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!