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Dear Prayer Partners and Supporters,
We thank you for your prayers for Tonya as she was in the USA getting more treatments and B-12 shots, in October, to use here. She should have enough to get her through until May of next year, when she is scheduled for another round of tests.
We are finishing the year for the our Bible College, and on November 30th we will have a graduation for two students. First, is George; he is not married, and he is 22 years old. Second, is Christopher; he is a grandfather getting close to 65 years old. He only knows the year he was born, because it was before they started keeping track of birthdays. George is helping me with visitation at our church in Rongo, since the previous assistant Pastor of the church passed away in August.
The Lord is continuing to bless in Kisii, and we are getting ready to start the work on the new church building. The church has nearly raised the equivalent of $3,000, which is half of their commitment to this project. We are getting the blueprints drawn up, and all the legal paperwork finished; so that we can start building in January. We have planned the last fund raising for the year on December 1st, along with a ground breaking service. We have invited our other pastors to take part in this, so that they can see the importance of this special day. We currently have $900 that has come in, and an additional $2,000 has already been promised. So we need to raise $3,100 by January, so that we will be able to begin the work. We have chosen January to start the work, because it is the longest dry season with no rain. The dry time will only last for about 4-6 weeks, so we have to get as much done in that time as possible. Please help us to raise the remaining amount.
In October, we held our first Mission's Conference for our church in Kisii. It went very well, and they committed over $100 each month to be sent to missionaries that are Kenyan nationals who are working in the Congo, Burundi, Tanzania, and one that is going to Sudan. We also do a simple commitment card to write down what they expect to give as a tithe, and the total commitments that they gave were tripled from last year to almost $500 a month promised. This has been really amazing to see, we have never seen this kind of giving by any church in Kenya (even in Nairobi) for the size membership that we have. We have about 15 families in this church. They have given lots of testimonies of how the Lord has blessed them through their giving through this past year, and these testimonies have been an encouragement to others.
We received an offering of $3,100 from Sackville Independent Baptist Church in Canada. This offering is for some of the finishing work for the Orphanage in Sidundo. We have purchased beds, we are finishing the toilet block, and we are getting electricity onto the property. Please pray that we can get as much work done as possible through the month of December, so that we can move around 20 girls into their dorm room by January!
Thank you for your prayers and support for our family and ministries.
Serving Him in Kenya,
Luke and Tonya Shelby
Missionaries in Kenya
