Praises and Joys

As I celebrated my birthday last Friday, I searched for a Bible verse to guide me this next year and ended up checking books of the Bible with 65 chapters. No hints to why I chose this number!

Isaiah 65 was full of challenges and promises, but Psalm 65 touched my heart that morning, especially the first five words of verses 1 and 2 and the last five, “Praise awaits you, O God… O you who hear prayer… shout for joy and sing.” So today, I want to do a bit of praising God and shouting for joy.

Another joy was attending last Sunday's service
at Parklands Baptist Church led by a few of the
1700 kids who had attended VBS the previous week!

Our 1st praise/joy is that Jack and I have the opportunity to serve our Father in Africa, to do what we dreamed of as small children in Sunbeams (now Mission Friends) and RAs/GAs. In July 1978, we were packed up, ready to move to another part of North Carolina (so I could complete a Masters in Counseling) as soon as we returned from taking the youth of the church where we served in Greensboro, NC, to missions week at Fort Caswell. While there we were asked to move instead to Kenya for one year with the Mission Service Corps, a new volunteer organization with the IMB (then FMB).

When we arrived in 1978, Parklands Baptist Church
was a small congregation with lots of  missionaries
from other countries. Today there are thousands of
members and the many missionaries in the church
are Africans on mission to places like Turkana in 
in northern Kenya.  These kids are guests invited
from Turkana to share this year's VBS week. 

In less than 2 months, we had passports and we and our 4 year old son were in Kenya. Now, almost 37 years later, we are still in Kenya. I’ve never completed my Masters’ studies and ended up with a career change to media. Jack’s began by teaching high school kids as he did in the States, but over the years, he graduated to teaching adults in churches and Bible Schools, and KBTC.

View of lunch preparation for KBTC students yesterday.
Jack enjoyed eating a 'birthday lunch' of veggie stew.

Jack, who celebrated his birthday yesterday, is having extra joy this week as he completes a two week session of teaching 4 hours per day at KBTC. He enjoys guiding KBTC as the principal, but his true love is still teaching, especially new courses such as ‘Testing and Evaluations in the Classroom’ which he is teaching at the moment to KBTC’s current Christian Education Advanced Diploma class.

Unexpected chameleon sightings always
bring joy. We learned this morning that
corn fields on campus are being raided
at night by wart hogs and porcupines
crossing the tea fields from a nearby
forest. Sorry, no photos YET!

One part of his joy of teaching is seeing students capture the joy of teaching others. In an assignment this week, one student shared:

“Remembering things is not learning to me. I learn when I can apply and transform the knowledge I acquire in class into my daily life… be more creative, a dreamer who does things in new ways whether in preaching or teaching in my church or ministry. Learning is not learning unless I can use what I have acquired and come up with new ideas, terms etc., to help others.”

Even washing dishes is a time of joy
with views such as this out the window!

My joy comes from the opportunity to serve as the Prayer Networker for the IMB Sub-Saharan African Peoples. When a friend commented this week that she didn’t know how I sat at the computer all day, I admitted that it gets lonely and tiring, but my joy comes from reading emails, newsletters, blogs and Facebook posts sharing what God is doing among the peoples where co-workers serve and helping them gain prayer support. How can one not be excited about sharing of baptisms in South Sudan, a week of no new Ebola cases in Sierra Leone, and raising prayer support for a worship group in West Africa needing to stand firm as they face persecution and difficulties? You can learn the details of these and more stories at IMB Sub-Saharan African Peoples.

Photo taken mid-day today!

An added joy this week is seeing the almost completed red covering on Baraka Hall and hearing the sounds of work on the ‘shells’ of rooms which will turn the new floor into proper space for offices, needed classrooms and temporary, but improved dorm spaces. Yes, temporary dorm spaces; the next two big projects will be constructing a dorm for women and one for men. No, we don’t know how this will all happen, but we know God is at work and will provide!

A happy Jack checking the end of the new floor
with new/temporary housing for female
students/teachers and space for library books
needed in class sessions.  The mid section,
the old temporary roof of the lower floor,
will soon be replaced with railings.

Yet another special joy? On Friday we will celebrate 44 years of marriage! And our closing joy/praise is for how you strengthen and encourage us as you pray, give to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering and Cooperative Program, and send volunteers our way which allow us to join in our Father’s work in Kenya.

BERT YATES

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Remember to view the daily Nudges to Action for Sub-Saharan African Peoples, a part of Bert's work as the Prayer Networker for Sub-Saharan African Peoples at  https://www.facebook.com/SubSaharanAfricanPeoples.

For more from Jack's work, visit KBTC's site at
https://www.facebook.com/KenyaBaptistTheologicalCollege

Anyone can easily and safely view both of the above sites by CLICKing the tabs at the top of this page.

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And a few more photos from the week.

My birthday meal at Brackenhurst - fish, sukumawiki (greens)
and ugali (boiled corn meal).  I ate it all except the fish head!
The homemade coconut cream pie was Jack's birthday treat.

And a few unexpected/ fun views of birds captured this week!