Missionary Update: The Tates in Kenya [November 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,
Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Life is going on here in Kenya. Josiah turned 11 years old this month. We had a small party for him with some friends (mostly grown ups because there are very few children his age here). The radio controlled car he received from his grandparents in the mail keeps roaming around the house. I also have a birthday coming up in ten days. I will turn 43. And, just a few days before my birthday, I will attempt to run my first full marathon. Why am I attempting this? It’s hard to explain. But, maybe the Kenyan runners inspired me. Too bad they will be so far out in front of me when we run the race.
Ministry goes on as well. At Shangalamwe we are very close to beginning a newer phase in that new church’s ministry. Up to now, Nathan and I have done all of the teaching and leading of the new church. We are about to enter a phase where we will begin to gradually hand these responsibilities over to the believers and members of that church. This is Paul’s method in the New Testament and we want to emulate his methods as much as possible. Sometimes he would stay in a city for a year or two teaching and other times he would be run off after only a few months or weeks. But in every place that he went he tried to leave a strong church led by strong leaders. We want to begin teaching the leaders of the Baptist Church of Shangalamwe to take over teaching the Word of God, leading the worship, and leading the church in general and in spiritual matters. We have tried to model much of this for them over the last few months and hope and pray that they will follow this leading. Nathan and I cannot stay here at this church forever and in this culture it would be far too easy for them to become dependent upon us to do everything for them. This transition might not be easy for either them or for us. Change is always hard. However, this young church has the Word of God and the Spirit of God to lead them, help them, guide them and empower them to continue and persevere and to do the work of the kingdom in the village of Shangalamwe. May God bless all their efforts in doing his work and will.
Also, the young man, Titus, who we are discipling on a weekly basis is doing just a fantastic job. He has started five Bible study / worship groups all on his own without any direct intervention from us and all of these groups are thriving. This is what we encouraged and trained him to do and he is running with the training and doing a great work for the Kingdom of God. His groups continue to grow. In fact, one of his groups is no longer able to meet in the original house they were meeting in because they have outgrown it. The 32 people coming simply could not fit in the small house where they were meeting. They had to meet outside and sit on the ground. I cannot begin to tell you how excited that makes me. His other groups are doing almost as well. We have trained and modeled for Titus how to start groups and teach them the Word of God. Now we have begun to train him on how to turn these groups into churches: What the Bible says about churches, what a church is, how a church is organized and started, what needs to be done, steps to be taken, etc. Our prayer and goal is that some day these groups will have the necessary “Biblical ingredients” and take the necessary Biblical steps to become churches 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 96
Kitale, Kenya 30200
rojuta[at]gmail.com
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Missionary Update: The Tates in Kenya [October 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,
Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. While on your side of the world you are gradually moving toward Autumn, on this side of the world we are gradually moving out of the rainy season and into the hotter, dryer season. I was feeling sorry for myself earlier this week because I love the Autumn. I haven’t experienced fall in five years because things are pretty much the same year round here in Kenya. Isn’t that a silly thing to be feeling sorry for yourself about? I agree. Sometimes we just have to kick ourselves out of silly moods like that and appreciate again all that God has provided for us.
Here’s a question for you. Do you find living the Christian life to be a challenge sometimes? Of course you do. Do you ever find Christian ministry in the States to be a challenge? Of course you do. I find Christian ministry here in Kenya to be a challenge sometimes too. I know you already know that but I wanted you to know that I also recognize that it’s no different in the States. Christian ministry can be a challenge no matter where you are. Here is a challenge I have been facing here in Kenya lately: Trying to get Kenyans to break from their traditions and accept and follow more Biblical models (I know! I know! If you do any Christian ministry in the States you will face similar problems). So, I spent a few weeks teaching and preparing the new church for taking the Lord’s Supper together. We looked at all the passages dealing with this topic in the New Testament so that they could have a full understanding of what it means for a church to share the Lord’s Table together. We are now scheduling a time for the church to celebrate this together. But now I am facing traditions. I have been told we MUST have a new white cloth to cover the communion bread with. If we don’t have this cloth we are not showing proper respect. I had to deal with this tradition. Next, I was told we MUST have the little cups used for the “fruit of the vine”. When I asked why, I was told “because it’s tradition and without it we can’t show proper respect”. I had to deal with this tradition. I told them we could use their everyday tea cups instead of buying the traditional cups from the store. They didn’t like that idea. Finally, I was told we couldn’t use chapatti for our communion bread (chapatti is a flat, non-leavened bread that the Kenyans eat every day. It would work perfect for communion). Again, when I asked why, they told me it was because chapatti is too common and every day and that special communion bread had to be bought from the store. I had to deal with this tradition. My challenges don’t stop with the Lord’s Table. The church also wanted to start taking up offerings so I thought it would be best to teach them on this subject. I wanted to show them how New Testament churches used offerings (knowing that they wanted to take up offerings for other, non-biblical reasons). I scoured the New Testament and found that when the early churches took up offerings or used money it was either to help the poor, assist widows and orphans, or to help a missionary go to the next city so he could continue to preach the gospel in other cities and spread the kingdom of Christ on the earth. They were OK with this teaching as long as there was money left over after they bought a shamba (a small farm), built a new church building, bought various kinds of musical instruments, bought new chairs (for who knows what reason), and paid all the elders their stipend. Now, while there is nothing sinful about any of these uses for an
offering, trust me, there is not enough money in their collection to pay for any of these uses, let alone the more Biblical uses. All I could say over and over again was, “It’s
better to follow the Biblical examples than our worldly traditions”. In the end, do you
know what I want for these dear people? It’s not for them to follow their worldly traditions. It’s not even for them to follow me. No, I want them to learn how to follow the Bible. All I can do is continue to point them to the Bible and say, “Follow that”.
That’s the challenge I face. Do you face it as well? Fortunately, the church here is
learning to do just that. And we also thank God for the four new people who want to
become members of this new church.
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 96
Kitale, Kenya 30200
rojuta[at]gmail.com
Visit their blog!
Click here to donate to BFM.
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Missionary Update: The Tates in Kenya [September 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,
Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. I hope and pray that the Kingdom of God is growing back in the States and here in Kenya as well. God is good, just, faithful, merciful and gracious. His word will accomplish everything He wants it to accomplish in our lives and in this world. Our King sits on the throne and rules by His mighty power. Praise be to our great God.
We will probably have some changes coming in some of our groups in the next couple of weeks. At the beginning of the year we started three groups with the hopes of them becoming churches of the Lord Jesus Christ. One of those groups was organized into the Baptist Church of Shangalamwe. It looks like the other two groups will be canceled but that doesn’t mean that good things haven’t come out of them. These groups often start strong with many people and then begin to fade once the attendees realize they will not be receiving any gifts. That happened to our Friday group. It has dwindled to basically one or two attendees who were not being faithful themselves and who were not putting forth much effort to help the group grow. It was time to cancel the group this past month. Also, our Saturday group has had the same kinds of problems. A local pastor who attended the group became angry at us for not building him a new building and went about sabotaging the group, poisoning it with his lies and driving people away. We have also had to cancel this group this past month. However, out of this group has come a young man, Titus, who has gone on to form five other groups himself. We plan on continuing to mentor and teach this young man on how to lead these groups and on how to lead these groups into becoming churches. He is doing an excellent work. People are being saved in his groups and most of the attendees are hearing the Bible taught verse-by-verse for the very first time in their lives. So, with the canceling of two groups this past month, we will be looking to start a couple of new groups that we hope to eventually turn into house churches. Nathan and I are not discouraged about the canceling of these two groups. At the beginning of the year we looked at things realistically and decided that if even one out of every four groups we started became churches that we would be happy with that. We are excited about starting some new groups in the near future.
At the Baptist Church of Shangalamwe we finished teaching about elders this past month. We taught about the need for elders, the responsibilities of elders, and the characteristics and qualification of elders. It was exciting to hear and answer their many questions concerning elders as we taught them concerning this topic from the Scriptures. Once we had finished all the teachings, the church obeyed the teaching of the Word of God and chose and appointed a qualified elder for the church. Afterwards, we gathered around him and prayed that God would give him strength and wisdom as the first elder and spiritual leader of the young church. This is an important step as this young church needs to have spiritual leaders to lead it in the future after Nathan and I are no longer around. May God bless this church with much spiritual growth and maturity and may He bless their new elder, Richard.
Very briefly, my car situation hasn’t changed. It still hasn’t been confiscated but I also cannot drive it or else it will be confiscated, impounded and basically stolen from my by the authorities. Barring a miracle from God I will not be able to keep the car. Please pray that God’s will be done in this situation whether it is for me to keep or lose the vehicle.
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 96
Kitale, Kenya 30200
rojuta[at]gmail.com
Visit their blog!
Click here to donate to BFM.
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Update on Tates’ Car Situation in Kenya
For those of you who haven’t been aware or following the saga of the travails Roger and Julie have been experiencing with their bogus vehicle registration [from way back before they bought it from the previous missionary-owners], here is the latest update. Barring an extraordinary intervention by God, this appears to be the final status.
They have played by the rules and done everything they were required to do with integrity. But, obviously, others before them did not.
“But there is a God in Heaven…” [Daniel 2.28], and He can change all times and seasons. All the inhabitants of the earth and the events they transact are in His control. Please help us pray to Him to intervene on their behalf according to His sovereign will. This same God Who is ruling from Heaven is also the One Who commands us to call Him “Our Father in Heaven…”, and He knows all things, cares about all things, and can do all things. He knows what we [and they] need before we ask Him.
We will be spreading the word to everyone we can to help meet this need.
The situation as reviewed by Julie…
Tuesday, 7 August 2012
Good News, Bad News Concerning the Car
[Read Original Post on Julie’s Blog]
Well, Roger’s been in Eldoret all morning working with the KRA (Kenya Revenue Authority).
Good news first. Roger won’t be arrested. That was our first priority after all.
The rest is looking like bad news. The vehicle is almost definitely illegal. Bummer. That means, that the person who okay’d its import into the country was a crook and probably pocketed the duty money. Bottom line is that the vehicle is supposed to be impounded and actually destroyed, so we’re out a very large sum of money.
It seems a law was passed in 2003 that vehicle older than 8 years old were not allowed to be imported into the country. Ours was imported in 2007 and it is a 1991 vehicle. Roger was told that often times, because Kenya is a coastal country, cars come into the country “in transit” to other countries like Uganda, which have no such laws. Then criminals get them and sell them. The first lady Roger talked to at the KRA took one look at our log book and said, “Yup, that’s a fake.” She knew because they stopped issuing that kind of log book in 2006 and the date on our log book is 2007.
At this point, I would ask you to please start praying for a vehicle for us. And start praying for the money to buy a vehicle. They are very, very expensive here because of import and duty taxes (which are 50 – 60% of the value of the vehicle). And even when you buy a vehicle that has already been imported, that duty is rolled over into the price you pay. Single people can get by without a vehicle here, but once you have a spouse and/or children, it gets a lot more difficult – especially with Emily at boarding school 6 hours away. Public transportation isn’t always a possibility, and there are times we have to be in Nairobi – if we use public transportation while in Nairobi, it costs us a fortune. Also, here, to get a taxi, you often have to wait a very long time because they will tell you they are on their way, when they are 45 minutes away.
In fact, we are supposed to take Emily back to school in just 3 weeks and we are supposed to stay in Nairobi and get some medical things taken care of as well as passport things with the Embassy. I don’t know if that will be able to happen now.
Well, that’s the news for now. I know God is still in control. He has a purpose; I don’t’ know what it is yet, but we have to trust Him. It doesn’t mean the circumstances don’t stink though. I’m reminded of a verse in the Bible, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” I Thessalonians 5:16-18 I am also reminded of this one, “…but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” Romans 5:3-5
Please pray for our attitudes. Roger is discouraged that we’re out so much money (on top of that, he had to deal with dishonest public transportation people on the way home. If you want that story, see the PS down below). It’s not like we have money lying around to buy another 4-wheel drive vehicle. All the money we put into that vehicle is just…gone. POOF. And I’m a little angry at the moment on a couple of different fronts, one being the corruption that allowed this to happen.
Pray that we continue to entrust ourselves to God, who judges rightly. He knows that we are victims in this whole situation. He sees. He will supply our need – maybe not by our definition of need, but by His, and His is the correct one.
If anything changes, I’ll let you know. In the meantime, thanks for all your prayers!!!!
In Christ – Held by His Grip (so glad its not dependent on my grip!)
Julie
P.S. So, Roger just got home and told me a heart-warming story of corruption on a much lower level. Roger used public transportation to get to Eldoret and back today. It costs 200/= (that’s 200 Kenyan shillings). On the way back, he sat down on the shuttle and when the lady came by to give him his riding ticket, it was a fake ticket that said 300/= on it. Roger gave it back to her and told her she was a thief for trying to steal from the white people (that’s what they call us, by the way). He told her that he’d ridden this shuttle 5 times in the last 3 weeks and he knew exactly how much it should cost. She denied trying to steal from him and blamed it on another guy who had written the ticket. She went away and then returned with the proper, official ticket with the correct price on it. She even told him it was an official ticket. So, Roger pointed out to her that she knew the other ticket was fake, and so that made her a thief as well. He asked her if she was a Christian, to which she answered, “yes.” He then asked her if she knew what the Bible says about stealing. At that point she started pretending to not understand his English, and another Kenyan man standing there said, “I don’t think she understands you.” So, Roger said, “Oh, you don’t understand my English, well then, I’ll speak in Kiswahili,” which he proceeded to do much to her surprise. She turned and walked away at that point. So, this is just a taste of what we live with day in and day out, and it is why we really need your prayers – prayers for love and patience in our hearts.
[If the Lord is leading you to give to help this need, you can click here to donate online via check or credit card now.]
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Missionary Update: The Tates in Kenya [August 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 suppose that if I am going to be an honest missionary then I need to report the good with the bad. Last month when I sat down to write my report I was excited and everything I wrote was good, uplifting, and encouraging. Unfortunately, what I have to write about this month I am not so excited about. It is not as uplifting or encouraging. I still hope you spend the time to read it, though, as true life and ministry is filled with ups and downs, with evil and good, with blessings and hardship, with encouraging times and not so encouraging times. Don’t get me wrong, I am not discouraged, depressed, nor down. It’s just that in the course of any ministry and work for God there are mountains and valleys.
Let me start with the church that we organized just last month (Kanisa la Baptisti la Shangalamwe – Baptist Church of Shangalamwe). It is still going strong and I still have high hopes for it. The people there love the Lord and love to worship and fulfill the commission of Christ. But what I have been waiting to happen has now happened. You might have guessed it. It has to do with money. The patriarch of the church finally approached us for help. He told us he didn’t have any food and that he needed our assistance. We have been dreading this from the beginning and the start of the group because we know well the two most likely outcomes from this scenario. Outcome #1 looks like this: We organize a group of Kenyan believers into a church; After some amount of time they begin to ask us for money, aid, and help; Having compassion on their needs we help them with monetary gifts, food gifts, etc; This begins a vicious, downward, irrevocable cycle that ultimately leads to DEPENDENCY and PATERNALISM; The church is ruined. Outcome #2 looks like this: We organize a group of Kenyan believers into a church; After some amount of time they begin to ask us for money, aid, and help; Knowing the problem of dependency and paternalism that is the sure outcome of us giving them money and gifts, we spend great amounts of time teaching them why they should help each other, depend on the Lord, and not beg the missionary for money; All the members of the church begin to realize that they will not be receiving money and gifts from this missionary (what they were probably expecting from the beginning) and slowly begin to drift away and make themselves scarce until they are no longer around; Those who have been “spurned” begin to tell everyone in the village that these are stingy missionaries that are selfish and unloving; We are left with no members in the church; The church is ruined. Those are the two scenarios that I keep seeing played out over and over again. After much prayer and wisdom seeking, Nathan and I decided to help the family by providing them with food. It was a very difficult decision because we never really know if we are getting the whole truth and because we are quite familiar with Outcome #1 above. We fear Outcome #1 even more because when we tried to ascertain the families’ financial situation we found out it is bleak. The patriarch of the family is 70 years old and has no job and supposedly no retirement. They have no farm or land to farm. Their children and neighbors are not willing to help them. They are taking care of four orphaned grandchildren. And, they have no hope for any future income. I kept asking them, “What are your plans for the future”? Ultimately, they have no plans for the future. Actually, Julie may have hit the nail on the head when she told me later, “Roger, YOU are their plan for the future”? I’m afraid she might just be right. I hope that we have made the right decision and yet can still stay off the path of dependency and paternalism. We will only know as things unfold in the future. On the bright side we do have two additional people who would like to join this small church. Nathan and I are scheduled to head out to Shangalamwe later this week to talk to them about salvation and baptism. Please pray for Baptist Church of Shangalamwe.
Briefly, now, because I am out of space. Please pray for our car situation. I have found out that the car I paid a lot of money for a couple of years ago was not properly registered by the authorities in the Kenyan government when it was imported (This happened years before I bought it either by human error or corruption). Bottom line: The Criminal Investigation Department wants to impound my car (which, if they do, I will never see it again). When I refused to hand it over to them they threatened to arrest me. I would like to avoid being arrested as well as having my car impounded and stolen from me. Please pray about this situation as well. (You can read more about this situation on Julie’s blog.)
See, I told you this month’s report wasn’t as uplifting as last month’s. Hope you read it anyway.
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 96
Kitale, Kenya 30200
rojuta[at]gmail.com
Visit their blog!
Click here to donate to BFM.
Read more
Missionary Update: The Tates in Kenya [July 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 am excited to report to you this month of the new developments in our church planting ministry. As you hopefully know, our goal here in Kenya is to start independent, self-reliant, self-governing, and self-reproducing Baptist churches. We were privileged to be able to see part of that goal come to fruition this month. I have read Nathan Radford’s monthly update and know that in it he has mentioned the start of this church. I would like to fill in the details of that day when the church was organized.
Justino Signing the Church Covenant
After months of teaching and preparing, on the Sunday morning of June 24th, we organized a small group of believers into the Kanisa la Baptisti la Shangalamwe (Baptist Church of Shangalamwe). Shangalamwe is a small village off the beaten path where Nathan and I have been working for many months. Richard Wafula is the owner of the house in which the group meets and the leader of the family there. Richard is over 70 years old which is quite an old age for most Kenyans (he is in very good health and very good shape as it takes him nearly two hours one way to ride to town from his house on his bicycle). He has lived long enough to remember pre-independence days forKenya when the country was ruled by the colonial British.
On the 24th of June, Nathan, Julie, my kids, and I rose early in the morning to make the half hour drive to Shangalamwe and arrived at Richard’s house at 8:30am. We shared chai (tea) with the group members as it was still pretty chilly that morning. After chai we began our worship. We praised our God and Savior in song and drums, lifting up our voices to glorify the Head of the church that was about to be organized. After we finished singing and praying, Nathan reminded the group what it meant to be a church of the Lord Jesus Christ and what was needed for the group to move from group status to becoming a New Testament assembly. He then proceeded to read the covenant that had been written for this occasion. In short (this is a very brief summary) the covenant expressed the intentions of the members to organize into a church, to function as the body of Christ on the earth, to follow Christ as its only Head, and to diligently search the Scriptures and obey all it commands for a New Testament church of the Lord Jesus. Nathan then read the membership requirements for becoming a member of the new church (these are what you would expect for any Baptist church: You must be a believer in Jesus as your Savior, you must be Scripturally baptized, you must express your intent on becoming a member, you must sign the covenant, etc). All of the members then signed this covenant and membership requirements.
Explaining Baptism before Baptizing Candidates
Following this we had baptisms to perform. We left Richard’s house and walked 25 minutes to the lake where there was enough water to immerse the candidates. I then had the privilege of baptizing three children who had previously trusted in Christ. I baptized Nuhu (Noah) – age 13, Musa (Moses) – age 10, and Timina – age 8. While standing in the water I explained the meaning, purpose and method of baptism because the whole practice of baptism inKenya is wildly misunderstood and misapplied. Afterward I baptized the three children. After finding a secluded and private bush in which to change into dry clothes we walked the 25 minutes back to Richard’s house and added the names of the three children who had just been baptized to the membership role of the church. We all then sat down and I taught from Acts 2:40-47, showing what kinds of things the first church inJerusalem did and challenging this new church to follow the same kind of model. We finished with more singing and prayer and with thanksgiving in our hearts and smiles on our lips we headed home.
It was truly a blessed day, one I would like to repeat here inKenyamany times. Please pray that God would richly bless with spiritual blessings the Kanisa la Baptisti la Shangalamwe and that it would grow in obedience unto maturity. To our great God be all the glory.
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 96
Kitale, Kenya 30200
rojuta[at]gmail.com
Visit their blog!
Click here to donate to BFM.
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Missionary Update: The Tates in Kenya [June 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,
It sure is strange near the equator. One of the strange things about living here is that I lose all sense of the seasons that you all have back in the States. It seems to me that it should still be snowy and cold back home. It’s almost incomprehensible to me that you are heading into Summer and hot, sunny days. We’ve been back in Africa almost a year now and since the seasons change so little here (except alternating between dust and mud) all the days seem the same and I lose track of time.
Roger Tate & Nathan Radford with some of the Kenyans they are working with
Time, however, is something we shouldn’t lose track of though, is it? It passes us all by and we only have a short and uncertain amount of time to do the things our Lord wants us to do on this earth. I look back at the last year and think, “I’ve lost a whole year and haven’t done a tenth of what I wanted to accomplish”. I have to keep reminding myself that it’s the Lord that builds the house and that he will do what he wants to do in His own timing. Starting churches is slow, hard work that requires a lot of patience on my part (and I don’t really like being patient). But God is blessing and I am excited to say that we have been actively preparing one of our house groups to become a newly organized church and we have plans and a date for later this month to go ahead and organize this group into a new church of the Lord Jesus Christ. If all goes according to plan, on the last Sunday of this month we will organize this small group into a church, have a time of celebration and worship, and baptize three children who have trusted in Jesus and add them to the membership role of the church. We have been diligently teaching this group what it means to be a church of the Lord Jesus Christ and we believe they are ready to move forward toward this end. Hopefully, next month I will be able to include a couple of pictures of the ceremony and first baptisms of Kanisa la Baptisti ya Shangalamwe (Baptist Church of Shangalamwe). This is all the Lord’s doing and we take no credit for it at all. I do not look back at this year and say, “See what I’ve accomplished.” In the end, all we can do is point towards heaven and say “All glory, honor and blessings to the King of heaven who does what He wants in all the earth.”
(As a side note: My wife has spent a lot of time putting together a blog to reveal insights into our lives here in Africa. It especially gives insight into her thoughts as a missionary wife and mother living in a foreign land. It is all from her perspective, which is obviously a very different perspective than the one I offer you each month. It contains some photos and she is working on adding links to others. If you are interested you can visit her blog at www.tatesinkenya.blogspot.com. Just to give you a little teaser about her site, if you go there you can read about the day I was arrested by the Police in Nakuru. Ha Ha. That should pique your interest.)
Until next month, beloved.
May God’s peace and joy be with you.
For the glory of God inEast Africa,
Roger & Julie Tate (and Emily, Amy, & Josiah)
P.O. Box 96
Kitale, Kenya 30200
rojuta[at]gmail.com
Visit their blog!
Click here to donate to BFM.
Read more
Missionary Update: The Tates in Kenya [May 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 pray that this letter finds you all joyful in the Lord as “the joy of the Lord is our strength”. Like you, I am not joyful in the Lord at all times. Like you all back in the States, we missionaries in foreign fields struggle with that fruit of the Spirit sometimes. However, just as Paul wished the following blessing upon the Roman believers, I say concerning you all “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
So, let me try and keep this joy in mind as I describe a couple of things concerning our ministries. The first concerns one of the groups I described to you last month. This group was the one that was expecting us to give them things, build buildings for them, support them financially in their ministries, etc. After we had explained our model of ministry to them, there were some who questioned the wisdom and rightness of this approach. From the outside, the next couple of weeks looked “OK” as we continued to teach and see how God would lead. From the inside, however, certain things were happening. Some of the members of this group started rumors and accusations that the owner of the house in which the group was meeting was receiving financial kickbacks and support from the missionaries so that we could meet in her house. This was not true as we clearly explained to all those who attended the group meetings. The accusations didn’t stop there, however. We also found out that our small house group was being accused of witchcraft. Yes, witchcraft! Now, I know that our approach is different than what the Kenyans are used to, but anyone with an observant eye whatsoever would easily be able to discern that no witchcraft was going on within our group. We get together, pray, sing, and study the Word of God. Everybody that walks by knows that this is what we are doing. But this did not stop the accusations, however. This was the first time I have been accused of witchcraft. I think somebody is trying to run us off and out of this village. Nathan and I have talked and prayed about the situation and want, more than anything, to just have the wisdom and guidance of the Lord concerning this group. We want to know and follow his will concerning this group, no matter what that will is. The next day, as I was contemplating these events, a friend of mine approached me and said, “Congratulations, I hear you’ve been accused of witchcraft”. I thought he might be out of his mind but he just stood there and smiled at me. He said, “You should be joyful. Satan is opposing you strongly. He must not like what God is doing in that group. That means God is doing something great”. Upon further reflection I decided I had to agree with him, even though I told him I still thought he was off his rocker. How would you take accusations of witchcraft? Ought I not to be joyful in this situation knowing that God is on our side and that no weapon formed against us can prosper? I guess the answer is “YES.”
Now, fortunately, there is something else that I can easily find joy in. One of our group members, after hearing our teachings and encouragements, was empowered by the Lord to start another group in another village. I have spoken of his group before. He started with three people, then it grew to seven, last I heard it was ten, and this morning found out it was sixteen! They filled the house where they were meeting! He has taught them all the basic lessons we taught to him and has proceeded to the next step of teaching them inductive Bible study. They are going passage-by-passage through the book of Matthew. He told me that this is the first time any of these people had ever studied verse-by-verse through any book of the Bible and that they were learning so much from the Word of God. This has all been done without missionary presence in the group. As you can see, this was something I could easily find great joy in.
Until next month, beloved.
May God’s peace and joy be with you.
For the glory of God inEast Africa,
Roger & Julie Tate (and Emily, Amy, & Josiah)
P.O. Box 761
Kitale, Kenya 30200
rojuta[at]gmail.com
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