I will not write next week while we attend a meeting of the IMB personnel from our section. I’m not looking forward to the cold at our conference centre – it was in the high 40’s when we awoke this morning and Brackenhurst is 3000 feet higher than Nairobi, so it will be even colder there. I know many of you envy this coolness, but we rely totally on layering of clothes and space heaters for heat in our part of the world! I am looking forward to being with friends from Southern Sudan, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and the DRC as well as Kenya. Pray that this time, which the kids love as it is their annual VBS times, will be a time of spiritual enrichment and affirmation as we meet, learn how to do our work (the new policy part!), share our work and pray
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together. Pray that as Jack and I visit with the many newer missionaries that we will be sensitive to opportunities for strengthening and encouraging them as we learn of their lives and work.Later today I will prepare a separate prayer update for those on my other prayer list (Omba4Kenya) which covers all the work in Kenya, not just our personal Legacy Work, but I wanted to give you a bit of personal related information that I will not add to that update. I wrote last week’s Yates Update early as I had a meeting on Wednesday – which was good as I probably couldn’t have written a very intelligent update that morning. At about 9:30 Tuesday night, we heard loud noises and voices on the roadway beside our house. As the noise continued into the night, we learned that someone had “grabbed” the land beside our house and other houses on our street, which includes a road right-away beside a large “green” marshy area where no one is to develop. This space has been filled with plant vendors (each has a small square of land likely about the size of the smallest bathroom in your house on which he/she grows plants to sell) for the entire time we’ve been in Kenya. Developers had tried to grab the larger valley area several times, but this builder was trying to avoid the environmentalist groups who always stop the grabbing and build a new apartment complex along this narrow strip which in places is not even 20 yards wide. The loudness came from the grabbers putting up a perimeter fence of mabati (tin) sheets which meant they hammered the sheets up A-L-L NIGHT LONG! (Above picture is of a church made of new mabati sheets.)
I had thought of writing a special update to share this as our friends among the plant sellers needed prayer, but I was concerned that you would fear that we were in danger – and yes,
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it was an uncomfortable and unsettling time as we were told that we could no longer walk along the road beside our house which I normally do several times each week going to my discipling sessions and for grocery shopping, but we were never in danger. Thankfully, the national environmentalist groups came to our rescue and the court decided against the developer on Monday. The work continued on the property at a frenzied pace yesterday morning – UNTIL the builders took their lunch break and the local plant sellers arrived with sticks and knocked down the new fence. When I returned from a Bible study late yesterday afternoon, there were bicycles everywhere hauling off rolled-up mabati sheets, so some good came out of all of this – there will be many poor Kenyans with stronger roofs and walls tonight, and possibly even a few churches! Pray that this situation will stay calm and pray for Jack and me as we relate to the flower vendors as they return to claim their “spots” after what they define as at incidence of “corruption.” Our praise was that for the first time in weeks, we had heavy rains twice over the weekend which meant all the flowers were well-watered while their owners were not allowed in the area.
I will close by asking that you continue praying for Eunice, one of the young women I am discipling. Eunice’s (in gray sweatshirt) desire to minister to the young girls among Nairobi’s street children is growing and she needs prayer for a place to live more accessible for safety reasons to the city centre. Also pray with her as she seeks a job opportunity that would allow her to have flexible work hours and more quality time with the girls on the street. Once again – to be honest – it is things like this young professional’s zeal and eagerness to serve God which keeps us going when the bad and discouraging things happen! Thanks for you prayers, Bert
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