February 2007 Prayer Letter

Dear Supporters and Friends, February 2007

Greetings from Kenya, We apologize for the lateness of this letter from the bottom of our hearts. It has been very busy getting everything settled here after arriving in Kenya. We were able to receive our shipment in our container by the first of January. Most things are in their rightful places but there is still more work to do to finish getting settled in. We were able to do enough to get by for now so that I could address some of the situations here.

Missionary work has a lot of excitement, there is a lot of work and fun working in a different culture, learning and ministering in a different language. Seeing people get saved who have never heard the message before. But there are also problems and some things that take place, it is almost impossible for a foreigner to understand how it could happen, much less solve it. But with God’s help and his wisdom, “ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE.”

While we were on furlough two pastors, two brothers decided to try what they could to get people to follow after their own ideas and have dismissed anything that I or any other missionary had ever taught them. One of them is the pastor of a church that we started and they have already have been constituted or organized. He has run off all of the church members that did not want to go along with all of his ideas. They have remained loyal to us and our family. He put people in places of authority to defend him and the church is literally dying on the vine. There may be as many as six members, and a high attendance including children is fifteen. It is a sad situation. We are trying to encourage the members that have left that they stand up to him, but many are scared. It has been mentioned to me that he visits with a witch doctor often. We are sincerely asking God for direction and wisdom, and we are pleading that you pray for us in this area.

One thing that has taken me by surprise though is this. I was invited to a new village in 2005 to a Baptist church that had opened and they asked me to teach them. I went and taught and answered some questions for them. More to them got saved and we baptized them. I left and had not heard from them since. In January they contacted me and let me know that now there are 5 churches in the surrounding areas. The pastors have started Bible College this year and their churches are growing. AMEN!! Please pray for three other Bible studies that have been started recently that they will grow quickly and soundly to begin churches in their villages.

I will never trade this work as a missionary for anything else in the world, unless, of course, it is a trade with HEAVEN.

Thank you for your prayers.
Luke and Tonya Shelby
Missionaries in Kenya