April 24, 2026

Greetings from the beautiful Rift Valley of Kenya! Another May is upon us, and that gives me the opportunity to share things with all of you from my perspective. Yay!

It’s been quite a year, but what year isn’t? In April 2025, Chloe’s teacher was tragically killed in a matatu (that’s a public service vehicle that looks like a mini-van and holds about 15 people) accident one morning on her way to our home for work. That one incident set a whole new trajectory for our family. I went from working with a behavior specialist to BEING the behavior specialist. I went from collaborating with Chloe’s teacher and the ABA organization she worked for to HIRING and TRAINING Chloe’s new teacher, SETTING all the short-term and long-term goals, DESIGNING all the interventions, programs, academic supports and goals, and behavior tracking and intervention, and MONITORING progress and/or regression in all areas. It’s a huge change, and it’s indescribably overwhelming.

Interestingly – for several months before Doreen’s untimely death, I’d been feeling the prompting of the Holy Spirit that I was going to need to be more deeply involved and that we needed to stop working with the ABA group in Nairobi – that I needed to take on the whole responsibility. I wrestled and wrestled with that. What would that look like? Was this really a prompting of the Holy Spirit, or was I just being an overly worried mom (something I get accused of a lot – unfairly, I might add)? Would I have to step back from RVA?

We talked to several advisors, and everyone advised us (and Roger advised me as well) to NOT step back from RVA – it’s my calm in the storm, my breath of fresh air, my opportunity to leave my home and serve my community. It, in fact, helps me be a better mom to Chloe. We hired a top-tier specialist in the US – a Christian counselor who specializes in helping families like ours with kids like Chloe – to talk us through strategies, help Roger and me stay on the same page, and encourage us in our family journey.

As a result of all of this, we’ve seen a lot of growth in Chloe this year. Physically, she’s bigger than I am now! Yes, we’ve got an 11 year-old in a 25 year-old body with a 6 year-old mind (in some respects). Academically, we’ve seen a lot of growth in reading, writing, and math (1st and 2nd grade level, but that’s a big improvement). Emotionally, we’ve seen a lot of growth in her ability to more quickly calm herself when she has what we call “freak-outs” or “melt-downs.” Instead of lasting an hour or 30 minutes, it might last 1-5 minutes.

However, this also does mean I’ve informed RVA that I have to step back from teaching Computer classes. I will still be teaching Swahili and developing that curriculum and those resources for them, but dropping Computer classes means I go from 16 classes per week – with 86 separate students with 53 of those students in two different subjects – to 9 classes per week with 53 students. It also means I don’t have the password set-up and computer set-up for every student at the elementary school. It just wasn’t all sustainable – it was like having 3 full-time jobs (including Chloe). I will be finding a smaller, secondary role to play, but it will be something that can get me home earlier in the day and without all the extra grading, planning, and administration.

In OTHER NEWS!!!!!!!!!! As you already know, Roger and I are now grandparents! I had the wonderful opportunity to be with Emily and Igor starting 2 days before Persephone (Per-sef’-uh-nee) – or Sephi for short – was born and extending until just after she was 7 weeks old. Oh, what a gift that was! Emily and Igor are over the moon in love with this precious (and precocious!) little girl. And in OTHER NEWS!!!!!!!!!  Igor was saved last year and is getting baptized on May 17th!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  And in OTHER NEWS, Amy and Matt are expecting a little girl in July!!!!!!!!!! And in OTHER NEWS Josiah is getting married in August!!!!!

Which leads me to a prayer request: Roger and I need to travel to the United States TOGETHER for 4 weeks in July/August. We can’t miss these family milestones. But…finding someone to be with Chloe while we are gone is highly challenging. Please pray that people will step up so Roger and I can do this together – it’s been 4 years since we’ve been able to do anything at all just the two of us. There are so many logistics – I don’t need to share them all; God knows them all. Also, continue to pray for Chloe’s continued growth – especially in the areas of self-control and panic responses.

God bless all of you! Thank you so much for your prayers on our behalf. Together, “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.” Hebrews 10:23

Your sister and fellow servant in Christ,

Julie Tate

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Contact Info:

Roger & Julie Tate
Moffat Bible College
P.O. Box 70
Kijabe, Kenya 00220
rojuta@gmail.com

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Pastor George Sledd, Treasurer of BFM
P.O. Box 471280 | Lake Monroe, FL 32747-1280
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