took her and her entourage a full 20 minutes to dance down the 50 foot aisle from the back to the front of the church. I left at 3:45pm. The pastor was just beginning to preach. Anyway, I thought the whole thing was kind of funny.
Until next month, beloved. May God’s peace and joy be with you.
For the glory of God in East Africa,
Roger & Julie Tate (and Emily, Amy, & Josiah)
P.O. Box 761
Kitale, Kenya 30200
rojuta@gmail.com
Website
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