New Venue for the Chapel
August 19, 2020
Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ,
Fortunately, not every newsletter that I write is filled with gloom and woe. Fortunately, again, this one (unlike the last one) will not be filled with gloom and woe.
So I think in the place I left off last month in this story of church building missionary work in Kitale, I was relating to you that we had lost our place of worship again and I was looking for a new location. No place seemed perfect and each place had its pros and cons. But one place, in particular, seemed to offer the best possibilities and potential, albeit with the higher price. Thus, I snatched it up and signed a two-year lease on the accommodations. In the new venue the Chapel will have its own house with a larger living room in which we will worship and preach the Word of God. The house also has other rooms where Sunday School or children’s church can also be conducted. It will be refreshing having the building completely to ourselves so that we can use it however we wish. I got the place all set up and announced we would be worshiping together again on August 16, 2020 (the year of total unpredictability and chaos).
August 16th rolled around and, indeed, we held our worship service. Only four other people showed up. This is uncharacteristically low attendance for the Chapel. In fact, it is the lowest attendance in the history of the Chapel, since I started it in October 2018. I was anticipating a low attendance but not quite this low. But I did expect this. I knew that a family had moved out of town and that the government is still not allowing children under the age of 13 to attend (which includes most of the families attending the Chapel). So, I am not discouraged, yet. The four who returned were all very excited about returning and starting things back up. Since we were so few, I asked them if we should just spend some time praying together and reading a portion of Scripture and discussing it. They said, “No”, they wanted a normal time of singing and the preaching and teaching of the Word of God. Elphas said, “There are lots and lots of churches in Kitale but none of them actually teaches the Word of God”. While this is not exactly accurate it does show you the importance of the Chapel and the reason we exist in this place—Teach the Word of God, make disciples, start churches, spread the Kingdom, show and share the love of Jesus. So, we did that. We sang. We prayed. I taught about Jesus being the “God you can see and touch”. We discussed the Word of God together. Now we pray that more of our Chapel friends will make it back over the next couple of weeks.
In personal news, Julie will be visiting the States for a month, leaving only a few days after the writing of this report. We have not had an official furlough since 2013 because we are not able to leave the country with Chloe and Julie very much needs a short break from Kenya. So, she will be spending the month of September hopefully resting and visiting our stateside children and parents in Michigan. Chloe and I will remain in Kenya. Please pray for a safe and beneficial journey for Julie.
Blessings to you all,
Roger, Julie, Amy, Josiah & Chloe
CONTACT INFO
Roger & Julie Tate
P.O. Box 96
Kitale, Kenya 30200
rojuta@gmail.com
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Seeking a Place to Meet; Update on Josiah
The Tates have served the Lord in Kitale, Kenya since January 2008. Their main ministry is church planting.
July 20, 2020
Greetings in the Name of Jesus Christ,
As you read through my newsletter for this month you will probably say to yourself “haven’t I heard this before”? Well, even to me some of the things I will write about in this newsletter sound like a broken record – skip, skip, skip. I definitely feel like we have been through this newsletter before.
The reason for the broken record this month is because, once again, we are definitely looking for a new location to worship in for Upper Room Baptist Chapel. We started the Chapel in 2018, meeting in a room on the top floor (the “Upper Room”) of a building in town. In August 2019, while I was in the States taking Amy to college, we encountered problems with another church that had moved in across the hall and greatly disturbed our services with their amplifiers and speakers and loud music and screeching preaching. Not being able to resolve the problems with this other church we decided to move out. In September of 2019 we moved into a house, sub-renting the place from a school that also met there. It was an excellent venue for the Chapel, and we all enjoyed meeting and worshiping there. The Chapel began to grow numerically and spiritually. Then, in March of 2020 the big boom hit – Covid19. The Kenyan government shut down everything as I mentioned in previous newsletters – schools, churches, government offices, etc. This shutdown ultimately caused the school from whom we were sub-renting to financially implode and subsequently go belly-up and shut its doors for good.The shutting down of the school left URBC in a quandary. Now we again needed a place to worship. Because we liked the location so much, we considered taking over the entire rent of the premises and just using it entirely for the Chapel. We approached the landlady proposing the idea. It would cost us a lot more money, but it would cause the least disruption to the Chapel and since the Lord’s work is more important than money, we thought it was a deal worth pursuing. It turns out, however, that the owner of the building is a Somali lady. Now, I am not disparaging Somalis or putting them down at all, but the end result was not surprising. Somalia is 99% Muslim and the Somali owner is a Muslim. She was not mean about her decision and she was not discriminating against us because we are Christians but she felt like renting her place to a “Jesus church” was against her Muslim beliefs. She thought that her Somali community here in Kitale would persecute her if they found out she was renting her property to a church and decided not to rent it to us. That is her prerogative. But this did leave us in a familiar position – once again looking for a place to worship.
Since then I have been looking for a new place to worship but the available places are severely limited and expensive. I just looked at a place today that could meet our needs and be an OK place to meet but I feel like the property is overpriced. I hope to look at another place tomorrow but I’m not sure how that will turn out either. Please be in earnest prayer that God would lead us to the right place, a place that would meet our needs at the right price and that could be used to glorify His Name, spread His kingdom here on earth, and provide spiritual and physical growth for the Chapel.
In other news, we were able to get Josiah on an evacuation flight out of Kenya and to the States. He needed to get back to the States in time to quarantine for 14 days before school starts but there have been no international flights out of Kenya since March, and none scheduled until sometime in August. This didn’t give Josiah enough time to make it to school. Then on Friday, July 10th, we received an email from the embassy about the evacuation flight leaving on Monday, July 13th. Julie and I thought about it for two minutes and decided to get him on the flight. We booked the flight that day, Friday. Saturday, we spent getting everything ready for him to leave Kenya and get back to the States. Sunday, Josiah and I drove to Nairobi. Monday afternoon I put him on a plane leaving Kenya forever. This all happened very, very quickly, much too quickly for his mama and me. One day he was here at home with no idea of when he would be leaving and the next day, literally, he was gone – Flying from Nairobi to Qatar to the United States, flying for the first time by himself, and heading to America to start his new life without the help of mom or dad. Very hard for Josiah. Very hard for mom and dad. Please pray that God would be with him in a very special way, strengthening him, giving him courage, and filling him with His Holy Spirit. Pray for mom and dad too.
Blessings to you all,
Roger, Julie, Amy, Josiah & Chloe
Contact Info:
Roger & Julie Tate
P.O. Box 96
Kitale, Kenya 30200
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.
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With Bad News All Around, the Good News Still Stands
June 19, 2020
Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ,
Unfortunately, this month’s newsletter is mostly just bad news. I wish I could say otherwise but the truth is the truth – Corona is wreaking havoc on our ministries here. Churches, schools and government offices are all closed so you can imagine what effects that is having on us.
Bad news #1: Government offices still closed. My work permit officially expired back in March. I had already filed to renew it and it was “accepted”. However, the offices closed before I could receive my paperwork. Where is my paperwork now? I don’t know. What does that mean for my status as a resident in Kenya? I don’t know that either.
Bad news #2: Schools are still closed. If you’ve been following our newsletters on a monthly basis you know that for the last two years Julie has been working diligently and feverishly as the Head Teacher of the newly started Milimani Christian Homeschooling Community (MCHC), a project started by some of our dear Kenyan friends here in Kitale. We didn’t start this school, nor does it belong to us, but Julie especially has been very instrumental in getting it off the ground and keeping it running. It obviously means a great deal to us. When Corona hit Kenya, this school was also shut down. The implications of this are grave. With no school fees coming in the teachers cannot be paid and the rent for the property has not been paid for months. While the directors of the school are trying to get extensions for the lease, the landlady has not been compliant and is demanding all back payments as well. I do not see how the school as a business survives this Corona Virus. There is simply no cash flow and the property almost certainly will be lost unless something miraculous happens. The imminent demise of the school is a source of much pain for Julie especially.
Bad news #3: Upper Room Baptist Chapel will lose its meeting place. Yes, you may have guessed it – URBC rents the facilities from MCHC and holds its weekly worship services there on that property. When and if MCHC loses its property then URBC loses its venue for worship and ministry. URBC cannot officially meet right now either (although I am in the process of getting special permission to do so) but when our services do start back up it looks like we will have to also start looking for a new location in which to meet. This is very depressing to me, as you might be able to imagine. I liked our current location very much as it was very conducive to the way we wanted the Chapel to run and operate. Now it looks as if we almost certainly will lose this venue as well.
Bad news #4: It just seems like Satan is against us at every turn. Our ministries are in disarray; Our main grocery store in town closed down; Our landlord will not allow any of our friends to come onto our compound; Josiah cannot get out of the country to get back to the U.S. and start college; I keep getting arrested by corrupt police officers who are not arresting me over legalities or infractions but simply to extort bribes from me because I have a target on my back. Ever feel like nothing is going right?
Good news: God is still on the throne; God is still in control; God still loves us; Jesus is still King; Jesus’ work on the cross still stands; Our salvation is sure; Jesus will come back and will triumph; God’s work will progress. In this we stand. In this we trust. In this we move forward.
Blessings to you all,
Roger, Julie, Amy, Josiah & Chloe
Contact Info:
Roger & Julie Tate
P.O. Box 96
Kitale, Kenya 30200
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.
Read more
Growing & Being United in the Love of Jesus
The Tate Family has served the Lord in Kitale, Kenya since January 2008. Their main ministry is church planting.
January 20, 2020
Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ,
Pastoring a church in any situation is not easy. I think it is especially not easy pastoring a church in a cross-cultural setting. There are so many things that I do wrong and because it is being done in a cross-cultural setting. Most of the time I don’t even know the things I’m doing wrong. Some things I have learned a little, like, not using American illustrations in my sermons that don’t make any sense to my Kenyan listeners. Also, talking slower and enunciating my words clearly for those who are not used to my American accent. Other things I have gotten used to—like children walking around during my message, even up to the lectern where I am standing, and talking to me while I am preaching (Chloe did this the other day too. She came right up to me while I was preaching, tugged on my pant leg, and asked me if she could preach.). I try and keep things informal and people will comment or ask questions in the middle of my sermon. I actually like that. What haven’t I learned? Well, again, that’s hard to say. I haven’t learned all the cultural norms. I haven’t learned to speak Swahili well enough. I haven’t learned how to play the guitar well. I haven’t learned yet when I have done something to offend someone. Pastoring a church as an American in Kenya is not easy. But it IS rewarding.
The last couple of weeks we have had a new family attending the Chapel. It is always nice to have visitors that come more than once. One-and-done’s are discouraging. It makes one think he is doing something wrong. But we are doing exactly what I think God wants us to be doing: simple Bible teaching, sensible and heartfelt worship, focus on Jesus. So, even if the one-and-done’s don’t like what we are doing, we will continue to follow God’s leading anyway. The new family, however, has returned. The mother came first, along with her three children. The father works in Nairobi, an eight-hour drive from his family. But he also was in Kitale this past weekend and attended the Chapel with his family. He told me that he also enjoyed our Chapel service very much. We are praying that this family continues to attend.
I am encouraged to see the Chapel folks entering a new phase together. Being in our new location is much more conducive to “fellowship”. The people are beginning to linger a lot longer after the services, talking and getting to know each other better. I see them starting to become friends instead of just “people who attend the same Chapel service”. I enjoy watching them mingle and listening to their conversations. We are all definitely growing and being united in the love of Jesus. It has also been suggested to me by some of the people that we should have more times of fellowship outside of our normal Sunday services. First, this shows me that they truly are growing and being bonded in the love of Christ. Second, it shows that they are taking initiative and interest in the growth of the Chapel instead of just allowing me to take all the initiative. Others have seen needs in the Chapel (like childcare) and are taking the initiative to find solutions to those needs. These developments are encouraging to me and I praise God for what he is doing in our ministry.
Blessings to you all,
Roger, Julie, 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
Working for and Enlarging the Kingdom of Jesus
The Tate Family has served the Lord in Kitale, Kenya since January 2008. Their main ministry is church planting.
December 24, 2019
Greetings in the Name of Jesus Christ,
The first thing I need to do this month is to apologize for not writing an update for last month. I would offer you a great excuse but I don’t have one. I simply forgot last month to write an update and by the time I remembered it was too late. It must be because since my last update I celebrated my 50th birthday and my brain cells are diminishing.
Twenty years ago this month I was still working as a software engineer in Ohio and we were frantically preparing for the Y2K bug that was going to shut down the world. Do you all remember that time? All the computers in the world were supposed to shut down and we were about to be catapulted back into the dark ages. Everyone was a bit nervous about what was going to happen and some were even predicting the end of the world or the return of Jesus. Here we are twenty years later. The computers didn’t shut down (in fact, they didn’t have any problems whatsoever). The world didn’t end. And Jesus didn’t return. I am hoping, though, that we haven’t remained static in these last twenty years. Our world is so unpredictable and unstable. Yes, Jesus might return this year (that isn’t a prediction) and we need to be working for and enlarging His Kingdom.
Working for and enlarging the Kingdom of Jesus is exactly what we are trying to do here in our own small way in Kenya. Back in October of this year we celebrated our 1-year anniversary for the starting of Upper Room Baptist Chapel. We were in the midst of a lot of changes at the Chapel at that time because we were being forced out of our gathering place and having to move to a new location. Julie and I and the family were also in a lot of flux because at the same time we were having to move out of the house we had been living in for the past nine years. But things have stabilized since that time and the work is ongoing. We have a good group of people attending the Chapel and I believe their desire is truly to live for Jesus. I enjoy teaching them from the Bible but I also enjoy what they have to teach me about following the Lord and learning to love Him more. I never come away from talking with them but that I am blessed or challenged in multiple ways. Case in point, I was talking with one of our Chapel members over chai (tea) last week and he blessed my heart and challenged me at the same time. He is the most generous (concerning financial giving) person I think I have ever met. He will pick up a street boy who is sick and take him to the hospital and pay for his treatment. He contributes to funerals when he doesn’t have any money. He takes care of his friends and neighbors when they have needs. He gave all his spare money to a widow of a friend of his last week. All of this is a common practice for him. And what makes this all so amazing is that he is dirt poor. He, his wife, his two daughters and all of his possessions live in a 10×10 foot mud house. I try to convince him that he needs to keep some for himself but he refuses to listen to me in this matter. He tells me that those other people need his help and that God will bless him and take care of all his needs. He even insists on paying for the chai and chapati we eat (but this I cannot allow and I get the blessing of paying for chai and chapati). Do you see why I walk away blessed and challenged?
As we enter into the new year of 2020, I want to lead the people of the Chapel to begin thinking more outside our four walls. I want to see them sharing their faith more with other people. I want to see them thinking about how they will live out their faith by ministering to others in the community. I want to see them showing the love of Jesus to the community by ministering to the poor, the sick, the widows and orphans, the outcasts. I pray that in 2020 they will themselves become missionaries to their communities and even to the world.
In closing, the picture I have provided is of an illustration I used in my sermon last week at the Chapel. It was entitled “How to Ensure Your Failure”. It was about trusting in your own righteousness instead of trusting in the work of Jesus. In it are me, Josiah (who I am making sure will fail the race we are about to have) and Victor. Victor is helping me ensure Josiah fails and I win!
An illustration I used in my sermon last week at the Chapel. It was entitled “How to Ensure Your Failure”. It was about trusting in your own righteousness instead of trusting in the work of Jesus. In it are me, Josiah (who I am making sure will fail the race we are about to have) and Victor. Victor is helping me ensure Josiah fails and I win!
Blessings to you all,
Roger, Julie, 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
URBC Driven Out of Its Location
The Tate Family has served the Lord in Kitale, Kenya since January 2008. Their main ministry is church planting.
September 27, 2019
Greetings in the Name of Jesus Christ,
Upper Room Baptist Chapel has been driven out of its location. We have been meeting in a building in town for the past year. October 21st is our one-year anniversary, but we will not make until then before we will in a different location.
During the month I was in the States taking Amy to college the directors of our building invited another church to move in across the hall from our church (and doesn’t charge them rent either). The door of this other church is literally four feet away from the door to our room. When I returned to Kenya, I promptly experienced the problem firsthand. When we gathered to worship on Sunday the church across the hall was playing music on their speakers and it was so loud, we could not hear each other in our room, even when we were yelling at each other. I knew I would have to try and solve this problem as soon as possible. I met with the caretaker of the building and requested a meeting with the other pastor. The other pastor did not even show up to the meeting even when he promised to attend. When he finally did show up to one of our scheduled meetings the suggested solution from the caretaker and the other pastor was that we, the Chapel, change our meeting time from 10am to 8am. I was not happy with this suggestion. I felt like the other church should alter their times because we had already been meeting in our room for almost a year. The other church has refused to make any changes and the unbearable noise has continued without any change as well. The directors of the building do not seem to care that this conflict is ongoing, and they refuse to take up our cause. It is my opinion that the directors want to drive us out in order that the other church can take over our room (since I spent a lot of money making our room nice). I have taken the matter to the people of the Chapel. We have met together many times to try and find solutions to this problem. We are approaching any solutions to this problem with the following Biblical principles: 1) Do everything out of love, 2) Glorify God in everything you do, 3) Let the world see your good works and glorify the Father through you, 4) Don’t let desires cause wars among you, 5) Allow yourself to be defrauded before “going to court” and 6) Let each of you think of others before yourselves. The bottom line is that I am trying to teach my people that we do not want to let the world see us fighting with another church. We would much rather “be defrauded”, as Paul says it, than to harm the Kingdom of Christ by fighting with other Christians, even if we think those Christians are not acting very Christ-like.
Taking these principles in mind, plus the fact that the directors of the building seem to be against us and we cannot get any change from them, the people of the Chapel have unanimously decided to find another place to worship. And, almost immediately upon making this decision, we were able to locate a place. Starting on the first Sunday in October we will be meeting at the school facilities of Milimani Christian Homeschooling Community, the school which Julie helped get started and now ministers as head-teacher. All of the directors of the school are our good friends and two of them are also weekly attendees at the Chapel. I believe the Lord has already blessed us by providing us with this new venue and I believe he will continue to bless us ongoing because we are trying to glorify Him above everything else. Beloved, the building where we have been driven from is not a big deal. The money invested in the other room is not a big deal. The opposition we are faced with is not a big deal. Meeting to worship under a Mango tree while trying to sort out the conflict is not a big deal. But, glorifying God IS a big deal. And this is what I want my people to do above anything else.
I know that not everybody will agree with our decision. Many might wish us to fight for what we consider our rights. I understand that. I get it. But please consider these things: 1) This is a very delicate situation, 2) The Chapel is a new mission work that we do not want to see Satan destroy, 3) I am a foreigner and alien in this country, 4) God does not want to see his people fighting, 5) God will bless those who follow his ways, and, 6) God is still in control of His Kingdom and this world. We will try and continue to trust in Him. Finally, rest assured in the fact that we have lost no attendees of the Chapel over this matter, nor over the decision we have made. The decisions were unanimous, and all are happy with them and are excited to see what God will do with us in the future.
Blessings to you all,
Roger, Julie, 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
Headed Back to Some Trouble in Kenya
The Tate Family has served the Lord in Kitale, Kenya since January 2008. Their main ministry is church planting.
August 27, 2019
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
I am again sitting in Emily’s living room while I write this update. However, I am now at the end of my Stateside trip to take Amy to school. I fly back to Kenya tomorrow afternoon, beginning my long journey back to Julie and back to Kitale. I have been a month in the States now, getting done the things I came to do and enjoying time with my family and church.
Amy is now at Cedarville University. I am thankful to the University for the International / Missionary Kid orientation they provided for Amy. Amy and I were able to spend a few days on campus getting familiar with everything before the rest of the incoming freshman arrived. This helped Amy and the other third culture kids acclimate much easier and helped them start making friends earlier as well. I will be sad tomorrow when I leave as I will now be leaving both Emily and Amy on this side of the world.
I will be returning to some trouble on the Kenyan side of the world. In my absence some troubles have arisen at the Upper Room Baptist Chapel. The problem isn’t with any of my people. All my people have stayed and continued worshiping together in my absence. The problem comes from other Christians who are not acting too much like Jesus. The situation is thus: Another church moved into our building directly across the hall from the door to our Chapel. That means their door is no more than 4 feet away from our door. On top of this they have installed large speakers and amplifiers in their room and pointed them at the door and towards our chapel. When my people arrived at the Chapel on that first Sunday the music from the other church was already booming so loudly that the Chapel was vibrating. My people could not hear each other no matter how loudly they spoke or yelled at each other. They went to speak to the pastor of the other church and see if anything could be done about the noise. The other pastor and church refused to do anything about the music and continued to blast my people out of the building. My Chapel people did not want a confrontation with the other church and wanted to be Christ-like. They decided to take chairs outside and they met under a Mango tree for which I strongly commend them. We were hoping the problem would correct itself, but the problem has actually continued as is for the past three weeks. My landlord is aware of the problem but has not taken action yet to correct it. As a result, this will be one of the first items I will have to address as soon as I return. Since the first moment I heard that this was going on I truly believed it was an attack from Satan. I have not become discouraged about it at all yet and truly feel that it is a little test to see how we will handle the difficulty and whether we will trust God with the problem or not. We will be praying for a quick and amicable resolution and one in which God will receive all the glory.
Next newsletter will be from Kenya once again.
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
A Time of Transition
The Tate Family has served the Lord in Kitale, Kenya since January 2008. Their main ministry is church planting.
July 27, 2019
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
I get the privilege of writing this update in much closer proximity to you than I normally do. As I write this, I am sitting at my daughter Emily’s dining room table in Detroit, Michigan. I am here for a short visit to bring Amy back to the States to commence her university career. Julie has had to stay back in Kenya with Josiah (who will be doing this same thing next year at this time) and Chloe.
So, yes, Amy has graduated from high school at Rift Valley Academy where she has attended and boarded for the last five years. This is a very traumatic time for all of us, especially Amy. It is traumatic for the rest of us because Amy will be leaving us for who knows how long. Her Mama has already hugged her neck and kissed her cheek for the last time in a long time and in a couple of weeks I will do the same before I board a plane to return to Kenya. This is harder than you might think for us. In fact, I think it might be the hardest part of being a missionary—leaving your kids in a place on their own 10,000 miles away. We don’t like it and we mourn and lament having to do it. But it is even more traumatic for Amy. She says goodbye to everything that is now familiar—Goodbye to RVA, goodbye to friends, goodbye to her (almost twin) brother, goodbye to her house, goodbye to Kenya, goodbye to her pets, goodbye to her mama and in a couple of weeks goodbye to her daddy. She returns to a country that is foreign to her. Amy has lived in Kenya since she was 7 years old. She knows Kenya. America, she doesn’t. When she starts school at Cedarville University in Ohio everything will be foreign and unfamiliar. Everything will be strange and uncomfortable. And everything she has left behind will be far, far away. In the last six years Amy has spent less than a month in the States. Please pray for all of us but especially Amy as she makes this transition. We know she is in God’s hands but it hurts us so much that first our precious Emily has left Kenya and now our precious Amy is also leaving. Lord, may you bless my dear children with your presence in their lives. Bless them with your love, your grace, your protection. Draw them close to you and close to your heart. Be the Father to them that I cannot be and may they always know that you are near.
Having left Kenya for a month I have, out of necessity, left the Upper Room Baptist Chapel on its own as well. This brings a bit of anxiety and trepidation into my heart as well. I don’t know what the state of the Chapel will be when I return. I’m sure every minister, pastor and missionary deals with this same anxiety when they are away. Will the ministry survive while I am away? Will there be anybody left at the chapel when I return? Will I be starting all over again? Will the dear people coming to the Chapel stick it out in my absence? Is the ministry there strong enough to endure my absence? These are all questions that obviously concern me. I have worked hard to start the Chapel and the Chapel people are precious to me. I want to continue to watch them grow in Jesus Christ and I want them around when I return to Kenya. I have to entrust them to the Lord’s care, believing the Lord will care for them. But I also know that they are good and strong Christian people and I DO trust that they will be around when I get back. In my absence they will continue to meet together at the Chapel, to worship the Lord together and to study the Bible together. I trust that when I return, they will be an even stronger knit together group of Christian believers than when I left. Because, after all, it is not my ministry, but it belongs to Jesus. They are not “my people” but they belong to Jesus. It is not my work it is Jesus’. He cares for the work and the people even more than I do. Into his hands I commit them. They are in safe hands.
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
