January - February 2021
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We are thanking the Lord for the New Year! We are thankful for a New Year of new opportunities that the Lord has given us to serve Him. There have been several blessings already in this New Year that we would like to share with you this month.
Ministry Blessing…We are now able to travel pretty freely and have been able to see some of our churches that had some struggles during the Covid lockdowns of 2020.
Personal Blessing…We were finally able to get a vehicle; we have been waiting for this since we returned to Kenya in January 2020! It has been a long process, and we are glad that it is over. We have shared this issue with only a few people, but we are thankful to all of you for your prayers for our family. This vehicle will allow Tonya to be able to visit some churches with me and will also give her something to use when I am out of town.
New Teammate Blessing…Miss Erica Bohman is now here in the country and has settled into her apartment, and we are starting to plan some children’s ministry opportunities for her to serve in, in the near future.
Blessing in disguise…In 2020 we transitioned our Bible College to satellite branches for Local Church Bible College sites due to the Covid lockdown and restrictions; we began where there were students ready to learn the Word of God in their local areas instead of coming to Kisii Town every month. Each of these locations have been meeting weekly at different locations throughout the 2020 school year, and we were excited to have 12 new students enrolled in 2020 for a total of 25 active students at 7 different locations during the locked down year.
Blessed beyond measure…In preparing for 2021, we talked with many of our Pastors and decided to fully advertise the Local Church Bible College option for the new school year. As January rolled around and the country became more and more open, we have continued to see new students enrolling nearly every week. We currently have 80 active students meeting at 12 different church locations, and these students are coming from 30 churches and Bible Studies scattered throughout the villages around Kisii and Kisumu. This makes a total of 55 new students for the New Year! Seventeen of the new students are from 7 churches near Kisumu that we have been re-introduced to since moving here, and I am teaching Bible College classes at 3 of these church locations each week.
Blessed Abundantly…We thank the Lord for God’s faithful men that He has put in these churches and their commitment to train their people. We have worked with most of these pastors for more than 10 years and have been able to train them personally. I am so excited about the influence that we can have in these churches and the lives of their members. We are renewed with a new passion of hope of what the future holds for this part of Kenya. We thank God for His fruit which remains! John 15:16 says, “…that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain…”
Undeservingly Blessed…The most important thing that I would like to thank the Lord for is for putting me into the ministry, as Paul said in 1 Timothy 1:12, “And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me…”
Upcoming events for prayer:
1. The planting of a church in Narok among the Maasai tribe.
2. The restarting of a church in the village of Rapedhi.
3. Continuing to visit and encourage all of our churches in 2021.
For Souls in Kenya,
Luke & Tonya Shelby
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