Wednesday, October 26, 2011

October 26, 2011

If you have been keeping up with East African news you know that things are tense in our part of the world at the moment. In recent weeks, Kenya’s relationship with our northern neighbor, Somalia, has been tested, which has led to Kenya entering into a military offensive against the terrorists based there. Kenya hosts many refugees from Somalia and the majority are good people fleeing the problems of their homeland, but some are a part of the terrorist activities. Due to all of this, there have been retaliatory actions in the last few days within Kenya and there are threats of future problems.

I often share prayer nudges under the category of “IF you don’t know how to pray for missionaries today, pray for …” – Well, most of the prayer nudges I’m sharing today fall into this grouping. Did you know that many of your missionaries serving around our world know that they may face danger every time they leave home? They cannot always freely share these threats with you – threats of car-jacking, kidnapping, getting caught in disturbances, etc., some the result of the inequities and poor governance in their countries, sometimes due to retaliatory actions, and other times simply the bad guys knowing that it is unlikely they will be caught or punished. Things are unusually tense in all of Kenya at the moment, but this tension is the norm in many other countries and even in certain locations within Kenya. I will add this note before I continue: Do pray for Jack and me, but we are OK, just being extra alert and cautious these days!

So how can you join us in praying? Pray that all of us will find the balance of going about our lives while being cautious and alert to what is happening around us. Pray that we will be wise in the where/ when/ how actions that we take. Pray that those in tense situations will not become lax due to their situations becoming ‘kwa kawaida’ – Swahili for the norm! Pray that we will not be so overwhelmed by our precautions/ fears that we cannot know how God is at work around us and how He wants us to join in this work. Pray that our fears will not limit but increase our ability to be ambassadors of His love and salvation.

Once again this update is longer, but I must end by sharing our experiences last Sunday. Before we left for church, we read in our newspaper that a slum near where our church meets was in the midst of being demolished. Many people in our part of the world cannot afford the housing in the cities, the place where there are jobs and opportunities, so they live in areas which are not safe in the quality of housing, clean water and sewage disposal, but also due to their living where there should be no housing – this time directly under planes landing at our international airport, other places near train tracks (we’re talking inches, not yards), or near hazardous waste, etc. As we arrived at the rented spot where our new church meets, we spotted a young man sitting in the middle of the path with his meager belongings looking very confused. I will jump ahead a bit and share also what we saw as we left church after the service – simple household items loaded on trucks, cars, handcarts, and people’s shoulders flooding out of the road that led to this slum.

During our prayer times at church, always long and intense, there were prayers for those affected by the demolishing of the nearby slum (we learned that some of those affected attended our church) and prayers for the economic situation of Kenya. There were also many prayers for the situation with Somalia and the recent events in Egypt and other parts of our world. What stood out most was the love and concern expressed in the prayers for the hurting people in all these situations. As the realities of the problems were acknowledged in the prayers, requests were made that Believers would use these situations to share our Father’s love and salvation – the true answer to finding peace in our world.

Thank you for bearing with my thoughts today. We do rely on your prayer support – so I will add three more request: Pray for us as we travel with friends tomorrow through Sunday to a Bible School in the countryside. Pray for Jack and our friends as they teach a group of pastors truly committed to serving our Father. And do join us in praying that the situations we encounter will not leave us discouraged, but praising our Father for the opportunities we have to be His heart, hands and voice in our hurting world. BERT YATES

*** Don't forget to check out this past week's Prayer Nudges from East Africa at: http://easternafrica2011prayernudges.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

October 19, 2011

I began a message to you yesterday written on Jack’s computer entitled: NO Yates/Legacy Team Prayer Update This Week. BUT, a break helped me see things with a more positive attitude – so here goes preparing this on Jack’s computer without my usual program helps. My new computer semi-crashed yesterday – the 2nd time since I purchased it in May – which left me extremely frustrated. Once again, I encountered a damaging glitch, but I know from experience that when I return home from our coastal survey trip this weekend I can repair the problem. So our first two prayer requests this week: Pray that I will have the needed patience and ‘smarts’ to restore my computer to full working condition and secondly, find what leads to the problem SO I can avoid doing it again!

Our survey of Bible Schools on the Indian Ocean coast of Kenya has had its ups and downs. Our first visit last Thursday was to a Bible School near the inland town of Voi. The ‘up’ part: The school is in intact and everything (beds, desk, books) are stored, ready for a new class. The ‘down’? There have been no classes in a while.

Our trip on to Mombasa last Thursday began uneventful, other than it was raining. We passed the road to Kaloleni that heads to the north coast and debated whether we should take it to decide if this route through the ‘real’ African countryside would be a good trip for volunteers heading to work on the north coast.* Due to the rain and uncertainty if construction on the road was completed, we took the regular option – actually, the only other option. Fifteen miles from Mombasa, traffic stopped and we could see for at least a mile and saw only stopped vehicles, most of them huge trucks. We were told a truck had flipped and no traffic was moving or would move for hours. So we backtracked and took the one alternative – the road we had passed earlier.

As I shared in the October 14th Prayer Nudges from East Africa: “The first half of the 25 mile detour was smooth paved roads, then we encountered a barricade of dirt. A young man told us to go back and turn left at the first lane, go to the big tree and turn right onto the "express way" to the Mombasa north road. So we turned around, wiggled through a little village, spotted the big tree and ... well, our definition of an expressway is not a road that is either badly rutted with deep, wide crevices or one-lane-wide pavement with foot high jagged edges, or bits totally flooded! We made it safely although we may all refuse to enter the car today…”

We did get back in the car the next day and visited a graduate of the seminary program at Kenya Baptist Theological College at his Baptist church in Mtwapa, one of the many villages along the coastline. Later, I will share photos taken that day – an exciting view of how a church hall can be transformed into school rooms (girls on the left are in one 'room')with simple room dividers. This time, we heard of many Bible Schools doing well along the coast – even one which has multiplied and now holds multiple classes at another site.

On Sunday, we returned to this church for worship and as I explained in today’s Prayer Nudges from East Africa, before my computer crashed, I had spent much of Monday preparing a ‘Prayer Walk’ using photos taken of kids during that service which I planned to match verses to nudges you to prayers for our coastal kids – many who are live in areas with limited educational and medical opportunities. “BUT as I looked back at the photos, I realized that you don't need my help in discerning how to pray for our coastal kids!” To find the 18 ‘nudges to prayer’ photos taken in an East African village near the Indian Ocean in a Picasa Web Album, go to https://picasaweb.google.com/Bertndovu/Mombasa111016Kids?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCK3UhuC79Zahbw&feat=directlink and on Facebook, go to http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150484862025130.465609.685050129&type=1&l=cecd87026e OR for a quick view, it is the new slideshow below the Date/Time in Kenya (right side) of this blog.

We will return to Nairobi on Friday and we do need you to pray for safety as we travel as today’s local newspaper says there is still a ten mile traffic jam of trucks stuck on the Mombasa road since last week due to damage from the recent unseasonably heavy rains. We have had to readjust our schedule due to the rain and flooding and skip visiting some areas. Please join us also in praying for the people, churches, Bible Schools we have visited or will in the next two days. Praise God with us for how our Father is being glorified thanks to the work of many of his past and present committed servants. Join us in praying that we will use all we are learning to know exactly our Father’s plans/purpose for our involvement in His harvest field. BERT YATES

* Answer to the question about using the Kaloleni road for volunteers is a definite YES - but only after they complete the last half of the road, especially if it is raining! It is a great view of the real coastal countryside where little has changed in years!

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

October 11, 2011

Sometimes our prayer update seems to create itself and I’m simply the typist and the editor seeking to shorten the appearing thoughts, but I can’t get started today. I had added “as my mind is blank” to end the last sentence, but the truth is that my mind is so filled with things to remember/ things to do that it is hard to focus! One distraction is the piles scattered around our house, the result of unpacking from last week’s trip to western Kenya and packing for a 10 or more day trip to the coast which begins tomorrow – the reason for sending this week’s update early.

Once again we are traveling with our friends, Ron and Jan Langston, with the purpose of ‘gathering information’ on the Bible Schools of Kenya and discerning whether this is where God wants us investing more of our time and energies. Thanks for praying for us last week as we know that God was guiding and protecting us as we traveled through beautiful country and met with people eager to share their lives and dreams with us.

One such person is a young man who graduated in July from our seminary, Kenya Baptist Theological College. Willingstone is very eager to entrust all he has learned with reliable others of western Kenya who can teach others how to better know and serve our heavenly Father and be His ambassadors. Keeping up with this young man and his father, Hesbon, is going to be a challenge as Ron, Jan and Jack join them in teaching in new Bible Schools. I will be tagging along, but my job will continue to be sharing what God is doing and how He is allowing us to be His fellow workers.

On our trip home last week, we stopped at a pottery display near Kakamega. I was preparing to put my camera away as not all want their work photographed, but the potters eagerly welcomed us and our cameras to their workshops! You will spot photos taken that day in coming weeks as the stop provided many, many scenes to illustrate prayer nudges, including the photo used last Sunday (October 9th) and in tomorrow’s Prayer Nudge from East Africa.


We continue to thank God for the many opportunities He gives us to relate to others who love and serve Him, such as assisting with a baby dedication at our church, as well as relating with those in need of our Good News, such as friends of other faiths who often talk to us about their relationship with God – relationships of which they are content, yet we know they could have so much more joy and peace if they accepted all of His gifts! I ask this week that you join us in praying that we continually grow in our ability to share our Father’s love and salvation. Join us in praying that when the task ahead of us seems overwhelming and like Moses (Exodus 3:11,12) we ask, “Who am I that I should” go or do …, that we remember that our being our Father’s ambassadors is not about who we are, but about who is with us, our Father who promises, “I will be with you.”

BERT YATES

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

October 4, 2011

My lap is my desk as I write this week’s update, sitting in the midst of a rain forest with butterflies fluttering everywhere (but never cooperating for a photo) and birds and monkeys competing with the usual afternoon thunder to out-squawk one another. Definitely one of those times when missionary life is fun! The internet strength within the Kakamega Forest is better than the past, but sill rather ‘iffy’ – so I’m writing this a day early to allow extra time for sending! (The internet is acting very iffy as I post this, so look later for the photos which I will post when we travel through a larger town tomorrow!)

Thank you also for praying for us and Ron and Jan Langston as we travelled yesterday to western Kenya to ‘gather information’ on Bible Schools of the area. Things are going well and we believe that we are seeing/ sensing/ experiencing what God wants included in future plans. We did have a safe journey, but keep praying as we return home tomorrow, visiting at least one more Bible School along the way, and as we travel to the coast to visit their Bible Schools next week. Continue praying for God’s guidance in all we do and for safety on Kenya’s obstacle-course roads! Our vehicle is in Nairobi at the moment awaiting work on the brakes which overheated on last week’s trip; thankfully the Langston’s car had working brakes when cows, a sheep, a pedestrian, and multiple oncoming vehicles tried to share our lane – the zebras stayed off the road yesterday!

We have no clue why, but we were delayed in leaving Nairobi yesterday as we encountered stalled traffic in our part of the city. To get to the western edge of Nairobi usually takes less than 15 minutes, but it took over an hour yesterday, which led to today’s (October 4th) Prayer Nudge from East Africa (http://easternafrica2011prayernudges.blogspot.com/ ) a follow-up of the story of a basket weaver that I shared in last week’s prayer update:

As we passed this morning, we watched a crafts lady place her ready-to-buy items on her 'sales floor' - a large piece of plastic. She then prepared a 'seat/work bench' from another piece of plastic next to the wall where she creates more items as she awaits customers along a busy road in an area of upper class houses. We had time to see all this as we were in a jam … But as we bemoaned the slow traffic, the lady looked happier than usual. I finally realized that the slow-down was in her favor as cars which usually zoomed-by had time to stop and not just smell the roses at the flower stall across the road (another makeshift shop), but have an extended view of her handiwork. Join me in praying today that as frustrations encroach on our schedules/ lives, we will use these to help us slow down and see the world around us and to sense opportunities to be ambassadors of our Father - opportunities we too often zoom past!

Do join us in praying that we will always be alert to the opportunities around us and sensitive to which of these God desires our response. We do encounter many things in need of help/assistance/etc., which can lead to our being overwhelmed, stressed and stretched. Please pray that we will always know when/ how/ where we should respond as our Father’s workers.

I guess I should add one more prayer item based on one of yesterday’s ‘I knew that, but…’ moments. As we entered the Kakamega Forest, we were explaining to the Langstons that the entry road we were taking was very different from the road on the opposite side of the forest and realized the explanation was simple: It is a totally different people group!

So before I search for the right place/ wind direction to send this message, please also pray for sensitivity and wisdom as we seek to strengthen and encourage East African Believers as we engage lostness together. BERT YATES