Krismasi Njema

God is in Control

So… what does a missionary do other than enjoying the special treats in his/her part of the world - such as viewing lions? Since becoming the principal of the Kenya Baptist Theological College in January 2013, Jack has spent hours and hours attending meetings, reading government papers and old KBTC records, brainstorming with others, dreaming and lots and lots of praying as he led the charge to enable KBTC to confer college degrees in addition to the current diplomas.

There is still much to do, but, today’s update shares what Jack did on one very special day of this journey! Here is the highlights of his report from last Friday, a L-O-N-G but incredible day!

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I left home around 7:30 to pick up the Dean, Joseph Kamau. We collected the college seal, other documents of registration and our pin number before driving into Nairobi. An early morning trip into the city is never easy, but we made it safely and picked up our Board Chairman, Zack Gairy from Kahawa Sukari (coffee sweet) estate. We survived the long slow crawl of traffic by talking issues before the college.

The purpose of the day, was to travel to Namanga, Kenya, to sign the collaboration agreement with Mount Meru University (formerly International Baptist Theological Seminary of East Africa/ Arusha, Tanzania) to allow KBTC to offer Degrees in Theology and Education. We met the fourth member of the team, Rev. Peter Olonapa, the General Secretary of the Baptist Convention of Kenya, in Kajiado on the highway leading to the Tanzania border.

After a tea and mandazi  (square/no hole doughnut) break, we headed on to the Kenya side of Namanga, a town which extends into Tanzania, to meet Dr. Harrison Olang and his team from MMU. After dodging cows, goats and Maasai and the usual fifty sleeping policemen (speedbumps) we were united with Dr. Olang, the Vice-Chancellor of MMU, Dr. John Kutswa, the incoming new Vice-Chancellor, and the Deputy Vice-Chancellor for MMU’s Education program, Dr. Mshariff, at Namanga River Hotel.

Dr. Olang who begins his retirement in January, began our meeting in the “Buffalo Bar” of the hotel by reminiscing about how long he had waited for this day and the many times the two schools had come to an “agreement” before 2103, but for various reasons the partnership never began. Our gratitude and appreciation for Harrison’s steadfastness and forgiving spirit was our first agenda item.

The signing and witnessing quickly took place. All questions and issues were discussed and resolved quickly. In January, 2017, the Dean and one other KBTC staff member will travel to Arusha and spend a week to properly format the course curriculum and syllabi to the Tanzania requirement. We placed our meal orders, took photographs to commemorate the day, and began to relax and await our lunch. We had plenty of time to get to know one another as we waited two hours for our meal to be served! We all departed around 4 p.m. headed to our respective colleges in Kenya and Tanzania. Little did we know that we would not come back to Tigoni until after 10 that night!

Two very interesting things happened in addition to the signing. On the way Olonapa had pointed out the house of a friend, ‘P’, who had given the Baptist Convention of Kenya over 30 acres of land and had a Baptist Church built that exceeded 6 million shillings. The building has utilities, speaker system and video equipment. He also promised to support the pastor to come to KBTC. As our meeting was beginning in Namanga, ‘P’ showed up quite unexpectedly. A young man in his thirties, he has already begun a life of giving away the wealth that easily comes his way. Our meal was paid for by him.

Olonapa told us that another young man from Matapato was planning on our visiting him and seeing the Bible School/KBTC centre that he was resurrecting. Only this year, we had been called to Matapato by the leading pastor of the area to rescue the building and restart the program. Unfortunately that pastor died and we had not a clue about what to do until our visit.

The Matapato Centre had been built thirty years before by a missionary, Bruce Schmidt. After the mission had closed its station, the centre had been misappropriated by local leaders into becoming a high school. The Bible School continued to struggle but eventually folded. That school had departed and later the building was severely vandalized. Due to a lack of time, we had not planned on visiting the facility on this day. Then the pastor from Matapato showed up in Namanga with surprises and news!

Pastor Moses introduced himself as one who knew me! In 1985 as I was leaving my position as Principal of Mombasa Baptist High School one of my last duties was to respond to applications. Moses received my letter calling him to Mombasa, but as I was gone by his arrival, we had never met! He still has the letter and felt that God had put us together on this day. We had great times of sharing history and the present. Moses is now the Chairman of the Matapato association, pastor of Zion Baptist Church, and taking the lead in cleaning and repairing the old Matapato centre. He wants KBTC to renew its purpose with the centre with TEE, Bible School and even Diploma level programs! The blessing was knowing that God had arranged this all. We did not need to go by or inspect the centre itself.

One last surprise was the picture of the church Moses had on his phone. It seems that this year, a Korean missionary, visited Matapato (Mali Tisa/ nine miles) and was looking for a building to sponsor. His own church in South Korea was celebrating its anniversary and wanted to build a modern building in Kenya. He looked and talked with many people but no one had the answers he was seeking. Then he met the wife of Moses, who introduced them and the results are a beautiful and modern building to replace the old structure.

So, last Friday we signed an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) which will lead to KBTC being strengthened. The day also provided the following:
-  Great fellowship between the seven of us, a real sense of purpose and support.
-  Safety in a long trip despite spending four hours in Nairobi jammed in traffic.
-  Renewal of the Matapato Centre through the actions of an unexpected person.
-  The sensing of a great revival and surge of Baptists in Matapato with new leadership, and forward thinkers who see KBTC as a real partner in their future.
-  Affirmation of actions taken 30 years previously.
-  Reaffirmation that God is totally in control and what happens is His doing!       

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Now for the shortened version of what Bert does and why I had to share Jack's report today! My job as a Prayer Networker for work among Sub-Saharan African Peoples means I look for stories such as this one and find ways to share it with others. I do this to inform our supporters of how God is blessing their prayer, financial and personnel support! I also share the stories to entice others to join in God's work!

Another part of my work which I love - helping
raise prayer support for our Storying Team!
For more, visit Bits of Our Hearts!

The fact that this is the week of the year when many Southern Baptists are praying in special ways for International Mission, means I felt I had to share Jack's story with our supporters as it is a great example of how God has blessed not just your current support, but past prayers, gifts to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering®!

KBTC was begun by missionaries supported by the LMCO.  Funds from LMCO helped build the first classrooms, offices and dorm spaces.  And if that isn't enough reasons, guess who paid for the car which took KBTC's group to Namanga and back and for the petrol to make the trip as well as the "four hours in Nairobi jammed in traffic"?  Those of you who support us through the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering!  God gets the full credit for the safety in travel along roads filled with millions of people, pot (crater) holes, and "dodging cows, goats", etc.  BERT YATES

Hearing and Sharing

We traveled to Tanzania to learn more about a
partnership to help local Believers share their faith,
as a well as a bit of enjoying God's creations!

"I hear something I must check out.” This comment made by our driver during our time last week of ‘retreat and refocus’ led to an adventure which I cannot document via a photo, but it is a story too good to not share! We were more or less in the middle of nowhere as the driver took the next left onto a road that appeared to continue the ‘going nowhere’ direction. A row of rooms, a cluster of buildings, followed by more houses soon appeared with all the structures being topped by one or more satellite dishes – sorry, we never did figure out the ‘why’ of all the rusty dishes adorning the simple structures.

Not a photo of the meandering zebra, but a few of
the hundreds of zebras spotted during our trip.

We stopped at a spot with a home-made ramp and quickly learned that this was the local place for vehicle repairs. As the problem was investigated, discussed and reinvestigated in English, Swahili and a mix of the two languages, I looked up to see a zebra walking down the path we had just traveled! To my amazement and that of Jack and our friends, the mechanics paid it no – and I mean ZERO – attention!

A view captured later of Jack getting an
'up close and personal' view of giraffe.

It took a while, but a broken bolt on a tire was soon spotted and removed. After multiple phone calls searching for a replacement, our driver and his assistants climbed into another vehicle and drove away! This was a bit unsettling, but thankfully they soon returned with a bolt they had ‘borrowed’ from a nearby broken-down truck. We were soon safely back on the road!

A Lilac-Breasted Roller - my favorite bird viewing!

This morning during my devotions I read Psalm 118:14-17, “The LORD is my strength and my defense; he has become my salvation… ‘The LORD’s right hand has done mighty things!’ I will not die but live, and will proclaim what the LORD has done.” My heart was filled with humbling queries as I remembered how upon seeing the moseying-along zebra, I immediately began mentally recording the zebra/ broken bolt story and getting excited about sharing it with you and others!

Mud-bath time for some of God's creations!

My selfie-questions included: Do I always get equally excited about claiming and proclaiming how “The LORD is my strength and my defense… my salvation”? How often do I overlook opportunities to share with others of the stories I experience of the mighty things done by my God? Do I make sure those others HEAR my Good News and are ENTICED to check out more about it?

If you can use this graphic or the one for KBTC
to promote the LMCO, please copy and use!

As I pondered all these things, I realized that this is also a good way to contemplate Colossians 1:5-6 (HCSB), this year’s guiding verses for the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering®. Believers “have … heard about this hope in the message of truth, the gospel that has come to you.” We know “It is bearing fruit and growing all over the world, just as it has among you since the day [we] heard it…”, but do we truly desire to share our “hope in the message of truth, the gospel that has come to” us with those who have not yet heard it? What more must be done, must we do, for the GOSPEL to RESOUND throughout the world proving ALL peoples with an opportunity to claim our “message of truth, the gospel”? We have a story, God’s story, which is the best story ever told and IT IS a story which we must share!

This time of year when many of you focus upon the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering® and the Week of Prayer for International Missions is very important to Jack and to me. 100 percent of your LMCO giving goes toward sending and sustaining missionaries – which includes us! Your financial and prayer support enables us to obey our Father’s call to be a part of His Work in Africa. So today, I want to thank you for allowing us to be in Africa strengthening and encouraging Believers as we engage lostness together (Acts 14:22; Revelation 14:6). Thank you for enabling Jack to teach and serve as principal of the Kenya Baptist Theological College. Thank you for enabling me to use social media to share what God is doing among our peoples and how you and others can join in His Work!

BERT YATES

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For more on the 2016 Lottie Moon Christmas Offering®, including lots ideas, guides, photos, and stories, visit
https://www.imb.org/lottie-moon-christmas-offering.

Perseverance and Patience

“Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.” Hebrews 12:1,2 NIV

Other instruments at church last Sunday.

Perseverance - that is my theme song at the moment!  I love this photo captured at one of our Baptist churches last Sunday as it is a great example of perseverance!  As the worship leader, guides the congregation in singing he is accompanied on the keyboard by one of his students.  Samson, the one leading worship, is a student in the music program at the Kenya Baptist Theological College.  Since learning to play the keyboard, he has persevered not only by learning how to play the keyboard but by teaching what he is learning to several of the older kids in the church and they did great on Sunday!

Now I have not persevered and asked Jack's permission to share the following video made up of photos I captured last Sunday (thus no music), and to be honest, I'm not sure Jack would quickly agree.  BUT... I thought you would like to see how Jack has learned from African preachers, who are often much more animated as they preach, but then one could say they are preaching with their whole heart, soul, mind and BODIES!  In case you haven't figured out what Jack is doing - which based on the rapt attention of those in the congregation led to true communication - he was illustrating running "with perseverance the race marked out for us." 

My perseverance story today includes a praise and a major need for prayer!  The Praise: Perseverance (lots of investments of time and finances) finally led this past weekend to my receiving a part needed so that my computer is finally working properly again!  The Prayer Need:  I need patience as I persevere and now try to catch up the work that was delayed during my computer frustrations as now we're experiencing super weak internet in our area!

The reason I need to persevere is that I have so many great stories to share of how Believers in Africa are persevering as they join our Father in His work!  A very, very special StoryTogether workshop is ongoing at the moment which is the story of a group of persevering women who truly desire to make Hebrews 12:1,2 alive and active in their lives!  Most of these women are the married to pastors and they asked to be taught how to share God's Stories with their unreached people in their heart languages.

These women need your prayer support this week as the complete their two weeks of training to share God's Stories.  They also need your prayer support as they return home, which is many different parts of Burkina Faso, this weekend and begin sharing what they have learned with those in their home areas in need of our Good News. Will you pray for clarity and boldness for these women and open hearts for those who hear their stories?  For more praises and prayer requests for this StoryTogether Project, click the BITS OF OUR HEARTS tab located at the top of this page.

Thanks to the limited internet, I'm stopping now, but I will add a photo which exemplifies what I do when my perseverance is wearing thin and I'm in great need of patience!  I go outside and persevere in spotting great examples of the work of our Creator!

The SUPER MOON, one of our God's creations
viewed at our house last Monday night!

To be honest, this is not the update I had planned to share today, but it is what I could share quickly and gives you a glance at our real lives.  Hopefully, this will help you pray for us and for other Believers in Africa who desire to help those without "the true message of the Gospel" hear and truly understand God's grace (Colossians 1:4-5), which includes bits from this year's guiding verse for the upcoming Lottie Moon Christmas Offering!

BERT YATES

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For more on the 2016 Lottie Moon Christmas Offering®, including lots ideas, guides, photos, and stories, visit https://www.imb.org/lottie-moon-christmas-offering.

Glistening and Shining

With all the emphasis and energy expended today on the presidential elections in the States, I had debated if I should skip this week’s prayer letter as the focus of most people will be elsewhere. I knew my answer was ‘SKIP my planned focus’ when I learned of the final result not from the internet or television, but through the window beside my desk in our guest bedroom.

Not sure if this bird was cold, working off tension, doing her morning
excersises or what, but I got tired of watching her flap and unflap
her wings before she got tired of doing whatever she was doing!

Yep, through the window as the Kenyan man who works in our yard listened to the radio via his cell phone while removing overgrown plants beside the corner of our home. Trust me, this was not the way I ever expected to first hear a presidential election speech!

So instead of continuing with my plans for this week’s Yates/IMB/Kenya&SSAPeoples update, I want to share with you of a chiding I experienced yesterday while walking in our rain-soaked yard. As I marveled at the beauty of the agapanthus flowers sparkling along our drive way, a query arose in my mind which left me heart-broken. Do others see evidence of my Savior’s “spring of living water” (Jeremiah 2:13) bubbling over in my life? Do they see glistening and shining proof of His gift of living “water welling up to eternal life” (John 10:14) in my life?

Another query left my heart, soul and mind burdened as I watched the US news on our television early this morning (8 Kenyan time/ midnight EST) as elections results were still pouring in and being debated.  The query: How would it affect the total of peoples in our world with NO realistic access to the gospel (currently nearly 3 billion people/imb.org/LMCO) if Believers spent as much time focusing on consecrating “themselves to the LORD” (1 Chronicles 29:5) as they have and will focus on the elections?  How quickly would those unreached by the Gospel be reached if more Believers truly committed themselves to openly sharing of the One who offers not just a drink of living water, but “a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:15).  

Don’t worry, I do know how to deal with being heartbroken – PRAYER! Thus, you get a short prayer update this week as I need to take some extra time today in prayer. BERT

Hearing and Sharing Hope/ Part One

Watching and waiting - This is what I've also done
today as I've watched and waited for my internet
speed to increase.  Prayers for patience are needed!

Today’s update was written and almost ready to share with you when once again God sent a diversion my way, a detour guided by a verse spotted as I did a bit of research. The verse is this year’s guiding bit of God’s Word for the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering® – “You have … heard about this hope in the message of truth, the gospel that has come to you. It is bearing fruit and growing all over the world, just as it has among you since the day you heard it…” Colossians 1:5-6 (HCSB).

Praise of the week:  The seasonal
rains have finally begun in our part of Kenya.

As I read this verse today, my first response was heartbreak as I know that nearly 3 billion people have never heard the gospel and have no realistic access to Jesus. THEY HAVE NOT YET heard of our “hope in the message of truth.” The gospel HAS NOT YET come to them! 

Visit Bits of Our Hearts (or click above tab) to view
daily On-Mission Devotionals shared by Bert.

My second reaction was thanksgiving for the support of Southern Baptists which allows Jack and me to be missionaries with the IMB. Your support enables us to be a part of God’s Work as we join others in proclaiming His eternal gospel to all “who live on earth – to every nation, tribe, language and people” (Revelation 14:6 NIV). As ‘old’ missionaries who have served for 38 years, we’ve had and have the joy of seeing and experiencing how the gospel “is bearing fruit and growing all over the world.”

I’ll warn you now that this will be at least a two-part update! Once I began sharing how Colossians 1:5-6 is alive and active in our lives, I knew it had to be shared in instalments. Thus today I’ll share why Jack is thankful for the support of the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering® and the Cooperative Program.

Jack being interviewed for the 40th Anniversary
Celebration of Parklands Baptist Church, Nairobi.

Over the years, Jack has also had the opportunity to share the gospel and to strengthen and encourage Believers in schools, churches, Bible Schools, seminaries and many more places as he has taught church planting methods, discipleship and many other things. For years, he worked with volunteers, enabling them to join in our Father’s work in Kenya. He has also helped construct buildings where church families of 50 to 100 members could worship in rural areas, as well as a overseeing the construction of a building in Nairobi where a church family of thousands now worship.

This photo was taken as the South Sudanese
student serving in the refugee camp in Kakama
heard plans for how KBTC would partner
with work in the camp.

Jack daily hears reports from Believers from all over Kenya and other parts of Africa, including reports from a South Sudanese pastor ministering in a refugee camp, of how the sharing of “the gospel… is bearing fruit and growing all over the world.” Jack was told today that 20 students will graduate from the KBTC branch on the coast of Kenya in December – new graduates equipped to share the gospel in an area where thousands and thousands of people follow a faith lacking the love, peace, joy and assurance of eternal life offered through our Savior.

Baraka Hall, where students sleep, eat, study,
attend chapel, etc.,  in August 2015

Another 20 students will graduate in December from the main KBTC campus – a campus that many thought was dead a few years ago, but God’s children are once again being trained to do His work through KBTC. It would take an entire book, not just a blog post, to share how God has been at work resurrecting the Kenya Baptist Theological College!

Baraka Hall when the completed building was dedicated in Febuary, 2016.
Lots of work is still ahead, including renovation of the lower floor
and the planning of needed new dorms and much more!

Another great bit of news about what God is doing – KBTC is now offering college degrees to prepare Believers for ministry, including a degree to train Africans called to serve as missionaries at home and in other places. Early next year a Master’s of Theological Studies will be offered. Jack and others are also in the midst of preparing for KBTC to begin teaching pastors and church leaders from another continent where few have an opportunity to hear of the “hope in the message of truth, the gospel.”

Jack posing in September with the
the KBTC students working towards a BA degree!

I’m out of space and time, but remember this is just the first of several instalments sharing our thanks for being able to serve our Father in Africa and our thanks for those who support us! So look for my thanksgivings next week and much, much more in coming weeks! BERT YATES

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For more on the 2016 Lottie Moon Christmas Offering®, including lots ideas, guides, photos, and stories, visit  https://www.imb.org/lottie-moon-christmas-offering.

I love this 2016 LMCO photo as it was taken

in our part of the world!  For a free download

of this photo, visit http://store.imb.org/LMCO/.

Joy and Excitement

After several Wednesdays of meetings, taking new workers and friends on “Baptist Work in Kenya” tours, plus computer problems, I’m back at the computer preparing a new prayer letter today.

One of many BEAUTIFUL FEET photos taken
during our meeting for use in a soon-to-be created
2016 Lottie Moon Christmas Offering video.

The meetings included a refreshing time of strengthening and encouragement as we worshipped, studied God’s Word, prayed and played with our fellow IMB workers in East Africa. We listened with joy as they shared reports of how God is at work among their peoples and of their excitement of how God is allowing them to obey His call and join in His Work. Will you join us in praying for our co-workers? We work in various places and situations including islands, villages and cities, schools and hospitals, as well as among peoples of other faiths and from other continents. Yet we all share a common goal – “the spread of the greatest news in all the world to men, women, and children who have never heard it” (https://www.imb.org/vision-and-mission/).

View of skyscrapers and a slum of Nairobi.

The tours with new co-workers and friends from a partnering church were also a time of joy as we viewed their desire for reaching all peoples in Kenya with the Gospel. An added excitement came from joining with others whose heart desire is to strengthen and encourage African Believers as they also serve as His witnesses (Acts 1:8) to their families, friends, town or city, their states and country, and to other continents. Pray for the many new IMB co-workers we have in East Africa, especially in Nairobi, as well as partnering churches who share a desire to serve our Father in our part of the world.

This decorated tour bus was parked near one of the
many computer repair shops we've visited in the last
few weeks. HARDEES (begun near Jack's home town)
 has finally made it to Kenya, but is only accessible
to those flying out of the international airport.

My computer problems are not resolved, but I’m learning how to work around the problems. Since I last wrote, my job as Prayer Networker for the Sub-Saharan African Peoples Affinity has been reconfirmed and I am back at work finding ways to share via the internet what God is doing among our peoples and how others can join in His work via prayer, giving and serving. Pray for me as I find how to best strengthen and encourage our IMB coworkers as I share their great stories which share what is happening because of your past investments in prayer, giving and serving.

Before Jack headed out this morning for a day-long planning meeting at the Kenya Baptist Theological College, I asked that he share his heart desires with you. He replied:

The KBTC display in the prayer room at our meeting.

- Pray for the administration of KBTC as we seek to pay all our bills, which includes electricity, lots of government requirements, salaries, and improvements needed for the school to enroll and educate men and women who are called to serve our Father. This also includes the need for prayers for the local churches to value theological education and support the school and students.

A bit of a multi-faceted walk-over built to help
pedestrians navigate the 12+ lanes at an intersection
along Thika Road - it has so many turns and twists
that one can get lost and head in the wrong direction!

- Pray for the needed planning/ preparations for developing and enrolling students in KBTC’s new degree programs, as well as the Masters of Theology program which will soon be offered through the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Pray also for a new program being implemented which will provide training for pastors, missionaries and church leaders from another continent.

A special joy spotted this week as I was frustrated
during a 21 hour power outage!

As always, the devil is not happy when God’s children are busy obeying and serving their heavenly Father and he sends lots of frustrations and interruptions to divert energies from doing God’s work. But as we learn over and over as we obey and serve our Father – He is the one who can do and does the impossible and when the devil gets active, which He is at the moment, we know to focus on praising God for His upcoming answers and actions as He accomplishes His Work!

Thank you again for how you strengthen and encourage us as your pray for us, give so we can be in Kenya and as you send/ come as coworkers our way! BERT YATES

These HornBills were among five of these beauties
which were also spotted as I tried to be positive
during the long power outage!

Believing and Sharing

Jack’s Review of the Week:

Jack listening as a student shares
of what he is learning.

There are few things in my life that exhaust me like teaching. There are few things in life that thrill, energize, fulfill and give purpose to me like teaching! I love it! When a student grows I know that he will help others grow. It must be the farmer in me that loves to see students grow in knowledge, understanding and wisdom. The best encouragement I receive is every time I teach, I learn, I grow, and I understand more! (Shared half-way through the third week of teaching a Survey of the Old Testament to the students at the Kenya Baptist Theological College.)

Jack’s Prayer Requests:
“More hours in the day!” This is the same prayer request he shared last week which I (Bert) forgot to add! Yes, this is impossible, but keeping up with all that God is doing at KBTC leaves Jack in great need of wisdom and physical, mental and spiritual strength.

Viewed yesterday as we returned home from campus -
Bible verses about donkeys are fully understood in East Africa!

Bert’s Review of the Week:
God has really been working on me in recent days about my part in reaching our world with His Good News. I’ve been sharing of this in my daily Devotional/ On Mission posts on FB, which can be viewed by all by clicking the Bits of Our Hearts tab at the top of this page. Here is a bit of what I shared today:

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This sunbird and other birds spotted this week
in our yard truly show God's creativity!

What must be done for all peoples in our world to be reached with this incredible Good News? Believers… must so fully share Peter’s and John’s passion and conviction of the truths of God’s Words that I/we “cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20). I/we must truly want everyone to know of our God who “sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him” (1 John 4:9).

I/we must want all to know, “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:10)… our Savior’s words in Luke 10:2 is truer today than ever! “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few,” too few! More workers must be at work in His harvest field telling “the 2.8 billion people without access to the Gospel”* that “Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:30-31).

The truth is that the day when all peoples in our world will hear and have an opportunity to believe that “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” WILL NOT COME until this is the heart cry of more committed Believers who are ready to get to work telling all they meet and can meet of “what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20)!

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Will you join Jack and me in praying that we will always be focused upon sharing our Good News? Pray that as Jack guides and teaches at KBTC and as I share via Social Media that we will strengthen and encourage other Believers (Acts 14:22) to do the same. Our praise is for you and how your prayers, giving and coming as/ sending workers allows us and others to be at work in our Father’s Harvest Field. BERT YATES

* LIMITLESS- David Platt - https://vimeo.com/174126169

Limitless from IMB on Vimeo.

Blessings of Learning

“Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.”

1 Corinthians 4:1,2

Jack and I do faithfully strive to do God’s work, but we often question if the blessings and learning we receive far outweigh what is gained by those who are the focus of our work! Jack has definitely felt this as he continues teaching a survey of Old Testament to KBTC’s newest class, which is a very special class as they will receive the first college degrees given by the school.

Jack has also been tempted to allow his class to follow the example
of Professor Chacha's class and meet outside now that the
sun appears for more than a few minutes each day!

Jack returns home exhausted each day as his regular work as the college principal happens around a two hour teaching session before lunch and another two hours after lunch. But once he takes a short break, he begins sharing what he is learning anew about what God reveals about Himself, His actions and His plans in the Old Testament. Will you join Jack in praying that the students will truly gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of the Old Testament as they hear what God is revealing about Himself – revelations which the students and those they minister among need to hear, learn and do?

Life in East Africa comes with differences,
but lots of joys and special memories.

Pray for me as I continue sharing daily Devotional/On-mission posts on Facebook. Preparing these posts always becomes a mixed time of blessings and learning as God's Word leaves me challenged, chided, encouraged and strengthened.  Pray also for me to always have God’s wisdom as I respond to prayer letters and notes from our coworkers and seek opportunities to share their stories and prayer needs.

Pray that Jack and I will always have the physical, mental and spiritual strength to truly be faithful as we seek to obey and share our Father’s love and salvation with those around us. Pray that we will always be learners seeking to know more about our Father and become better equipped to be ambassadors of the one who is the true source of the joy, peace and salvation needed by the people of our world.

The kids at Tigoni Baptist have really tried to teach Jack and me how
praise God with our whole bodies, but...

It appears that I have finally written a short prayer letter this week, but as always I cannot conclude without thanking you. Thank you for enabling us to be a part of His work in East Africa you support us through your prayers, giving to the Cooperative Program and the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, and as you come and send volunteers to join in His work. BERT YATES
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Remember to click the Bits of Our Hearts tab (above) to view more from Bert and the KBTC tab for more from Jack's work.