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

--- --- --- --- --- --- ---

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.