Wednesday, December 30, 2009

SPECIAL FINAL Yates/Legacy Team Prayer Update for 2009

Like many of you, we are trying to relax a bit more this week and not go at our usual pace – and I fully intended to prepare a short and simple prayer update to share with you today. BUT as I looked for a few special pictures to share, the pictures led me on a time consuming detour. I am trusting that this was the answer to prayer for spiritual guidance as I worked, so a new Prayer Walk THROUGH DOORS AND WINDOWS is prepared with our invitation for you to “Take a Walk through DOORS AND WINDOWS in Kenya that will guide you in prayer as you praise God for what has happened in Kenya during 2009 and join us and Kenyan Baptists in praying for how people can come to know our Savior's love and salvation during 2010.”

The PICASA (Google’s) version of this Prayer Walk is completed, but as I tried to download the FACEBOOK version, my internet died! And just as I’ve learned that a total change in direction is a sign of the guidance of the Holy Spirit, a total failure of my internet usually happens when prayers are being answered and the Holy Spirit is at work WHICH does not please the devil. I truly believe the internet can be used as a special blessing from God to share and do His work, BUT the devil is also crafty at using it … SO I hope some of you are praying as I work this morning and by the time I complete this e-mail that the internet will work again! (Would you believe that I posted a comment saying I was downloading the week’s prayer update on FACEBOOK before the internet went down and later learned that within minutes three of you were praying!)

My original intention for this prayer update has not changed – to thank you for being our prayer warriors this past year. Without your prayers our work would only be busy work and not God’s Work. We are also thankful to Southern Baptists who give to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering and the Cooperative Program which provides our financial support – our salary, our housing and car, and the monies to help pay for our internet so I can share prayer praises and needs and for Jack’s travel to the places where Baptists are at work in Kenya – as seen in pictures on the Prayer Walk! I can think of lots of way to say thank you, but I think the best way is the simple way – THANK YOU for allowing us to be at work in our Father’s Harvest Field! The lost of Africa ARE COMING to know and claim His love and salvation! Bert Yates

PS: Once again your prayers worked – after an hour, my internet returned at full strength – or at least my usual full strength which would drive most Americans crazy!
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Prayer Walk Through DOORS AND WINDOWS sharing praises and needs from 2009 of the Yates/IMB/LEGACY WORK in Kenya can be found at Picasa, Google’s web picture program, or at FACEBOOK (even those not a Facebook Friend or Member came view the prayer walk):

PICASA: http://picasaweb.google.com/Bertndovu/DoorsAndWindowsYatesLegacyTeamPrayerUpdate091230?feat=directlink
FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=181131&id=685050129&l=923a5dcf4f

December 25, 2009

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

December 22, 2009

I envy the snow scenes many of you are experiencing, but I am enjoying our summer weather! Many things about celebrating Christmas has changed during our 31 years in Kenya, especially the trees for sale along our roads – they are now more than sprigs! Our first Kenyan Christmas tree was two trees wired together which barely supported our few ornaments – all homemade as NOTHING was available in the stores. Now our malls – nonexistent in 1978 – have resident Santas and Christmas special items are seen everywhere!

But, as we shared a Christmas party last week with a new ministry, Sema Leatherworks,* I realized that one thing has not changed – Kenyan Christians celebrate not just the birth, but the life of Christ during Christmas. Sema Leatherworks was begun this year by the Business as a Mission Team to reach “the most challenging areas of Nairobi with the Good News”. A small group of committed Christian men produce leather products Monday through Thursday, providing a modest income for their families, and on the other days they share the gospel and disciple new believers – resulting in over 30 new Bible Storying groups in less than a year – and yes, this is happening thanks to those of you who have given to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offerings and Baptist Global Response!

It was exciting to be with these young men and their families – many whom we have known over the years as active members of local Baptist churches. It was challenging to hear one young man’s story of how he and his wife decided early this year to move to an unsafe slum area to plant churches! They did this while expecting an addition to their family which turned out to be twin boys! They also made the decision BEFORE they knew of the planned Sema Leatherworks which would provide their financial support!

It was a reminder of the true joy of Christmas as we watched the kids of these Church Planters use the “cooking time” for our Christmas feast to prepare and present an impromptu concert of songs about the joy of being our King’s Soldiers! I realized later that other than the banana leaf tree bearing Sema Leatherworks ornaments, there were no traditional Christmas decorations and we sang not one familiar Christmas chorus, but it was definitely a true celebration of our Savior!

We will celebrate Christmas day by sharing a traditional meal of turkey, ham, cranberries (all now locally available, but the costs still make them a true treat!), etc, with friends, but we will spend Christmas Eve at a Wienie Roast/Carol Sing with our fellow missionaries – a tradition our family began more than 10 years ago. Another unique part of this Christmas is that this is our first Christmas with no child at home. Pray for us and our children – all who are now in North Carolina – as we celebrate in our familiar and unique ways.

Much has changed during our time in Kenya, but our assurance that we are exactly where God wants us has not changed. Another constant is our assurance of your prayer and financial support which allows us to be a part of our Father’s Work in Kenya! THANK YOU! Bert Yates--- --- --- --- ---
For more pictures, go to FACEBOOK page - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=178245&id=685050129&l=ad36d63ed6

* For more on the Sema Leatherworks ministry, go to: http://www.semaleatherworks.com/

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

December 16, 2009

Last week I wrote, we “will be traveling tomorrow on a survey trip to Kakamega in Western Kenya … for Jack to explore … Church Planting training in the area and for me to learn if I can access internet adequately ... Pray for safety … that we will quickly meet the people that God has been moving towards church planting. ” Your prayers were answered – THANK YOU.

We traveled safely even though we veered off the road many times to avoid trucks and cars, donkey or men propelled carts hauling everything from hay to a pool table, as well as meandering cows, goats, sheep, donkeys and even baboons. Plus, you know you are in Western Kenya when the bicycles outnumber the cars – travel in Kakamega town is safer thanks to a parallel road for bicycles!

Jack successfully met with a small group of Kenyan Baptist leaders from the area with hearts for obediently carrying out our Savior’s Great Commission – resulting in plans for him to return at least three times early next year to lead church planting training in the local associations. These trips will take over a week each time and thankfully we found that internet is available in the area – which means I can travel with him and do my work as he does his.

I have downloaded a slideshow*, Pray for Disciple Making/Church Planting in Kakamega (read note at end if you are a FACEBOOK friend), to share some of the scenes/feelings/prayer nudges that we experienced last week. We saw forsaken burned-out shops and homes, as well as a few remaining Internally Displaced People tented camps, lasting reminders of the post-election crisis which began in December 2007 AND we also spotted several villages of tiny new homes. Between Nairobi and Nakuru, we viewed continued drought with dry fields and cattle with protruding ribs, BUT thankfully west of Nakuru, farms were filled with lush growth and plump animals, a sign of ample rain. Frustration came as we viewed a well-built government clinic with no equipment, medicines or staff due to a lack of funds, BUT next to it sat a mud building housing a Baptist church committed to ministering spiritually and physically in their community. Rowdy kids dressed in tatters surrounded us at the village church, YET when served the “left-over” food from our meeting, the older kids made certain the younger ones were fed first. We passed many woodworking “kiosks” that were producing not chairs and tables, but coffins AND realized why as we walked to a Kenyan friend’s home and passed a deserted house with three mounds in the yard – the burial spots of a husband, wife and baby, all who had died of HIV/AIDS.

There were also views that I was unable to capture for you: Scrawny kids running onto the highway to grab and nibble pieces of sugar cane (major cash crop of western Kenya) fallen from tractors moving to the factories; a boy sitting beside a ditch – not playing in the water, but filling his bucket with a small plastic cup; the racks of drying fish, recent catches from Lake Victoria; women carrying large metal trays of ripe bananas on their heads; and Jack’s favorite, the old man in well worn clothes, trudging along with the aid of his stick, wearing a “new” New York Yankees baseball hat!

Thank you for being our prayer partners and thanks also to the Southern Baptists who give to the Cooperative Program and Lottie Moon Offering so that we can view all these things and be a part of sharing our Father’s love and salvation in Kenya. Bert Yates
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FACEBOOK friends can find the Prayer Walk/Slideshow at PRAY FOR DISCIPLE MAKING/CHURCH PLANTING IN KAKAMEGA and others can find it by clicking: http://picasaweb.google.com/Bertndovu/PrayForDiscipleMakingChurchPlantingInKakamega?feat=directlink

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

December 8, 2009

Have you ever simply not had time to do something, but you knew you had to do it! But with your prayers and encouragement (thanks to FACEBOOK and e-mails), I have accomplished what I HAD TO DO in the last two days – Prepare a new blog to share the incredible day we experienced this past Sunday as we joined in the celebration of the 20th anniversary of Ruaraka Baptist Church in Nairobi. As soon as we arrived last Sunday morning, I was thankful that I had my camera as I knew this was going to be an incredible Lottie Moon story! A story of what happens when obedient Christians use their gifts to carry out our Savior’s Great Commission! It is a story of discipleship, mentoring, depending upon God, evangelization, volunteers, church planting, spiritual multiplication, Legacy Work in Kenya, and so much more. It is the story of how two IMB female missionaries started a church as a part of their daily walks which began for exercise, but became a Pied Piper method of church planting! To find this incredible story, go to Great Things at Ruaraka Baptist Church at http://greatthingsrbc.blogspot.com/ .

Once again I am sending this early, but not simply because of my desire to share the above story with you quickly, but because Jack and I will be traveling tomorrow (Wednesday) on a survey trip to Kakamega in Western Kenya. This trip is for Jack to explore how to begin Church Planting training in the area and for me to learn if I can access internet adequately for me to travel with him – which is important as he plans to be gone for two to three weeks during each visit next year! Pray for safety for us as we make the trip close to the Uganda border tomorrow. Pray also that we will quickly meet the people that God has been moving towards church planting. Pray also for Jack as he shares his vision for church planting with the leaders of the local churches on Thursday morning.

I also was on the internet working on blogs for days last week – after discovering that most of my “Lottie Moon” blogs < Lottie Moon Stories from the Harvest Field of Kenya - http://lottiemoonkenya2008.blogspot.com > were scrambled! Hopefully, you can access these blogs now and more easily see the pictures – REMEMBER that you are always free to download/copy any pictures you see to use in your Bible studies/Mission presentations.

Thank you once again for being our prayer supporters – God is at work in Kenya and in all of Equatorial Africa and thanks to your prayer and financial support to the Cooperative Program and the Lottie Moon Offering we are able to be a part of that work! Bert Yates

Saturday, December 5, 2009

"Feeding the Maasai"

FEEDING THE MAASAI at http://imbmaasai.blogspot.com/ has been updated. It is an awesome view of how God is at work among the Maasai People and how Southern Baptists have been a part of proclaiming our Father's love and salvation among this once unreached people group!

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

December 1, 2009

No, it is not “beginning to look a lot like Christmas” outside my office/bedroom window, but there is moisture in the air – RAIN – a praise. But don’t stop praying for rain, although many places in Kenya are receiving good rains, parts of southern Kenya, the home of the Maasai People, is still without rain and people and animals continue to suffer and die.

I will be doing a bit of “connecting” tomorrow, so this week’s update is a day early – but it is easy to write as Jack has written most of it. Upon his return last week from his discipleship training in Western Kenya, he excitedly told story after story of his experiences. As he shared one story, I knew you had to hear it too!
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CALLED TO SERVE: Legacy Encounters – 25 November, 2009 – Jack Yates

Yesterday I was having breakfast at the Ventures Villa in downtown Oyugis (that is a joke folks – but actually a very nice hotel, clean, TV’s in rooms, noiseless, etc.) and talking with the leadership of Nyanza Province Baptists. Ben Ngere, a Regional Coordinator for the Baptist Convention of Kenya, has served as pastor of Homa Bay Baptist Church for as long as I have known him, or so I thought. I heard someone speak of his time in Mombasa (on Kenya’s coast) and having lived there from 1982-1986, I asked him about his life there. His answer surprised me – We were there at the identical time!

Ben, the first pastor of Miritini Baptist Church, had brought his niece to my office (Headmaster) at Baptist High School for enrollment. I had completely forgotten the encounter. He remembered the early missionaries and those who had worshipped with him at Chamgamwe Baptist Church. I then asked how he had gotten into ministry, seminary and then to Homa Bay. His answer was a classic tale of how God uses every one of us to influence and direct disciples that obviously have the Spirit of God at work within.

Ben did not mention his job in Mombasa, just that he attended Chamgamwe Baptist Church and was thoroughly enjoying his time and role within the church. He said his wife, Helen, was engaged in a medical career and was also very active in the church. He was very comfortable and I doubt if he was looking for a change. Then his pastor, Elimbenzi Mrema, spoke one morning about answering the call to service for the Lord. Mrema, from Moshi, Tanzania, was one of the first pastors in Mombasa and was known for discipling and sending out workers and pastors. He complained to me one day that he was forever working but his church never grew! I asked how many young people and families had he prepared and sent out into the world. He smiled and said nothing more.

When Mrema spoke that Sunday morning, Ben heard the voice of God calling him and not knowing any answers to his questions, he went forward at the invitation to greet the pastor and testify to God’s call. Ben was alone as no one else in the service had responded, but he was surprised by Mrema’s response. Pastor Mrema quickly prayed and closed the service, led Ben into his office and began asking questions about his decision. Ben says he answered honestly and truthfully but had no idea of what or how God would use him. He was shocked when Mrema told him that he was no longer to stay at Chamgamwe.

Mrema took Ben by the arm and led him to his ancient Vespa piki (very small and well used motorcycle) and immediately drove him to Miritini, a few miles away along the Mombasa/Nairobi highway. Mrema had a place picked out – a nice tree – and the church started the following week with Ben as pastor!
Mrema gave him no chance to reconsider or to return to Chamgamwe. It happened so quick that Ben had no chance to talk it over with his wife. But after a couple of weeks, Ben asked Helen why she was not joining him, thinking that she had no plans of being a pastor’s wife! She surprised him by immediately adding to the membership of the new Miritini Baptist Church.

Ben served Miritini for a number of years through trial and tribulation. Later, he left to join our seminary in Arusha, Tanzania for four years. After that he was called to return home and pastor at Homa Bay. Through it all, his mentor was Pastor Elimbenzi Mrema, a man God used to call, prepare and send disciples.
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Now, I need your help. Many of you on my mailing list are retired missionaries and may know Ben’s “discipler,” Pastor Mrema. Where you one of Pastor Mrema’s mentors, teachers or one of those who discipled him? Others of you on my mailing list may have been one of those Mrema mentored, taught or discipled! Would you please take a few minutes and share your involvement or that of others with me so I can recreate this “Discipleship Genealogy Tree”?

I could share much more during this time of Lottie Moon Emphasis, but Ben’s story is an incredible example of how God has blessed and is continuing to bless your past and present gifts of prayers, involvement and finances! Thank you for being an ongoing part of the work in our Father’s Harvest Field! Bert Yates
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Remember that if you need additional encouragement or assurance of how your prayers and financial gifts are used, please go to:
Lottie Moon Stories from the Harvest Field of Kenya http://lottiemoonkenya2008.blogspot.com
Prayer Walk with a Tea Cup and a Somali New Testament Bible, A Prayer Guide for the LEGACY WORK – http://picasaweb.google.com/Bertndovu/LegacyTeamYatesPrayerLetter_091111PRAYERWALKWithACupAndASomaliNewTestament?feat=directlink