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We want to let all of our friends, family, supporters, and prayer partners know that we will be returning to the USA in May 2015 for our regularly scheduled furlough. Our furlough will be approximately 1 year long, and we will be returning to Kenya in May 2016. Please pray for our family during this time, as we will be getting our 2 oldest girls settled in Bible College and traveling thousands of miles while we are in the USA.
If we have already scheduled a meeting in your church, then we will contact you shortly after arriving in the USA, in order to make any final arrangements. We are looking forward to seeing each and every one of you!
If we have NOT scheduled a meeting with you or your church yet; please feel free to contact us by e-mail: mail@shelbysinkenya.org. Once you request a meeting, we will be able to tell you when we are scheduled to be in your general area. We will try our best to work your church into our schedule.
Please feel free to keep up to date with our family and ministries by watching or following the following links:
Website: http://www.shelbysinkenya.org/
Blog page: http://www.shelbysinkenya.org/Our%20Blogs/LettersUpdates/
Youtube page: http://www.youtube.com/TheShelbysinKenya
Twitter: http://twitter.com/Shelbysinkenya
Facebook: LukeandTonya Shelby
Thank you for your prayers for our family and ministries!
Serving Him in Kenya,
Luke & Tonya Shelby
Your Missionaries in Kenya
Tuesday 16 September 2014
June-August 2014 Prayer Letter
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Dear Supporters and Praying Friends, June - August 2014
It has been a busy few months since we wrote, and a lot has taken place. In July, while traveling home from our church in Sidundo (where we baptized 13), I had a serious problem with our vehicle. The engine threw a rod, which blew out a large hole in the block, so I had to get towed back to Kisii Town (should have been about 3 hours from where I broke down), and it took about 12 hours! We did get it running again by patching the engine, and it has not had any problem. We thank all of you who pray for us faithfully, because we never know when something will happen that we will need urgent prayers. We know that God hears your prayers. Thank you again for your prayers.
Also in August, Tonya held our 7th Annual Ladies' Conference at our church in Kisii Town. There were 45 ladies from 15 different churches in our area that were able to attend! Their theme this year was, "Draw Me Closer, Lord;" and all the lessons were about prayer. They had one lady get saved during the week! They spent many hours in prayer, studying the Bible, and memorizing Scripture during the 4 day Conference. By Friday, those ladies had said over 3,000 verses! Tonya has also started teaching the ladies in our Bible College, helping them with issues that will help them to be better Christian Women. She will be teaching things like: how to dress, how to present themselves, and how to do other things that are so common and often taken for granted in the United States; but these things are very needed and useful to these first generation Christian ladies.
Please pray for the following projects:
1. The ongoing building project at Calvary Baptist Church in Kisii town.
2. Orphanage project building in Sidundo is scheduled to be finished soon.
3. Church building in Rongo that will begin before the end of the year.
Again, we want to say thank you for your faithful prayers and support for our family and ministries in Kenya. The lives and ministries of your missionaries are all in the hands of the "…The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man…" Thank you for praying for us and holding us up before the Lord!
Serving Him in Kenya,
Luke and Tonya Shelby
Your Missionaries in Kenya
Dear Supporters and Praying Friends, June - August 2014
It has been a busy few months since we wrote, and a lot has taken place. In July, while traveling home from our church in Sidundo (where we baptized 13), I had a serious problem with our vehicle. The engine threw a rod, which blew out a large hole in the block, so I had to get towed back to Kisii Town (should have been about 3 hours from where I broke down), and it took about 12 hours! We did get it running again by patching the engine, and it has not had any problem. We thank all of you who pray for us faithfully, because we never know when something will happen that we will need urgent prayers. We know that God hears your prayers. Thank you again for your prayers.
Also in August, Tonya held our 7th Annual Ladies' Conference at our church in Kisii Town. There were 45 ladies from 15 different churches in our area that were able to attend! Their theme this year was, "Draw Me Closer, Lord;" and all the lessons were about prayer. They had one lady get saved during the week! They spent many hours in prayer, studying the Bible, and memorizing Scripture during the 4 day Conference. By Friday, those ladies had said over 3,000 verses! Tonya has also started teaching the ladies in our Bible College, helping them with issues that will help them to be better Christian Women. She will be teaching things like: how to dress, how to present themselves, and how to do other things that are so common and often taken for granted in the United States; but these things are very needed and useful to these first generation Christian ladies.
Please pray for the following projects:
1. The ongoing building project at Calvary Baptist Church in Kisii town.
2. Orphanage project building in Sidundo is scheduled to be finished soon.
3. Church building in Rongo that will begin before the end of the year.
Again, we want to say thank you for your faithful prayers and support for our family and ministries in Kenya. The lives and ministries of your missionaries are all in the hands of the "…The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man…" Thank you for praying for us and holding us up before the Lord!
Serving Him in Kenya,
Luke and Tonya Shelby
Your Missionaries in Kenya
Friday 30 May 2014
April-May 2014 Prayer Letter
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Dear Prayer Supporters,
Thank you for your prayers for our family over the past two months, while Tonya and Abigail have been in the USA for their medical furlough. They have finished everything, and they will be traveling home to Kenya May 24th-25th.
Abigail also graduated from Jacksonville Christian Academy (our home church's school), got her driving permit, did a lot of practicing, and was able to get some needed medical testing done. In 2007, Abigail was diagnosed with a juvenile form of osteoporosis, and she had a bone density test done while in the USA. Her doctor was amazed at her results! She tested just into the normal range, which technically means that she no longer shows signs of osteoporosis! She will return to Kenya for a year, work on some Bible College course work through external studies, and then go on to Bible College when we return for our regularly scheduled furlough in 2015. Possibly she and our second daughter, Breanne, will both be staying in the USA at that time for college.
Tonya has had some good results along with also finally finding out the cause of some of her health issues. She has been diagnosed with Negative Intrinsic Factor (a protein that is completely missing in her intestines, and which is responsible for attaching to “B” vitamins so that the body can use them) and also with Pernicious Anemia (an autoimmune disease in which the body’s own immune system mistakenly damages its own tissues, and this anemia depletes iron, B-12, and Folate serum/B-9). Her iron levels were all good; her B-12 level was fairly stable since her last labs; but her folate was critically low. Both the B-12 and folate affect the health of the brain and affect how the brain relays messages to either the glands or nerves throughout the entire body. Because of her diagnosis and the severity of her anemia, her doctors have told us to be prepared for her to continue to return to the USA (or another medically capable country) every six months for life. Although this is not the answer we were hoping for, we are thankful that the Lord has allowed us to finally know what we are dealing with. But we would like to ask each of you to join with us in making this a serious matter of prayer; both for the physical needs that Tonya will continue deal with, and for the extra finances that these kinds of trips and testing are going to require indefinitely. The Lord already knows everything that lies ahead of us; we just ask that you pray with us concerning these things, as we already know that Kenya is where God wants our family to continue to serve Him.
We have begun the work on the church building at Calvary Baptist in Kisii. Things are going well, but since we are on the side of a hill, we decided to put a couple of rooms on the lower side of the building. In doing this, it has added about $7,000 to the original plans, so it will increase the total cost of the building to nearly $20,000. We have already erected the steel frame and roof, built a retaining wall, built the walls for the downstairs rooms, and laid the foundation for the entire building. It will continue to be done in stages since the church itself is raising money for their building throughout the year. In the beginning, we promised the church that we would help them with half of the total amount, so $3,500 has been added to our part to fulfill our half of the total amount. We have never seen a church in Kenya do what this small group of people has done. If God lays it on your heart to help them, even with their remaining part (total of $7000); it would be a great blessing to their faith, and it will go a long way in helping us reach the town of Kisii for Christ which is home for about 183,000 people and is the central market town for more than 3.5 million people in the South Nyanza region of Kenya. Thank you for your prayers and sacrifice for Kenya!
Serving Him in Kenya,
Luke & Tonya Shelby
Abigail Graduates from High School
Building progress at Calvary Baptist Church - Kisii Town
Dear Prayer Supporters,
Thank you for your prayers for our family over the past two months, while Tonya and Abigail have been in the USA for their medical furlough. They have finished everything, and they will be traveling home to Kenya May 24th-25th.
Abigail also graduated from Jacksonville Christian Academy (our home church's school), got her driving permit, did a lot of practicing, and was able to get some needed medical testing done. In 2007, Abigail was diagnosed with a juvenile form of osteoporosis, and she had a bone density test done while in the USA. Her doctor was amazed at her results! She tested just into the normal range, which technically means that she no longer shows signs of osteoporosis! She will return to Kenya for a year, work on some Bible College course work through external studies, and then go on to Bible College when we return for our regularly scheduled furlough in 2015. Possibly she and our second daughter, Breanne, will both be staying in the USA at that time for college.
Tonya has had some good results along with also finally finding out the cause of some of her health issues. She has been diagnosed with Negative Intrinsic Factor (a protein that is completely missing in her intestines, and which is responsible for attaching to “B” vitamins so that the body can use them) and also with Pernicious Anemia (an autoimmune disease in which the body’s own immune system mistakenly damages its own tissues, and this anemia depletes iron, B-12, and Folate serum/B-9). Her iron levels were all good; her B-12 level was fairly stable since her last labs; but her folate was critically low. Both the B-12 and folate affect the health of the brain and affect how the brain relays messages to either the glands or nerves throughout the entire body. Because of her diagnosis and the severity of her anemia, her doctors have told us to be prepared for her to continue to return to the USA (or another medically capable country) every six months for life. Although this is not the answer we were hoping for, we are thankful that the Lord has allowed us to finally know what we are dealing with. But we would like to ask each of you to join with us in making this a serious matter of prayer; both for the physical needs that Tonya will continue deal with, and for the extra finances that these kinds of trips and testing are going to require indefinitely. The Lord already knows everything that lies ahead of us; we just ask that you pray with us concerning these things, as we already know that Kenya is where God wants our family to continue to serve Him.
We have begun the work on the church building at Calvary Baptist in Kisii. Things are going well, but since we are on the side of a hill, we decided to put a couple of rooms on the lower side of the building. In doing this, it has added about $7,000 to the original plans, so it will increase the total cost of the building to nearly $20,000. We have already erected the steel frame and roof, built a retaining wall, built the walls for the downstairs rooms, and laid the foundation for the entire building. It will continue to be done in stages since the church itself is raising money for their building throughout the year. In the beginning, we promised the church that we would help them with half of the total amount, so $3,500 has been added to our part to fulfill our half of the total amount. We have never seen a church in Kenya do what this small group of people has done. If God lays it on your heart to help them, even with their remaining part (total of $7000); it would be a great blessing to their faith, and it will go a long way in helping us reach the town of Kisii for Christ which is home for about 183,000 people and is the central market town for more than 3.5 million people in the South Nyanza region of Kenya. Thank you for your prayers and sacrifice for Kenya!
Serving Him in Kenya,
Luke & Tonya Shelby
Abigail Graduates from High SchoolBuilding progress at Calvary Baptist Church - Kisii Town
Thursday 6 February 2014
January-February 2014 Prayer Letter
Printable Version (PDF)
Dear Prayer Supporters,
Happy New Year from the Shelby Family. We have had a very busy ending to 2013 and the starting of 2014. God has blessed in many ways, and we are excited about His work for this New Year.
Abigail is finishing her last semester of 12th grade, and she will going back to the USA to graduate with our home church’s school graduation in May. She will be traveling with Tonya, as Tonya will be taking care of her six month doctor’s appointments for her blood levels.
In December, we held our annual youth camp in Kisii Town at our main church. We had over 100 youth and counselors that attended with the theme of “The Army of the Lord.” There were many first timers this time, and there were 22 precious young people who got saved. It was very crowded, but it was very successful!
We had a Watch-night Service at the church here in Kisii Town, to bring in the New Year. The service started at 7p.m. and was over at 7 a.m. We had a New Year's sunrise service and baptized 7 to get 2014 off to a wonderful start! This church has also reached their $3,000 mark for beginning the construction of a new 350-400 seat auditorium. We are expecting to start building in the next two weeks (mid-February). Also this year, Calvary Baptist Church (Kisii) voted to support three national missionaries to surrounding countries in East Africa: Tanzania, Burundi, and the Congo. This support is in addition to the other Kenyan projects that they already support! It is a great joy to see the way the Lord is blessing this church.
In our last letter, we made mention that one of our Graduates (Bro. George) was helping us in rebuilding the church in Rongo, after the pastor passed away in August. He is doing a very good job, and since September we have seen nearly 50 souls saved on visitation and in services. In January, we were able to baptize 6. Please pray that God will continue to bless the work in Rongo.
Since the New Year began, we have opened classes for South Nyanza Baptist College with 12 new students in Kisii, and a few more sitting in on classes in our extension branch in Sidundo. It is exciting to see these new faces mixing with the old, and to see their eagerness to learn the Word of God.
We have also started a Bible Study in the village of Gingo, where I am able to go for two days each a month. We had almost 20 adults for the two days! We have known people in this village for the last few years, but there has been a great language barrier. So as I am learning the Luo language and using lessons that have been translated into their language. I am being assisted by other Luo preachers who have the opportunity to go with me.
There are two other churches in the process of getting started in Gesabakwa and Nyamiobo, both Kisii villages about 45 minutes from Kisii town. And in Sidundo, we are starting to visit in surrounding village centers and markets to see where the Lord will open the doors for new churches to be started there as well. In Sidundo, we also had 9 adults saved, and 11 baptized the first weekend of February.
Thank you for your prayers and support for our ministry,
Dear Prayer Supporters,
Happy New Year from the Shelby Family. We have had a very busy ending to 2013 and the starting of 2014. God has blessed in many ways, and we are excited about His work for this New Year.
Abigail is finishing her last semester of 12th grade, and she will going back to the USA to graduate with our home church’s school graduation in May. She will be traveling with Tonya, as Tonya will be taking care of her six month doctor’s appointments for her blood levels.
In December, we held our annual youth camp in Kisii Town at our main church. We had over 100 youth and counselors that attended with the theme of “The Army of the Lord.” There were many first timers this time, and there were 22 precious young people who got saved. It was very crowded, but it was very successful!
We had a Watch-night Service at the church here in Kisii Town, to bring in the New Year. The service started at 7p.m. and was over at 7 a.m. We had a New Year's sunrise service and baptized 7 to get 2014 off to a wonderful start! This church has also reached their $3,000 mark for beginning the construction of a new 350-400 seat auditorium. We are expecting to start building in the next two weeks (mid-February). Also this year, Calvary Baptist Church (Kisii) voted to support three national missionaries to surrounding countries in East Africa: Tanzania, Burundi, and the Congo. This support is in addition to the other Kenyan projects that they already support! It is a great joy to see the way the Lord is blessing this church.
In our last letter, we made mention that one of our Graduates (Bro. George) was helping us in rebuilding the church in Rongo, after the pastor passed away in August. He is doing a very good job, and since September we have seen nearly 50 souls saved on visitation and in services. In January, we were able to baptize 6. Please pray that God will continue to bless the work in Rongo.
Since the New Year began, we have opened classes for South Nyanza Baptist College with 12 new students in Kisii, and a few more sitting in on classes in our extension branch in Sidundo. It is exciting to see these new faces mixing with the old, and to see their eagerness to learn the Word of God.
We have also started a Bible Study in the village of Gingo, where I am able to go for two days each a month. We had almost 20 adults for the two days! We have known people in this village for the last few years, but there has been a great language barrier. So as I am learning the Luo language and using lessons that have been translated into their language. I am being assisted by other Luo preachers who have the opportunity to go with me.
There are two other churches in the process of getting started in Gesabakwa and Nyamiobo, both Kisii villages about 45 minutes from Kisii town. And in Sidundo, we are starting to visit in surrounding village centers and markets to see where the Lord will open the doors for new churches to be started there as well. In Sidundo, we also had 9 adults saved, and 11 baptized the first weekend of February.
Thank you for your prayers and support for our ministry,
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