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 16^th 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.

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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