June 28, 2022

Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ,

The first thing I need to do in this newsletter is to apologize to all you partners in our ministry in Kenya. I have failed to write a newsletter update in a couple of months and have been very bad at communicating with you all what is going on in our lives and in our ministry. I offer only a crazy, busy life and a crazy, mixed-up mind as the only excuses for my laxity in reporting. These are not valid excuses and, again, I apologize for not writing. I will have to do better.

A crazy, busy life? For sure!

Last month Julie and I celebrated with our daughter, Amy, as she married her husband, Matthew Earl.  So, Amy is now Amy Earl, and our family continues to grow. This obviously means that Julie and I made a trip to the United States for the ceremony. We made it a quick two-week trip because Chloe could not make the trip with us, and we did not want to leave her in Kenya without us for too long. It took a lot of planning to make this trip happen and for Chloe to be cared for properly. We worried a lot about leaving Chloe in Kenya for two weeks without us because 1) she needs special care and attention and 2) she is very attached to us and experiences attachment issues. But Julie and I have not been to the United States together at the same time in over six years and Amy’s wedding was a crucial event we needed to attend. So, the planning leading up to us leaving was crazy busy, the travel was crazy busy, and our time in the United States was crazy busy. But, at the end of the trip when we were back in Kenya, we could praise God for the two big things we had prayed for: 1) Amy was married and happy and somewhere in Costa Rica with her new husband and 2) Chloe did well in Kenya with her caretakers while we were away. She also did well transitioning back to us being there again. She was definitely a trooper.

So that was last month. Has this month been any different? Not really. If you recall from a previous newsletter, Julie, Chloe and I have been temporarily living in a place called Kijabe so that Chloe could receive some necessary therapy at the Kijabe Mission Hospital, the only place we know of in Kenya where she can receive some of the various therapy she needs. Now that we have been here for a couple of months, we have decided to move our Kenyan ministry from Kitale to Kijabe. This is a major change for us. We have lived in Kitale for fifteen years, the entire length of our ministry work in Kenya. All of our lives and work was poured out in Kitale, on the people there and into the churches we have had a hand in starting. It is hard to leave a place where you have spent so much of your life ministering and used up so much energy in mission work. What is probably harder, though, is to look back and realize you are not leaving behind nearly as much as you wished you were. I couldn’t care less about leaving behind a legacy or a name or anything like that. I do wish I was leaving behind more lives changed in the name of Jesus, more churches started and organized, and more workers trained to carry on the mission. I would have liked to have seen more of the expansion of the Kingdom of Christ, not for the pat on the back or the acknowledgment of men, but for the glory of our Savior. We will leave what we have done in Kitale in the hands of God. And our last work we will also leave in the hands of Elphas Ochila, a Kitale pastor I trust to continue the work of Upper Room Baptist Chapel.

And now, we really have left Kitale, which is why I said this month has been so crazy busy. Julie stayed in Kijabe with Chloe and I spent the last nearly three weeks in Kitale packing things up and shipping them to Kijabe. We moved into our house in Kijabe just four days ago and are trying to get all unpacked, except all three of us (Julie, Chloe and me) are all currently sick from something I picked up and brought back from Kitale. It could be Covid or it could just be the flu, we don’t really know.

Crazy, busy life has led to a bit of a crazy, mixed up mind for me. But now, after we can get over this sickness we all currently have, we can settle into living and ministering for Jesus in Kijabe. I hope to write more about this next month.

Blessings to you all,
Roger, Julie & 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.