November 25, 2009

Good morning … I am having breakfast in the Bliss Hotel, here in Migori. Nice place, loud TV, and seatless toilets, but very nice. Safaricom works great. Amazing. I teach this morning and then off to Kisii. Love you. Jack
Now a little translation of this e-mail which arrived in my computer yesterday (Tuesday) morning:
Breakfast at Kenyan hotels is usually British style which means you get pork & beans and cooked whole tomatoes as sides.

Many Kenyan hotels have unique names such as Bliss. Jack stayed last night in the Venture Villa in Oyugi, off the beaten path, but nice and clean, yet not quite a villa! And yes, after 30 years in Kenya, our definition of “nice” may not be yours!

Migori and Kisii are in Nyanza Province in southwest Kenya, near Lake Victoria.
Seatless toilets do not refer to toilets without the flip seat, but Kenyan style toilets with no seats, only holes in the floor.

Safaricom is a Kenyan cell-phone provider which offers a little “doo-hickey” that attaches to your computer and provides wireless internet – not the greatest, but it works and is truly an amazing item that we add to our prayer PRAISES!

The teaching, an activity Jack always loves, was teaching the 2 Timothy 2:2 Discipleship materials, a part of the partnership between the Baptist Convention of Kenya and LifeWay – another PRAISE. Southern Baptist volunteers, such as a group from Bell Shoals in Florida, who recently completed teaching the materials in three places, are assisting local national leadership in teaching Kenyan Baptists how to be and make disciples. It is difficult for volunteers to get everywhere, so Jack and Samson Ojienda, the administrator of the BCOK, accepted the challenge of teaching in Nyanza – an area of few roads and limited public transport –many of the 30+ attendees walked long distances to the two day seminar – yet another PRAISE!

What have I done during Jack’s absence? Worked on the computer – updating blogs, sorting through pictures and addresses, finding new prayer supporters, contacting fellow missionaries to learn how God is blessing their work, and studying FACEBOOK! After living in Kenya for 30+ years, I must learn how Americans think/respond/etc., if I am to share our needs/praises in a way that leads you to providing the needed personnel, prayer and financial support.

Based on what I’m learning, I created a new picture album entitled Hauling Kenyan Style. Why? The Lottie Moon emphasis is days away and I know you are bombarded with negatives and needs, so I chose to share some positives with you by offering “ Differing methods of HAULING in Kenya including bits of culture, a little humor and a few prayer reminders!”

We are also being bombarded these days with lots of negatives, especially financial pressures which are affecting our ability to join our Father in His work! We need more and more prayer support for the work Southern Baptist are doing in our Father’s Harvest Fields. We also need you to give sacrificially to Lottie Moon this year so that people who are willing to walk miles to learn how to witness will be enabled to join us in carrying out the Great Commission and obediently proclaiming the eternal gospel to every nation, tribe, language and people! Bert Yates
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HAULING KENYAN STYLE – http://picasaweb.google.com/Bertndovu/HaulingKenyanStyle?feat=directlink
Prayer Walk with a Tea Cup and a Somali New Testament Bible, A Prayer Guide for the LEGACY WORK can be found at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/Bertndovu/LegacyTeamYatesPrayerLetter_091111PRAYERWALKWithACupAndASomaliNewTestament?feat=directlink

November 18, 2009

Negatives and Positives of the last week: Electricity a coming’ and a going’ – A great frustration leading to great fears of blowing yet another appliance, but we took a few more breaks and did some old fashioned reading!
Internet with strength too little to function – Of course this was when my planned work relied totally on access to the internet. Positive: I had a two day rest from the computer.
Dirty water barely trickling into the taps which means filling the washing machine by hand via buckets checked for water quality – Good side: The kitchen floor is squeaky clean with all the sloshing between the sink and machine! Yes, I could use a hose, but being a multi-tasker, I WOULD flood the whole house! The super positive: Though colourful and little pressure, there IS water in the taps!

Frustrations are a part of our lives and the lives of many of your missionaries, and yes, we are good people, but we are not saints. What keeps us going? The positives that erase all the negatives. For Jack and me, members of the LEGACY TEAM (older, established Baptist work), it is experiencing God’s Multiplication Plan in action. We are watching the disciples of our present and past missionary and Kenyan co-workers “Go ye therefore” and teach new disciples to know and obey God’s Word. We get to see these men and women make their own disciples as they proclaim the eternal gospel to every nation, tribe, language and people (Rev. 14:6).

No, things do not always go smoothly, one of the many reasons we need your prayer support as we continue to serve in Kenya. Jack and I daily talk of what we should and should not do. We debate how God wants us to strengthen and encourage others. We discuss when to “speak up” and when to be quiet! Please join us in praying that we will be so guided by the Holy Spirit that we can always trust that our actions and especially our reactions are exactly what God would have us do! As we continue with the teaching and disciple making/training, pray that we will always be an active, positive part of God’s plan for His work. Pray especially for Jack as he travels to western Kenya next week to teach in the discipleship programme supported through LifeWay.

Pray for me (Bert) as I “connect” our missionaries in Equatorial Africa, many who are working with Unreached People Groups. Pray that I will find the best ways to strengthen and encourage my IMB co-workers as they root their own “Family Trees of Disciples” with people who do not yet know our Father’s love and salvation.

Thank you for praying for Kenya’s Class Eight students during last week’s exams which determine if some will continue in school and the quality of the high school others will attend. My young friends at church were amazed that Americans were praying for them!

Your prayers do make a difference! Many comments and evaluations are swirling around in the Southern Baptist community concerning missions programs, but I can assure you that God is blessing the work of missionaries (long and short term ones) and the financial support provided by your gifts to the Lottie Moon Offering and the Cooperative Program. He is using your prayers, time, gifts and other support to accomplish His plans. As ones in the Harvest Field, Jack and I thank you for allowing us to be about our Father’s work in the place where He has called us! Bert Yates
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Remember that you can find special information on how to pray for Kenya at: http://picasaweb.google.com/Bertndovu/LegacyTeamYatesPrayerLetter_091111PRAYERWALKWithACupAndASomaliNewTestament?feat=directlink

November 11, 2009

The mental planning/preparation for this week’s Prayer Update began days ago, then ONCE AGAIN, when it came time this morning to write the update – the update took on a life of its own. I could blame this on lots of things, but I’ve learned to cease “pondering” and accept this as an answer to your and our prayers as the Holy Spirit shows me exactly what I should share with you this week!

Today’s “Update Saga” begins with our attending Parkland Baptist Church’s annual Mission Conference last Saturday. Jack was among the program speakers concerning “Enhanced Partnerships – Enhanced Possibilities.” I went to find ways to raise prayer support for our work with the Legacy Team (the established Baptist work). The first note I wrote as a reminder of what to share with you related to our prepared name tags. Jack was identified as BMOK (Baptist Mission of Kenya); my label – Parklands Baptist Church Member. My reaction: It is a new day in missions in Kenya as we find that we are valued and needed as “pro” missionaries, but possibly our greatest means of “being” missionaries is by working among Kenyan Believers as friends and co-workers.

As always, Jack enjoyed having the opportunity to share his passion for discipleship. His message: Any mission endeavor must include not only sharing God’s love and salvation, but teaching how those listening can do the same. It was exciting to watch the very mixed group of more than 100 participants from different denominations, mission groups, people groups, countries, ages, and professions react to all they heard and discuss their mission activities.

Another scribble in my notebook – The awesome prayer reminder worn by a young woman, followed by a note of our “chance encounter.” While standing in the lunch line, I met the young woman and explained why I took her picture. While eating irio (African hot potato salad), chapatis (like tortillas) and beef stew, I learned that she was a university student already working full time in the internet industry. As we talked, I realized that our encounter was not coincidental, but God led. She was at the conference to find others who shared her love for using the internet as a tool for sharing God’s love and salvation – not as a professional missionary, but simply as a trained internet professional! The conference’s goal was working – I was ENHANCED, encouraged, excited, enthused…!

All the above was in my earlier “plan” for today’s prayer update – but two “incidences” led to a change of heart of what to share with you today. First, Jack shared at breakfast his excitement of teaching “The History of Baptist Work in Kenya” to a seminary class yesterday afternoon. He told me of his amazement that most of the “history” was new to this incredible bunch of young Christians – few had grown up knowing a Baptist missionary or our first Kenyan Baptist leaders. This could be seen as a negative, but we realized that this was part of God’s multiplication plan as disciples make disciples who make disciples! We discussed again the importance of accepting that this is a new day and that our role must change to not be the “leaders” but to be “strengtheners and encouragers” as we make certain that this new group of Christians have the needed spiritual foundation to continue the multiplication of followers of Christ!

The second incident, was the arrival in my morning’s e-mails of information of a new Web site designed to tell the stories of Africa, from Africa, for Africa - www.africastories.org . As I skimmed the site, I recognized the young lady featured in one of the video stories – Eunice of “Eunice and the Street Boys,” is the same Eunice that is my dear friend and one that I and a recently retired missionary have had the joy of mentoring. Take time to view this site and share it with your friends. It is yet one more example of our Father’s multiplication plan in action!

This incident also led to a delay in my completing today’s update. After my scheduled work yesterday, I edited pictures from last week’s mission’s conference. I wanted to prepare a “Internet Prayer Walk” as my contribution to the Lottie Moon emphasis. But, energy and time were lacking and I decided I would finish later in the week! But after viewing the Africa Stories website and remembering all the “encounters” God had provided us this week and His reminders of how He is at work among the Legacy Churches, I realized that I had to complete the Prayer Walk. I had to send it to you today as a THANK YOU for your financial and prayer support and as an encouragement to continue as our supporters as you experience – thanks to the internet - how God has blessed your past gifts.

So, I’m asking that you go to a second internet site and “Prayer walk with me through a Mission's Conference at Parklands Baptist Church in Nairobi Kenya, beginning with praying over a simple cup and ending with praying over a New Testament for people from a neighbouring country which is at war politically and spiritually.” You can find these pictures/captions which you can use personally or share with others (all the pictures can be copied) on my FACEBOOK page or at: http://picasaweb.google.com/Bertndovu/LegacyTeamYatesPrayerLetter_091111PRAYERWALKWithACupAndASomaliNewTestament?feat=directlink

Thank you for wading through this week’s longer-than-usual prayer update, but I can’t apologize for the length – We had too many exciting things to share with you today – too many things that need your offerings of praise and requests to our Father! Bert Yates

November 4, 2009

When 2009 began, we worked in Kenya/Eastern Africa/CESA (Central, Eastern and Southern Africa). We now work in Equatorial Eastern Sub-Cluster/ Equatorial Africa/Sub-Saharan African Peoples Affinity Group (SSAP-AG). We are living in the same house, working from the same desks, and Jack continues to lead the LEGACY TEAM (established Baptist churches). But as you can see, other than our sending agency, the IMB (International Mission Board) being the same, a lot has changed! Why has this happened? To keep us flexible, a must for missionaries? No, to help IMB staff be better workers for our Father and better stewards of the financial support we receive from you thanks to your gifts to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering and the Cooperative Program.

This transition includes a new job for me. I loved serving as Prayer Advocate for Kenya, but I now have the opportunity to work with all of our missionaries in the Equatorial Cluster which reaches from Gabon on the Atlantic Ocean to Kenya on the Indian Ocean. As the Cluster Connector I will seek to “connect” our staff with one another and to you through a monthly newsletter and by keeping all the data on our diverse group. Pray that I will seek God’s guidance in my every thought, action and plan as I learn/define this new position. Pray for patience as I explore the best way to do the work, especially the work on the computer.

Thankfully, transition is not required in Jack’s job assignment or my acting as the team’s Prayer Advocate. Why do we feel so strongly that Jack’s should be “Strengthening and encouraging” Kenyan Baptists “as we engage lostness together” (Acts 14:22; Rev 14:6) rather than working directly among the unreached people groups in our part of the world? Kenyan Christians are the ones who are uniquely equipped to by our heavenly Father to win their continent to Christ!

We see this exemplified at Parklands Baptist, our home church in Nairobi, which was begun by Southern Baptists missionaries in 1978, the year we arrived in Kenya. I was one of the first children’s Sunday School teachers and Jack was among the first deacons ordained. Parklands now has five thousands members and holds four services on Sunday mornings. Early church members were discipled/mentored/taught by many of your missionaries and they have learned, grown and now faithfully continue as multiplying “witnesses in (their) Jerusalem…Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). This past Sunday, we caught a glimpse of the vision statement of Sub-Sahara Africa in action: To see “a multitude from every language, people, tribe and Nation of SSA(Sub-Sahara Africa) knowing and worshipping our Lord Jesus Christ.” It was a skin-tingling time as praise, glory and honour was brought to our heavenly Father as we prayed and sang in multiple languages and watched others express their cultural diversity through drama and dance (praising God with their feet)!Jack needs your prayers this weekend as he is one of the key speakers at Parklands Mission’s Conference. Pray for him as he prepares to share on Mission Organization. Pray for him also as he works with the Legacy churches, the changes we face as missionaries also affects them.

Sorry, this has been long, but I must share a bit more. Another example of how one Legacy Church, Ruiru First Baptist – a church impacted by your missionaries – is now obediently sharing God’s love and salvation, can be found at: Ministering to the Kids .* These pictures are an example of how God blessed your past gifts to the Lottie Moon Offering and the Cooperative Program. Our last prayer request this week is that we and our co-workers will always be flexible so that we can be totally in line with our Father’s plans, always ready to sense the Holy Spirit’s guidance, always alert to opportunities to share our Saviour’s love, and always able to bring glory to our God in all we do!
Bert Yates

* "Ministering to the Kids" is at: http://picasaweb.google.com/Bertndovu/MinisteringToTheKidsAtRuiruFirstBaptistKenya?feat=directlink

REMEMBER: Additional pictures for this prayer update can be found at my FACEBOOK page.