October 7, 2009

“Describe your typical day as a missionary?” A question recently sent my way. My response: A typical day soon after returning from a Stateside Assignment or a normal mid-term typical day? There is a difference! The devil works overtime dishing-out discouragement as you make new plans to be about God’s work!

The day after our return to Nairobi on September 6th, my laptop crashed and a few days later our desktop blew-up not once, but twice. Local internet services are in fluctuation at the moment and choosing affordable/adequate temporary services took more time than expected. In the midst of the computers’ saga, my e-mail address lists disappeared. After doing what probably isn’t recommended, I found the missing file, but had to totally re-insert much of the information. This took time, but I was so happy to find the lists that I was in a definite PRAISE mode!

Since our return, we also faced alternating days of electricity rationing which ended on Tuesday of last week – the very day that water ceased running into our house! We have a storage tank, but are uncertain when this will refill, so we are once again living in “shoestring days” – The ball within our toilet is secured-up with a shoestring so that the limited fresh water is used for showers/cooking/etc and we refill the toilet tank with water saved from our showers/dish washing/etc. We’re not complaining – most of our friends have been without/with limited water for months!

We have enjoyed two great times of rain since our return, but the hoped for El Nino rainy season has not begun and things are dry, so dry. Please continue praying that ample rains will come soon to end the drought that many have faced for over two years. Pray for those who cannot afford the increased prices of foods/services resulting from the drought. Pray especially for the 10 million plus residents of Kenya (more than 1/3 of the total population of the country) who are lacking any food or water and those who have watched their livestock, their livelihood, die.

While I was unable to relate our prayer needs, I know you were praying as we dealt with these problems and got back to our work. The IMB is in the process of a re-organization and we are all still learning/translating how this relates to our work. Pray for patience during this process and that things will quickly settle, including how current economic problems affect budgets/etc, so that all of us can be at our “maximum work levels” for our Father. Bert Yates