The Love of a Father
February 8, 2024
Greetings in the Name of Jesus Christ,
Kijabe is currently covered in thousands of little, white butterflies. I look out and in every direction I see little, white butterflies. They are all flying in the same direction, so they can’t just be the same butterflies flitting about. This has been going on for two weeks. I cannot even begin to imagine the number of butterflies that have flown by. At times it almost looks like it is snowing.
I am currently in the midst of this new term, and I am very much enjoying the classes and I think the students are as well. In Basic Theology class we have some awesome discussions on our various theological topics. These are my first-year students, but they are already good, deep thinkers. I know I have asked them a tough question, though, when the only response I get is silence. My other class is Biblical Financial Management with my last-year students who will graduate in July. We are having a good time and having deep discussions in this class as well, even though you might think it hard to have deep discussions over financial management. But my goal in the class, as I keep reminding my students over and over, is not to help them become rich (I could care less whether ever are or not) but that they might honor and glorify God with their money and in the way they manage the finances of their churches. The financial principles I focus on more are about integrity, stewardship, and honoring God rather than just budgeting, planning, reporting, and other financial stuff (although I do teach them budgeting, planning, reporting, and other financial stuff). These are critical issues for my Kenyan students. Pastoral and church ministry can actually be a trapping for unsuspecting ministers. It is so acceptable among many pastors to mismanage and even steal funds from the church that this generation of future pastors and church leaders need to learn these lessons before heading into the ministry of the kingdom of Christ.
It is not all just classes, classes, classes for me though. Some of my best moments for discipleship come in the everyday times of spending time with my students. I was sitting at lunch with some students, both male and female, and the discussion we had really hit me hard and made me realize just how much love and discipleship my beloved students need. Having finished our food, one of the female students said, “Mwalimu (teacher), I want to marry your son” (don’t worry, Josiah, I haven’t committed you to anyone). I have actually been told this from Kenyan women many times before and the reason has ALWAYS been the same. So, when I asked her why she wanted to marry my son I expected the usual answer – Because he is a rich American and I want to marry a rich American and not be poor. So, I was quite surprised when the dialogue went like the following. Student: You love your wife, right? Roger: Yes. Student: You show her that and tell her that right? Roger: Yes. Student: You love your daughters, right? Roger: Yes. Student: You show them that and tell them that right? Roger: Yes, all the time. Student: My father has never told me he loves me. He never calls me or talks with me. The only time I talk to him is when I call him to ask him for school fees. I want to marry your son because he will love me and love my daughters and they will know that they are loved. Roger: I’m sorry that your father doesn’t know how to communicate his love to you but I’m sure that he really does love you. Student: Mwalimu, I really don’t know that is true. I really don’t know that my father loves me. He has never said it or shown it to me.
At this point in the conversation the other female student spoke up and confirmed that this was the exact same relationship she had with her own father. Then all the male students that were sitting around the table piped up and said all of their relationships with their fathers were also the same. I felt very sad for my students and tried very hard to convince them that their fathers truly did love them but none of them were convinced. I am not a perfect man, husband, father, son, brother, teacher, missionary, or Christian by any means. At least I can try and model, as best I can, Christian love to these beloved students. I told them all, “I can’t promise you that your father loves you, but your Heavenly Father loves you, Jesus loves you, and I love you too.” It may have been the first time they had ever heard a father figure say that to them.
Blessings to all,
Roger, Julie & Chloe
CONTACT INFO
Roger & Julie Tate
Moffat Bible College
P.O. Box 70
Kijabe, Kenya 00220
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.
Read more
Seeking a Place to Meet; Update on Josiah
The Tates have served the Lord in Kitale, Kenya since January 2008. Their main ministry is church planting.
July 20, 2020
Greetings in the Name of Jesus Christ,
As you read through my newsletter for this month you will probably say to yourself “haven’t I heard this before”? Well, even to me some of the things I will write about in this newsletter sound like a broken record – skip, skip, skip. I definitely feel like we have been through this newsletter before.
The reason for the broken record this month is because, once again, we are definitely looking for a new location to worship in for Upper Room Baptist Chapel. We started the Chapel in 2018, meeting in a room on the top floor (the “Upper Room”) of a building in town. In August 2019, while I was in the States taking Amy to college, we encountered problems with another church that had moved in across the hall and greatly disturbed our services with their amplifiers and speakers and loud music and screeching preaching. Not being able to resolve the problems with this other church we decided to move out. In September of 2019 we moved into a house, sub-renting the place from a school that also met there. It was an excellent venue for the Chapel, and we all enjoyed meeting and worshiping there. The Chapel began to grow numerically and spiritually. Then, in March of 2020 the big boom hit – Covid19. The Kenyan government shut down everything as I mentioned in previous newsletters – schools, churches, government offices, etc. This shutdown ultimately caused the school from whom we were sub-renting to financially implode and subsequently go belly-up and shut its doors for good.The shutting down of the school left URBC in a quandary. Now we again needed a place to worship. Because we liked the location so much, we considered taking over the entire rent of the premises and just using it entirely for the Chapel. We approached the landlady proposing the idea. It would cost us a lot more money, but it would cause the least disruption to the Chapel and since the Lord’s work is more important than money, we thought it was a deal worth pursuing. It turns out, however, that the owner of the building is a Somali lady. Now, I am not disparaging Somalis or putting them down at all, but the end result was not surprising. Somalia is 99% Muslim and the Somali owner is a Muslim. She was not mean about her decision and she was not discriminating against us because we are Christians but she felt like renting her place to a “Jesus church” was against her Muslim beliefs. She thought that her Somali community here in Kitale would persecute her if they found out she was renting her property to a church and decided not to rent it to us. That is her prerogative. But this did leave us in a familiar position – once again looking for a place to worship.
Since then I have been looking for a new place to worship but the available places are severely limited and expensive. I just looked at a place today that could meet our needs and be an OK place to meet but I feel like the property is overpriced. I hope to look at another place tomorrow but I’m not sure how that will turn out either. Please be in earnest prayer that God would lead us to the right place, a place that would meet our needs at the right price and that could be used to glorify His Name, spread His kingdom here on earth, and provide spiritual and physical growth for the Chapel.
In other news, we were able to get Josiah on an evacuation flight out of Kenya and to the States. He needed to get back to the States in time to quarantine for 14 days before school starts but there have been no international flights out of Kenya since March, and none scheduled until sometime in August. This didn’t give Josiah enough time to make it to school. Then on Friday, July 10th, we received an email from the embassy about the evacuation flight leaving on Monday, July 13th. Julie and I thought about it for two minutes and decided to get him on the flight. We booked the flight that day, Friday. Saturday, we spent getting everything ready for him to leave Kenya and get back to the States. Sunday, Josiah and I drove to Nairobi. Monday afternoon I put him on a plane leaving Kenya forever. This all happened very, very quickly, much too quickly for his mama and me. One day he was here at home with no idea of when he would be leaving and the next day, literally, he was gone – Flying from Nairobi to Qatar to the United States, flying for the first time by himself, and heading to America to start his new life without the help of mom or dad. Very hard for Josiah. Very hard for mom and dad. Please pray that God would be with him in a very special way, strengthening him, giving him courage, and filling him with His Holy Spirit. Pray for mom and dad too.
Blessings to you all,
Roger, Julie, Amy, Josiah & 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.
Read more
COVID-19 in Kenya
The Tate Family has served the Lord in Kitale, Kenya since January 2008. Their main ministry is church planting.
March 21, 2020
Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ,
I can be sure of one thing – You really don’t want me to talk about the Corona Virus in this report. Isn’t it the only thing you ever hear about these days? It’s all people talk about, it’s on every post, it consumes the news, and it has drastically altered every person’s way of life. But yes, Corona Virus has also reached Kenya and if it is the only thing happening then it probably is about the only thing I can talk about.
So, things are not as bad yet in Kenya as they are in the United States, but they will be soon. I know you never heard of a thing called Social Distancing before two weeks ago, but it is truly a totally foreign concept to the Kenyan people. Do you realize that 90% of Kenyans use public transportation to maneuver around? That includes vans, buses, taxis, motorcycles and bicycles (yes, a bicycle can be a form of public transportation). Vans, or shuttles, are the most popular form. Eleven to fifteen people in a small van is an incubation pit for viruses. Have you ever considered what it’s like going into a Kenyan pharmacy to obtain medicine? here could be twenty to thirty people all pushing towards the counter trying to be the next in the queue. I’m giving these examples to say that when it starts to spread here it is going to spread quickly. Also, the hospitals in Kenya are not ideal. Lots and lots of people, shared rooms and shared beds, and healthcare that is not the best. Please keep Kenya in your prayers as you pray for America.
At the Chapel, I have had to do much the same as probably most of the pastors in the United States have had to do, that is, speak about the Corona Virus. I have wanted to give my people a Biblical perspective on the virus and how we should respond to the situation in a Biblical way. I told them that I have noticed two different ways of responding to the chaotic situation. First way – with panic, stress, anxiety, fear, hoarding goods, suspicion, and looking out for number one. Second way – by thinking you’re immune, carelessness, ignoring the dangers, or thinking that all Christians or God-fearing people will be protected from any harm. I don’t believe either of these ways offers a completely Biblical perspective. I told them there is a third way – wisdom, discretion, caution, peace, calm, assurance, and complete trust in God for everything, no matter what. This third way leads us and God’s churches to loving and helping one another, to looking towards the good of other people and for the glory of God. My people at the Chapel have concerns and fears just like anyone else. We need to know that God is in control and will work all things out for our good and His glory.
Just like in the States, all the schools in Kenya have been closed indefinitely. This occurred after just the third confirmed case of the virus in Kenya. This has impacted all of us. Josiah is home from RVA, his term cut short and the rest of his Senior year in jeopardy. Chloe is home and currently being homeschooled by Julie. The math classes I teach at the school where Julie is the head teacher are now all being conducted remotely and on-line. But the school closures impact Julie the most. She and the rest of the staff are working hard to provide continuing education to the students even though the school is closed.
Beloved, I do not believe the infrastructure of Kenya is prepared for what may come. I pray that God’s people come together here in Kitale in a God-honoring way. I pray that the strong in this society don’t end up taking advantage of the weak. While I was in town today, I saw the headline on the front page of the news. The whole page had just three words: “Prepare for Worse”. For the sake of the Kenyan people I pray it doesn’t get too bad.
I write this report on my Anniversary. Julie and I were wed 28 years ago today. Happy Anniversary, Julie. I love you and you’re the best.
Blessings to you all,
Roger, Julie, Amy, Josiah & Chloe
rojuta[at]gmail.com
Visit their blog!
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.
Read more
Working for and Enlarging the Kingdom of Jesus
The Tate Family has served the Lord in Kitale, Kenya since January 2008. Their main ministry is church planting.
December 24, 2019
Greetings in the Name of Jesus Christ,
The first thing I need to do this month is to apologize for not writing an update for last month. I would offer you a great excuse but I don’t have one. I simply forgot last month to write an update and by the time I remembered it was too late. It must be because since my last update I celebrated my 50th birthday and my brain cells are diminishing.
Twenty years ago this month I was still working as a software engineer in Ohio and we were frantically preparing for the Y2K bug that was going to shut down the world. Do you all remember that time? All the computers in the world were supposed to shut down and we were about to be catapulted back into the dark ages. Everyone was a bit nervous about what was going to happen and some were even predicting the end of the world or the return of Jesus. Here we are twenty years later. The computers didn’t shut down (in fact, they didn’t have any problems whatsoever). The world didn’t end. And Jesus didn’t return. I am hoping, though, that we haven’t remained static in these last twenty years. Our world is so unpredictable and unstable. Yes, Jesus might return this year (that isn’t a prediction) and we need to be working for and enlarging His Kingdom.
Working for and enlarging the Kingdom of Jesus is exactly what we are trying to do here in our own small way in Kenya. Back in October of this year we celebrated our 1-year anniversary for the starting of Upper Room Baptist Chapel. We were in the midst of a lot of changes at the Chapel at that time because we were being forced out of our gathering place and having to move to a new location. Julie and I and the family were also in a lot of flux because at the same time we were having to move out of the house we had been living in for the past nine years. But things have stabilized since that time and the work is ongoing. We have a good group of people attending the Chapel and I believe their desire is truly to live for Jesus. I enjoy teaching them from the Bible but I also enjoy what they have to teach me about following the Lord and learning to love Him more. I never come away from talking with them but that I am blessed or challenged in multiple ways. Case in point, I was talking with one of our Chapel members over chai (tea) last week and he blessed my heart and challenged me at the same time. He is the most generous (concerning financial giving) person I think I have ever met. He will pick up a street boy who is sick and take him to the hospital and pay for his treatment. He contributes to funerals when he doesn’t have any money. He takes care of his friends and neighbors when they have needs. He gave all his spare money to a widow of a friend of his last week. All of this is a common practice for him. And what makes this all so amazing is that he is dirt poor. He, his wife, his two daughters and all of his possessions live in a 10×10 foot mud house. I try to convince him that he needs to keep some for himself but he refuses to listen to me in this matter. He tells me that those other people need his help and that God will bless him and take care of all his needs. He even insists on paying for the chai and chapati we eat (but this I cannot allow and I get the blessing of paying for chai and chapati). Do you see why I walk away blessed and challenged?
As we enter into the new year of 2020, I want to lead the people of the Chapel to begin thinking more outside our four walls. I want to see them sharing their faith more with other people. I want to see them thinking about how they will live out their faith by ministering to others in the community. I want to see them showing the love of Jesus to the community by ministering to the poor, the sick, the widows and orphans, the outcasts. I pray that in 2020 they will themselves become missionaries to their communities and even to the world.
In closing, the picture I have provided is of an illustration I used in my sermon last week at the Chapel. It was entitled “How to Ensure Your Failure”. It was about trusting in your own righteousness instead of trusting in the work of Jesus. In it are me, Josiah (who I am making sure will fail the race we are about to have) and Victor. Victor is helping me ensure Josiah fails and I win!
An illustration I used in my sermon last week at the Chapel. It was entitled “How to Ensure Your Failure”. It was about trusting in your own righteousness instead of trusting in the work of Jesus. In it are me, Josiah (who I am making sure will fail the race we are about to have) and Victor. Victor is helping me ensure Josiah fails and I win!
Blessings to you all,
Roger, Julie, Amy, Josiah & Chloe
rojuta[at]gmail.com
Visit their blog!
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.
Read more
A Time of Transition
The Tate Family has served the Lord in Kitale, Kenya since January 2008. Their main ministry is church planting.
July 27, 2019
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
I get the privilege of writing this update in much closer proximity to you than I normally do. As I write this, I am sitting at my daughter Emily’s dining room table in Detroit, Michigan. I am here for a short visit to bring Amy back to the States to commence her university career. Julie has had to stay back in Kenya with Josiah (who will be doing this same thing next year at this time) and Chloe.
So, yes, Amy has graduated from high school at Rift Valley Academy where she has attended and boarded for the last five years. This is a very traumatic time for all of us, especially Amy. It is traumatic for the rest of us because Amy will be leaving us for who knows how long. Her Mama has already hugged her neck and kissed her cheek for the last time in a long time and in a couple of weeks I will do the same before I board a plane to return to Kenya. This is harder than you might think for us. In fact, I think it might be the hardest part of being a missionary—leaving your kids in a place on their own 10,000 miles away. We don’t like it and we mourn and lament having to do it. But it is even more traumatic for Amy. She says goodbye to everything that is now familiar—Goodbye to RVA, goodbye to friends, goodbye to her (almost twin) brother, goodbye to her house, goodbye to Kenya, goodbye to her pets, goodbye to her mama and in a couple of weeks goodbye to her daddy. She returns to a country that is foreign to her. Amy has lived in Kenya since she was 7 years old. She knows Kenya. America, she doesn’t. When she starts school at Cedarville University in Ohio everything will be foreign and unfamiliar. Everything will be strange and uncomfortable. And everything she has left behind will be far, far away. In the last six years Amy has spent less than a month in the States. Please pray for all of us but especially Amy as she makes this transition. We know she is in God’s hands but it hurts us so much that first our precious Emily has left Kenya and now our precious Amy is also leaving. Lord, may you bless my dear children with your presence in their lives. Bless them with your love, your grace, your protection. Draw them close to you and close to your heart. Be the Father to them that I cannot be and may they always know that you are near.
Having left Kenya for a month I have, out of necessity, left the Upper Room Baptist Chapel on its own as well. This brings a bit of anxiety and trepidation into my heart as well. I don’t know what the state of the Chapel will be when I return. I’m sure every minister, pastor and missionary deals with this same anxiety when they are away. Will the ministry survive while I am away? Will there be anybody left at the chapel when I return? Will I be starting all over again? Will the dear people coming to the Chapel stick it out in my absence? Is the ministry there strong enough to endure my absence? These are all questions that obviously concern me. I have worked hard to start the Chapel and the Chapel people are precious to me. I want to continue to watch them grow in Jesus Christ and I want them around when I return to Kenya. I have to entrust them to the Lord’s care, believing the Lord will care for them. But I also know that they are good and strong Christian people and I DO trust that they will be around when I get back. In my absence they will continue to meet together at the Chapel, to worship the Lord together and to study the Bible together. I trust that when I return, they will be an even stronger knit together group of Christian believers than when I left. Because, after all, it is not my ministry, but it belongs to Jesus. They are not “my people” but they belong to Jesus. It is not my work it is Jesus’. He cares for the work and the people even more than I do. Into his hands I commit them. They are in safe hands.
Until next month, beloved.
May God’s peace and joy be with you.
For the glory of God in Kenya,
Roger & Julie Tate (and Amy, Josiah & Chloe)
rojuta[at]gmail.com
Visit their blog!
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.
Read more
Teaching in Three Places
The Tate Family has served the Lord in Kitale, Kenya since January 2008. Their main ministry is church planting.
January 26, 2019
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
It has been a long, hard month and I cannot remember being this tired for this prolonged of a period. We have worked really hard this month and it has left me feeling ragged and worn out. But that is not to say that the work hasn’t been rewarding, nor has it been drudgery. But it has been exhausting. I don’t know, maybe I’m just getting older and my mind and body just can handle what it used to be able to handle. I hope it doesn’t sound like I’m complaining, because I’m not. I’m just telling you all where I’m at right now.
Work at the Upper Room Baptist Chapel has been going well. Our attendance for the month has kind of been all over the place but our “regulars” have continued to come each and every week. On one of the Sundays this month we did experience our highest attendance to date with 28 people! While I’m not getting caught up in any numbers games, I did think this was a great attendance and I was very excited that so many people heard the Biblical message that week. Of course, the next week our attendance was about half that amount. I was telling a local pastor friend of mine about our fluctuating attendance and he gave me this perspective. He said, “Roger, you are the only full-time member of the Chapel”. I thought that was an interesting perspective. Anyway, I have been teaching each week on the parables that Jesus taught from the book of Luke. Through these parables I want the people to see into the heart and mind of Jesus and the Father. I think Jesus’ parables are one of the best ways to see how God thinks about things and they reveal the heart of God in an extraordinary way. And I want the people of Kitale to know this heart of God.
In addition to this Julie has been working extra, extra hard with the directors (and our dear friends) of the school Chloe goes to in order to help them start a new international branch of the school called Milimani Christian Homeschooling Community. She has been working very hard with them for over a year to help them get this started and my plan is to let her write the newsletter update for next month and explain, in her own words, this ministry that she has become heavily involved with. I am mentioning it this month because I have been asked to teach a math class at the new school. I accepted this ministry and now get to daily invest into the lives of some lovely young students at the school, as well as doing the morning devotions. But, again, I hope that Julie’s voice can be heard on this ministry next month.
Roger at the Bible College
And, now, throw into the mix that I taught a week-long class at the local Bible college on Biblical Financial Management and I can honestly say, I’m tired. But I always enjoy investing into the lives of the future pastors and church leaders that attend the college. Three of my students from this week were from South Sudan and plan, upon graduation, on returning to the war-torn region of their country and spreading the Kingdom of Jesus Christ.
We pray that God would continue to bless our feeble efforts, expand His Kingdom in this part of the Earth and glorify His name.
Until next month, beloved.
May God’s peace and joy be with you.
For the glory of God in Kenya,
Roger & Julie Tate (and Amy, Josiah & Chloe)
rojuta[at]gmail.com
Visit their blog!
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.
Read more
God is Blessing the Work in Kitale
The Tate Family has served the Lord in Kitale, Kenya since January 2008. Their main ministry is church planting.
January 1, 2019
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
It is the New Year. As hard as it is for me to believe that statement, 2019 is now here and ready for us. I write this on January 1st so today is page 1 of 365 for the year. My new year has actually started with a little adventure. I was driving to town today to get some dog food and as I was driving down the road my car broke an axle and my front right tire broke completely off from my vehicle. Next thing I knew I was skidding down the road with metal on concrete. Metal on concrete is not a lovely sound or a lovely feeling. But I am completely unhurt, for which I thank the Lord. While I was waiting for a tow-truck (which arrived in just 10 minutes), three different Kenyan friends who were driving by stopped and sat with me to make sure I was OK. It was comforting to know there were people who cared and would assist me if they could.
We have closed out the old year at Upper Room Baptist Chapel on a positive note. Attendance at the Chapel has slowly gone up a bit and we averaged 17-18 people throughout the month of December. On the Sunday before Christmas we had 20 people in attendance, which matched the high attendance of our Inaugural attendance on October 21st. The work of Christ here in Kenya is not a numbers game but we are very glad to see that some people are interested in what we are doing here in Kitale. God really has been blessing the work so far in spite of my weaknesses. We have had other first-time visitors to the Chapel which has been encouraging to me as the minister of the work. In fact, one of the three friends who stopped by while I was waiting for the tow-truck was a man who has attended the services a number of times. He was talking with the tow-truck workers when they arrived and introduced me to them as “his pastor”.
A few short stories from the Chapel. First, I noticed that the room across the hall from our room was being used by a school that meets in our building. Each week I noticed that the room was unlocked and unused on Sundays. I decided to approach the administrators of the school to see if it were possible to use the room on Sunday mornings. Without reservation they agreed to let us use the room since they had no use for the room during that time period. They even agreed to let me use the room for no charge. So, we are now using that room each week as a Sunday School room for some of the young children who attend. This was a blessing from God. Second, we had a teenage girl attend one of our services. She has a Catholic background and regularly attends a Catholic church with her family. After the service she mentioned to Julie how different our worship and services are than they are at her church. Specifically, she said “You all actually teach from the Bible. At my church we are there for three and a half hours and the only thing that happens is one politician after another stands up and talks about their own political agendas. Nobody ever talks about the Bible at all”. She said she really liked what she heard at the Chapel that week. We pray that she is able to come again and hear the gospel message proclaimed again in a simple, easy-to-understand manner. Third, it was exciting to see my son Josiah and another teenager, Jesse, ministering in our services. Josiah and Jesse took over much of the music duties during the month of December while Josiah and Amy were home from school. What a thrill to see these young men ministering unashamedly in the Lord’s Kingdom. The other benefit is that they are both better guitar players than me. I would be glad to completely hand the music responsibilities over to them. Unfortunately, Josiah and Amy return to school on Saturday.
Happy New Year to all of you reading this update. May God’s grace and presence bless each of you all through this year.
Until next month, beloved.
May God’s peace and joy be with you.
For the glory of God in Kenya,
Roger & Julie Tate (and Amy, Josiah & Chloe)
rojuta[at]gmail.com
Visit their blog!
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.
Read more
