March - June 2021
Dear Praying Friends,
We are sorry for the delay in getting this letter out. But we are especially thankful for your prayers and continued support. God has kept His hand of protection on us through these uncertain times of Covid-19. Kenya’s cases had risen in March, so they locked down Nairobi and the surrounding areas. None of this affected us in any of our works or traveling, except for one church that is on the border of one of the counties that were locked down. They kept the areas closed until the middle of May. Once they opened the lock down, the cases started rising out in our area of Kisii and Kisumu. They have started taking extra precautions here now, but we are still able to travel to the churches that we need to. Weather changes with the rains have caused several people to be sick with Covid-like symptoms, so we are being very careful when we meet at churches or in college classes. Continue to pray for Tonya, as she is more susceptible to picking up sicknesses with her COPD. We are so thankful that the Lord is our helper in these times. We are praying for you as well.
Our Daughter, Breanne and son-in-law Jeremy Martin, had his ordination and their sending service at their home church in May, and they are waiting for visas to get into the country of Mongolia. Mongolia has just recently started opening up, and they could get the opportunity to go at any time. Thank you for your prayers for them. They have raised their support and are ready to go. Please pray that they are able to sell their RV before they fly out.
Since the beginning of the year, we have been extremely busy with the class schedules of our 12 college branches. I am teaching at 4 of them (3 weekly and 1 monthly). I am traveling 10+ hours and teaching more than 12 hours every week. We are excited about the opportunities that the Lord will open through the training of these men and women. We have seen 654 precious souls saved and 26 baptized through the efforts of the college students since the beginning of the year. As we have seen in the past, God does strengthen the churches through the teaching of the Word of God as well as open doors for future churches in new villages and towns that have no Gospel preaching church.
BEREA BIBLE BAPTIST CHURCH
This church was opened on April 25th in Narok town after 3 years of Bible study by one of our college students, Samuel Nyakundi. Most of the details were posted on Facebook and on our blog about the way the Lord blessed during the week of opening the church. Through soul winning we had 50 + saved during the week and 19 baptized on the first Sunday and 6 baptized the next week. We went to visit one of the other college students that lives 5 hours away on a very rough road that took us through several rivers. We got stuck in the Maasai village of Oltepesi for three days, and several more were saved and another Bible Study was opened on the border of Tanzania! (Pictures and the whole story are available on our Facebook page and our blog, please visit our website to connect with us and get more frequent updates.)
PROJECTS
We have had a couple of offerings totaling $17,000 in the last couple of months for the church plant in Narok and other projects that we have been working on. Berea Bible Baptist started meeting in their church building on the first week in June. In the Maasai village of Oltepesi, we were given almost 2 acres of land from the community so that when the church is started there it will be right in the center of the village. AMEN!!! Other projects are finishing the building in Rongo, updating our college dorms in Kisii, as well as smaller projects at a few other churches. We will be busy for the rest of the year getting several things finished up that we began working on through 2020.
1 ThessALONIANS 5:24 “Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.”
God is amazing! He makes NO MISTAKES in HIS calling. I cannot understand how anyone could BE anywhere else or DO anything else except doing the work that God has called them to do. God knows how to do His work better than we do. We would not want to be anywhere else! God bless you.
For Souls in Kenya,
Luke & Tonya Shelby
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