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
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