Missionary Update: The Tates in Kenya [April 2013]

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,

Life is hard. There are tears. There is pain.

I wasn’t planning on writing like this, this month. It seemed depressing (although I don’t intend it to be depressing). However, the more I thought about it, the more it seemed like God was confirming in my mind to write these things this month. Life is hard.

There is pain.

As I write this I am experiencing pain myself. Yesterday a car pulled out in front of me while I was riding home on my motorcycle. I hit the car and ended up rolling on the pavement. Now my neck hurts, my shoulder hurts, my back hurts, my knee hurts and my shin hurts. I have no major damage, just some aches and pains. The Kenyan people live with pain too. Malaria, typhoid, other debilitating diseases. Some even live with the pain of hunger or thirst. Others live with pain because they have no means with which to see a doctor.

There is grief and loss.

Who among us hasn’t lost a dear friend or loved one to our great enemy – Death? How long does that grief last? Often, a long time. Death is so prevalent in Kenya. The infant mortality rate is so much higher here. Young children die because of infectious diseases or lack of medical care. Parents leave children orphans because they both perish from AIDS. This month, a lady that lives next door to us nearly died because her husband wouldn’t spend the 2000 shillings (about $23) to take her to see the doctor. I gave him the money and she still lives today, but I seriously think he would have let her die. Funerals here bring me back to a stark reality too. It’s not sanitized like in the States. While you stand there the coffin is dropped into the ground and men refill the hole with dirt until it is all once again recovered and the mound stomped on to pack the dirt down.

There is betrayal.

I wish it wasn’t the case but there is much betrayal in Kenya. You can work with a person for years and then when he realizes he is not going to get from you what he wants, he turns on you and says all kinds of slander and lies about you. Yes, we are currently experiencing this as well. The closer the betrayer is to you, the more it hurts.

There is famine, drought, substance abuse, homeless children, murderous rioters, political scandals, and much more.

What can we say to all these things? Yes, life is hard everywhere, not just here, but also where you live. Does it not make us long for when Jesus returns? Does it not make us long for his presence? Revelation 21:3-4 says, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” Today I am mindful that Jesus is returning and that day may be soon. I am looking forward to the day when “Death is swallowed up in victory.” I will pray for the coming of that day. Until then I will work for the salvation of American and Kenyan people.

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 [March 2013]

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’m doing something just a bit different this month. I’ve included a chart/picture that will hopefully give you a good idea of the happenings in Kitale and might clarify some of the thoughts in my head. More on that in a minute.

During my first term in Kenya, God began to show me that the traditional missionary approach (an approach I myself was following) was an approach that needed tweaking here in Kenya. If we were ever to get past the dependence and paternalism inherent in Kenyan Christianity and Kenyan churches we had to change our model. I didn’t want to go away from Biblical models. I, in fact, wanted to get closer to Biblical models. When we returned to Kenya after our first furlough we began to implement this new model. We started groups in people’s homes. We taught them simply from the Word of God. We trained local, lay leadership. We taught them self-governance and independence.

We taught them how to reproduce themselves without Western aid. Most of these groups slowly dwindled and faded until they had to fold. Only one of these groups became a struggling, small new church. Was it because the model was flawed that the groups dwindled and failed? No, I believe in this Biblical model now more than ever. I think what precipitated this group failure was the weekly presence of the white missionaries (Roger and Nathan) in the groups. The people would come to the meetings believing they would receive free handouts from us and when they realized they would not see their expectations fulfilled, they left and the groups faltered.

Now look at the chart/picture I have provided. I want to describe what is happening in this chart.

In one of the groups that we started was a young man by the name of Titus. Titus became very excited about the Biblical principles we were teaching and adhered firmly to and accepted our Biblical model for church planting. However, instead of us going with Titus and working directly with him in the village to start a new group, we taught and modeled for Titus the Biblical models, principles and teaching on church planting. Then we sent him out to do the work himself.

You can see from the chart the results of Titus’ work. First, he started a group in a village called Kipsongo. That group quickly grew to have about 30 members. From that one group, five other groups were started in five nearby villages: Kibomet, Shanti, Folkland, Matisi and Rafiki. One of those groups even began a new group in another nearby village called Bikeke. As you can see from the legend on the chart, all of these groups are progressing very well. The Kibomet group now has over 60 people attending the worship and Bible study every week. The most exciting part is what is becoming of these groups. We spent many weeks teaching Titus about what a church is (as opposed to just a Bible study group) and on how to organize and start a new church. Titus took these teachings and started teaching the Kipsongo and Kibomet groups on how to organize into a New Testament church. They are very close to being ready now to organize into New Testament churches. In a separate weekly session he has been teaching the leaders of the other groups the same Biblical teachings and principles.

All of this has been done without the presence of the white missionaries in the groups, a presence we have found can be damaging and preventative. We have been in much prayer about these happenings and believe God might be leading us to focus our church planting approach down a slightly different path (same Biblical model and principles just with a different path). Please be in prayer with us about these things.

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 [February 2013]

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,

Hello, Beloved, and greetings in the Name of Jesus Christ our Savior. A friend of
mine often ends her Facebook posts with the acronym GIGATT. It means “God is good, all the time.” For years at my home church in Bellbrook, Ohio, my pastor would say from the pulpit, “God is good” and the congregation would spontaneously respond, “All the time.” And one of our beloved deacons would even add “Rain or shine.” You know, this statement is true even though sometimes you and I don’t always realize it or recognize it. God is good to His people in America. And he is good to His missionaries in Kenya. This paragraph is an aside and a freebie. No extra charge.

Now, unfortunately, because of extenuating circumstances, I don’t really have anything very interesting to report this month (Hopefully that last statement didn’t cause you to stop reading this update right here). Why is that, do you ask? Well, it’s because I have spent most of the last month in Nairobi, 350 kilometers away from home and ministry [Editor’s Note: about 218 miles]. In fact, even as I write this I am again at a guest house in Nairobi. The first reason I’ve spent so much time in Nairobi is, strangely enough, because of my dog. Back in December I ran over his leg and broke it clean through up near his hip. Since there were no vets in Kitale or even in Eldoret who could take care of such a major break, I had to take him to Nairobi to be fixed up. Since that initial trip to the vet I think I have come to Nairobi five more times just for the dog. Each trip takes at least 2-3 days.

The other thing that happened was that Julie was ill. We came to Nairobi for a few days so that she could see a good doctor and get some real tests done. We ended up staying for 14 days. While here in Nairobi we went from one doctor to the next, from one hospital to the next and from one test to the next. I think we were about to give up hope of finding the problem until one doctor actually discovered something. Julie was finally able to get some care. She had an outpatient surgical procedure at the Aga Khan hospital here in Nairobi and a few days later we were finally cleared to go back home. She is feeling some better now and hopefully will continue to feel better for a long time.

Now, let me look forward a few weeks. By the time you get my next newsletter update Kenya will have held it’s presidential and local elections. After the last elections Kenya was a blood bath and thousands of people were killed in rioting and tribal conflicts. We pray that the situation will be different this time, however, no one really knows what will happen. To prepare for these elections we have been stocking up on some necessary items: I bought 60 extra liters of diesel for the car, bought two extra bottles of cooking propane for the stove, stocked up on rice, beans, pasta, flour, etc, got some extra malaria medicine and have basically prepared for what the US embassy calls a “zombie apocalypse”. We will stay in Kitale through the elections and try and ride out any storm and violence that may arise. Please be in prayer for God’s protection in our lives, in the lives of other missionaries here in Kenya and for the Kenyan people and their country.

So, if you didn’t stop reading after my earlier statement above, I congratulate you by
saying that I do have some interesting thoughts and perspectives on my current and
future ministry direction here in Kenya that I would like to share. I haven’t formulated
them all or worked them all out in my head yet, however. My aim is to start sharing
them with you next month.

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 [January 2013]

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,

Hello, Beloved, and greetings in the name of Jesus Christ our Savior.  I want to start this update by saying thank you for thoughts and prayers.  I am saying this because we seem to especially need them right now because we feel like we are under attack.  This attack isn’t from flesh and blood but from principalities and powers, from the rulers of the darkness of this age.  These attacks are designed to discourage and depress us and cause us to doubt our reasons for being here in Kenya.  I think we are facing spiritual, physical, financial and emotional attacks.

1)  Spiritual.  This is coming from the various ministries that we are working on.  What we had hoped would not happen seems to be happening.  Those who we had reached with the gospel and with the Word of God and thought were genuine might be turning out to be otherwise.  In the Kanisa la Baptisti ya Shangalamwe (Baptist Church of Shangalamwe) the numbers have dwindled as members of the church begin to realize they will not be receiving gifts and money from the missionaries.  They were faithful for a long time but many seem to have been faithful because they still held out hope for gifts.  Now they know they will not get them and so have dropped off and we no longer see them.  Others are still around but even they seem to hang around simply because they want things.  For the first 6-8 months we had virtually no requests for things.  Now, every other week we get requests and this month it has turned to down right begging and manipulating.  We were told that God sent us to them so that we could take care of them.  I can’t begin to tell you how discouraging this is to see those who we thought wanted Bread for their souls trading this in for bread for their stomachs (and it’s not as if they are in need of food either).

2)  Physical.  We can’t seem to get Julie healthy for any sustained period of time.  She’ll feel good one day and rotten the next.  She’s having a hard time eating.  If she doesn’t have malaria, she has typhoid.  If she doesn’t have typhoid, she has schiztosemiasis.  We really don’t know what is ailing her.  There are no good doctors here in Kitale.  There are no good doctors in Eldoret (nearest bigger town about 1½ hours from Kitale).  I’m not even sure there are good doctors in Nairobi.  We’ve already been done there once for Julie to see the doctors and we will be going again next week.

3)  Financial.  It seems like one thing after another.  First, I have to buy a new car.  Then I have to pay Emily’s school fees. Then I run over the dog, breaking his leg and requiring him to have surgery in Nairobi. And that seems like just the start of it.  Recently I feel like I’ve been wearing a path between Kitale and Eldoret and between Kitale and Nairobi for one reason or another.  These trips have become very expensive (Especially Nairobi.  It seems everything in Nairobi has doubled in price in the last couple of years).  I’m not mentioning any of this to solicit financial support.  I’m just keeping you all updated as to our condition and why I feel we are under attack.

4)  Emotional.  We just finished with the holiday season.  We enjoyed being together and celebrating Christmas as a family but December is still one of the hardest months to be in Africa.  It’s emotionally hard to be away from the States during the holidays.  We miss the gatherings, the festivities, the holiday cheer.

I hope I don’t sound as if I’m whining.  I’m not.  I just want you all to be prayer partners with us and to know how much we need your thoughts and prayers right now.  May God bless you all.

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 [December 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,

This month I want to do something a little different and instead of talking directly
about the ministry I want to address something that will effect the lives of every Kenyan –The upcoming Kenyan presidential elections (and so, in a very real way, I WILL be addressing ministry because this event will not only effect the lives of every Kenyan, but our lives also and the ministry that we do here). I know that we just finished a presidential election in the States. And whether you like the results or not, I’ll bet none of you reading this worried, even for one moment, about losing your life because of the election process. Well, that isn’t the case here in Kenya. The last presidential election in Kenya in 2007 resulted in mass rioting, ethnic cleansing, tribal warfare, murders, looting, and crop burning. People were targeted, profiled and killed simply for being in the wrong tribe. Others ran to churches for refuge only to lose their lives when those churches were intentionally set on fire and burned to the ground. Thousands of people lost their lives, many of whom lived in Eldoret, a city not 50 miles from where we live in Kitale. This went on for months before things finally got settled down and the rioting and killings stopped.

Why am I mentioning this? Because we have another presidential election coming up
in March, 2013 and there is already tension in the air. Nobody is certain how things will
go and so we are beseeching your prayers.

Most of you probably don’t know this but I am the warden for the United States embassy here in the Kitale region. That means that I work with the embassy to distribute information and help the American expatriates in the Kitale region try and stay safe in Kenya. So, to help me in this position I attended a meeting at the US embassy to hear what they were saying concerning the upcoming elections. They related a number of problematic scenarios that could occur over the next couple of months that I would like to relate to you so you can be praying for us, for our ministry, and for the people of Kenya.

First, a change in the registration process here in Kenya is cause for concern. The new constitution made it available for Kenyans to register and vote within whatever district they wanted. That means that if a presidential candidate thinks he has a certain district locked up, he can send followers from that district to another district that he doesn’t have locked up. The bottom line is that people from other districts, who have no links or connections to Kitale whatsoever, could be bused to Kitale to register and vote. Having people in Kitale with no links or care of this place could bring unwanted abuses.

Second, the high court of Kenya is supposed to vote soon on whether two presidential candidates can even run for president. The problem with these two guys is that they were indicted by the ICC at the Hague for stirring up the people to riot and murder after the last presidential election. These guys are guilty of mass murder and yet are trying to run for president. Depending on the high courts decision, this could cause further rioting and problems.

Last, the elections take place in the first week of March. But since there are many candidates running and since they need 50% of the popular vote to win the election, there is a potential for a run-off or even several run-offs before one candidate gets elected. This means the election process could drag on for months with lots of uncertainty and tension. The embassy’s advice has been “prepare for the worst and hope for the best.” Hopefully the Kenyan people have learned from the last time that they don’t want a repeat performance of the rioting and murders of 2007. But when I ask Kenyans what they think will happen this time around, only about half of them feel comfortable and think things will go smoothly. I tell you all this because, again, I desire your prayers for our family and this country. May God receive glory in Kenya even throughout this entire process.

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 [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
Visit their blog!

Click here to donate to BFM.

Read more

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.

Read more

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.

Read more
^