July 30, 2008

Jack drove to our mission offices for his weekly office day this morning and I’m working at home – a great praise, not simply because I don’t enjoy being a chauffeur, but more importantly because Jack felt so constrained in not moving freely about for his work. He is still limited in the use of his right arm, but he is no longer in pain – an even greater praise! Thanks for your prayers as he dealt with the shoulder problems. Pray that strength will continue returning to the shoulder and he will wisely choose which activities are “good exercise” and which might delay healing – especially as he chooses which road trips to make.

God is answering your prayers for wisdom and sensitivity in my knowing His will as I work. I had planned to use my time yesterday in a needed home/office reshuffle, but once again I had no doubt that God wanted me to share the concerns He had put on my heart as prayer items. I know it was not a coincidence that Jack was spending time with the Baptist AIDS organization on the very day when the latest Kenyan research in the prevalence of AIDS hit our newspapers. So I accepted that God’s will and my plans were once again not the same, and I used my time to prepare the prayer item, “We had a very nice baptism…”

After sending the prayer updates, I learned that the Holy Spirit knew there was another need for the urgency of prayer related to this prayer update. On Sunday after the training of Deaf leaders and the baptism of several new Deaf Believers, one of the deaf leaders, Dorothy Atieno, was hit by a car as she returned home and is now in the hospital awaiting a metal plate on her thigh bone. Please pray for peace for this woman, her family and her friends. Pray also for healing and that she will receive proper medical care.

Jack returned from his time yesterday with the newest BARA staff excited about how God is using this organization. He shares this prayer item: “Thank God for Baptist AIDS Response Agency-Africa. BARA was selected by the Centre of Disease Control to manage the Umbrella group of Faith Based Organizations in Kenya which have programs dealing with AIDS. Because BARA will control the funding to the four Districts chosen, pray for wisdom for the decision makers and those who will facilitate the funding to go to the intended purposes. This money is from the United States Government who chose BARA over all other groups because of our integrity, purposes and realization of effectively reducing AIDS.” (VCT in the picture stands for Voluntary Counseling and Training.)

I will close with an update of the land grabbing saga beside our house. As I wrote last week, the developers were being shut down for a day by a new legal round, but they returned quickly and at the moment, I can hear people hacking trees, thankfully not the ones within feet of our house, but on the other side of the lane that borders the property. We are a little sleep-deprived as they continue working through the night sawing, hacking, hammering, grinding, moving stone blocks and digging with a backhoe. There is little doubt in anyone’s mind that this work is illegal as the area grabbed is a road, but the legal system in Kenya works slowly and is very affected by corruption. Pray that we and our upstairs neighbours, missionary co-workers, will stay positive and not become discouraged, Bert Yates