October-November 2016 Prayer Letter

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Dear Praying Friends and Faithful Supporters, October-November 2016

What an amazing God we serve!  We just want to Celebrate God’s Faithfulness! It is an exciting experience to serve the Lord on the mission field.  I would choose nothing else for mine and my family’s lives to have meaning as a Christian who wants to serve God.  There are so many doors and opportunities that God has opened for those who are willing to serve HIM.

This year there have been several milestones that we have seen and that are coming up in our ministries here in Kenya.  In September, we had the 5th Anniversary of Calvary Baptist Church and orphanage in Sidundo, Siaya.  We had 121 in attendance and 7 first time visitors. In October, we celebrated the 15th Anniversary of the first church that we started in Kenya, Bible Baptist Church in Rongo.  There were 65 in attendance, with 10 first time visitors, and 10 saved during visitation on Saturday and the service on Sunday. In December, South Nyanza Baptist College will be finishing its 15th year of training men and women to serve Him. We will have 7 graduating this year.  Next year we will be celebrating the 10th Anniversary of Calvary Baptist Church in Kisii town.  And it is so hard to believe that we will be celebrating 20 years as missionaries in Kenya in June of 2017!  In all of this, we can definitely say that God has blessed greatly, and HE HAS BEEN FAITHFUL.  It is a reminder to continually celebrate the faithfulness of God!

Not only has God been faithful in the things of the past that we look back on, but HE IS FAITHFUL now as we are continuing to see people saved, young men and women trained and called into the ministry.  There are 5 men right now that are getting ready to start churches in different villages.  We held our Annual Church Leaders’ Conference with 108 Men and women from 12+ churches for an entire week.  Pastor McConkey and two members from his church in Jacksonville, North Carolina came and preached for us during this great week.  God is Faithful!

In October, We held a Missions Conference at Calvary Baptist Church in Kisii Town and we included the pastors in our area and all of the college students that are wanting to be used of God.  We tried to open their eyes to Missions in all of Africa.  All of them committed to do something for missions in their churches.  Our church in Kisii promised to more than double the amount that was committed last year.  They promised to give nearly $1,500 to missions over this next year.  I have no doubt that God will use their faith to do so much for the glory of God.  God is FAITHFUL!

We were able to start a Bible study in the village of Kegogi shortly after returning to Kenya in June. And we have seen 50+ people saved since we started visiting the area 3 months ago.  We have had a high attendance of over 60 meeting under a tree out in the front yard of one of the member’s homes.  We meet for this Bible Study every Sunday afternoon, and there are about 15 Adults, 10 youth, and about 40 children that have been attending from the village.  We are hoping to begin the Sunday morning services in this village in the next month or so.  College students and the members of Calvary Baptist in Kisii have been helping with soul winning and holding the services in the village that is about 45 minutes away from Kisii town.  I was able to sit down and lead a family of 5 to the Lord in their home a couple of weeks ago.  There is so much potential here in this village. Please pray that God will raise up some of these new Christian men and women to be faithful to the Lord and to be pillars in this new church plant.  God will continue to be FAITHFUL!

We also had a funeral for a faithful pastor who graduated in 2015.  Pastor Habil was almost 70 years old, and he had several different health complications come up while we were in the USA for our furlough.  A missionary witnessed to him in the 60‘s, and he was saved as a young man. He had been a pastor for many years, but he came to us to get Bible training because he did not feel fully equipped.  He was mainly an “A” student, and all of the other Bible College students looked up to and respected him very much.  At his funeral, I preached on the “Cross of Christ” and over 50 raised their hands and accepted Christ as their personal Savior.  God continues to be Faithful!

Serving Him in Kenya,
Luke and Tonya Shelby