Safely Back in Kenya & Urgent Prayer Requests

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Dear Prayer Supporters and Friends, January-March 2020

We arrived back in Kenya in January, and everything is going well here. We have been able to visit 5 of our churches so far, and it is a blessing to see that God is blessing each of them. One of them, Agape Baptist Church in the Jogoo area of Kisii, celebrated its 1st Anniversary. There were a few visitors, and 2 got saved! Pastor Andrew Maiko is doing a good job. Continue to pray for him and his family.

One of the first things that we needed to accomplish upon returning to the field was to find the best solution to Tonya’s coping with COPD here in Kenya. We have been able to determine the main things that affect her ability to breathe in enough oxygen and to regulate her heart rate when trying to compensate for the oxygen levels are the following: high elevation, dust, smoke, and dead air at the heat of the day. We have been living in Kisii for almost 20 years at the elevation of 6,500+ ft. The pressure at that level has shown to be a problem for her. So we have been researching towns with the lowest elevation in our region of Kenya; and Kisumu, a town on Lake Victoria, is located at 3,700 ft. above sea level and is also half way between our 2 main centers of ministry. The humidity is higher here, but that doesn’t seem to bother her. We have decided to get an apartment there which is in easy driving distance to any of our works. All of our ministries with churches, Bible College, and orphans will continue normally, because we start each process with national leadership in place to make sure that each church is indigenous in nature. This small move will also assist us in helping other missionaries, who are coming to Kenya in the near future, who will be working with us with the goal of starting works in towns around us. We are still researching the best way to get air conditioning in our apartment.

Other issues that need urgent prayer in the light of the recent coronavirus that has recently taken center stage in the media:

• Tonya’s COPD places her in the high risk group.

• Our travel to the States for Abigail and Robert’s Wedding on June 6.

• Our travel here in the country while we finish moving into the apartment.

• My Dad is still in the Hospital in Little Rock, now in CCU, and has been moved in and out of ICU to get those rooms ready for coronavirus patients.

• Matthew Rose Family’s arrival has been delayed.

• Kenya shutting down non-essential business in the midst of renewing our work permit.

• $1,000 Still needed for Air Conditioning.

• $5,000+ Still needed for Shipping

We are praying for you during this time of uncertainty, and we covet your prayers as well. May God bless you.

For Souls in Kenya,

Luke & Tonya Shelby

Missionaries in Kenya

Shelby family & Kenya 🇰🇪 Update:

The kids & I attended church here in Kisii, & We had a really good service. Pastor Andrew preached on bearing one another’s burdens. The alter was full.
2018 seemed to get off to rough start for our church here, but the trials are drawing all of closer together in a spirit of unity that we have not experienced here before. When the leaders were discussing the theme for our new year & chose “Striving Together,” we had no idea that what was ahead for our church family. They have wonderfully shown brotherly love & have come together to bear a heavy burden. Their spiritual growth has been awesome to see & this is just the 1st week of February! Not sure what God has in store next for Calvary BC of Kisii, but God has brought us through this trying time together & HE will bring us through each step from here as well.
Luke preached at our church in the village of Sidundo (5 1/2 hours away) today, & they also had good services today.

Not even sure what to write concerning Kenya at this point...opposition held a demonstration today & they plan to cause major disruptions in the capital tomorrow. We will be safe here. As the political situation intensifies & TV broadcasting remains turned off, we have been told that social media will be the next to be switched off (as the opposition is using these means to incite people to mass action). Not trying to scare anyone or anything, we are just use to having a plan B, C, & D in place after living in Kenya this long (lol). So...if social media gets cut off, we will communicate via email. If you are not on our mailing list, please visit our website & subscribe to our Letters & Updates in order to receive our emails when we can get things out. If for any reason that fails, we will hopefully be able to use our phones for calls & texts, & we will stay in contact with our families & home church, & they will be able to post updates on their FB accounts.

Love ❤️ you all! Thank you for your faithful prayers.

March-May 2017 Prayer Letter

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Dear Supporters and Friends,
                                            
Thank you for your prayers and gifts for our girls while they have been in College. Abigail will be graduating on May 12th with a Bachelors Degree from Providence Baptist College in Elgin, Illinois. She will return for post-graduate work next year. Breanne still has two more years and will graduate in 2019. Time has gone by so fast for these young ladies, and God has opened so many doors and has given them much needed experience in life and in different ministries since they began college. They will be coming to Kenya for about 5 weeks during the summer. We praise the Lord for all that He has done in their lives. 

Week of Evangelism in Kegogi:
In March, we held an evangelistic meeting in the village of Kegogi where we started Calvary Baptist Church in January. We had around 30 Pastors, college students, and members of our church in Kisii that helped throughout the week with visitation during the day and street preaching in the open market areas. It was great experience for the college students with several saying that they had the chance to win their first person to Christ. They were so excited! Paskaria, one of the most faithful older ladies in our church, started taking college classes this year. She can barely read and cannot write very well, but she has memorized all the verses and illustrations to lead others to Christ. She was one who led their first soul to Christ, a lady named Eukabeti. It is so exciting to see how God can use anyone who is willing to serve Him. We had over 90 people saved in the course of the week and had 85 in attendance the following Sunday. On Easter Sunday a visitor got saved and left her beaded necklace at the altar; she was trusting in this necklace to keep her safe from evil spirits that are associated with the witchcraft that is practiced in the Kisii area. This is an amazing step that she made in fully accepting God's protection in her salvation. 

10th Anniversary in Kisii
We held our 10th Anniversary at Calvary Baptist in Kisii on April 16th with Missionary Robert Mickey preaching for us. We had at least 250 in attendance, and we had over 30 visitors with 5 getting saved. The ladies brought more visitors than the men throughout the campaign which started in March, so the men served the ladies their food after the service in celebration of winning the contest. There were over 70 visitors in the 7-week Visitor Campaign.

Building Projects 2017
Bible Baptist Church 50' by 25' building in Rongo $5,000 needed
Extension on the Calvary Baptist Church in Kisii $3,000 needed
NOTE: There is an update on the Orphanage in Sidundo on the next page.

Serving Him in Kenya,

Luke and Tonya Shelby
Your missionaries to Kenya

January-February 2017 Prayer Letter

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Dear Supporters and Friends, January - February 2017

JAMBO!!! From the Shelby Family in Kisii, Kenya. 2017 has kicked off with lots of things happening; it’s been VERY busy. We thank the Lord for the opportunity to serve Him another year, and also thank you for helping to make that possible. Thank you for your prayers, offerings, support, and your letters and words of encouragement to our family. Thank you for your prayers and gifts to our two college girls, Abigail and Breanne. Abigail will be graduating in May with a bachelor from Providence Baptist College in Elgin, IL, and Breanne is on track to graduate in 2018. We will be heading to the USA during May for Abigail’s graduation and to take care of Tonya's medical appointments. Then both of our girls will be returning to Kenya to for about a month this summer to visit with friends and work in the ministries here.

Church planting:
We are excited to be a part of the great ministry of church planting here; as we train the Kenyans to spread the Gospel to the regions beyond them. The fellowship of pastors here is working on a way of visiting and evangelizing in all of these areas as a group to encourage these new pastors. We have started the New Year off with three new church plants already!
1. Kegogi village started January 22
2. Og'eng'a Village started February 5 (by 2016 graduate Tom Onguku)
3. Sibuoche village started February 19 (by 2016 graduate Nikolas Mwenyane)

We also have at least four more Bible Studies that will become churches this year!
1. Ondome village - Peter Ochieng
2. Isebania town - Paul Isedia
3. Nyangera village - Joshua Omondi
4. Nyamiobo village - Enoch Nyakundi

We were also able to help another missionary, Robert Mickey, for a couple of days; as he was getting a church planted in the town of Kiligoris. I was able to personally lead 14 people to the Lord on those two days.

South Nyanza Bible College has opened up more branches with local church pastors training their church members in our Bible College curriculum. We have three other branches of our college in addition to the ones coming to Kisii town from other churches. We have also begun a Pastoral Degree program this year for pastors and graduates. We have a total of 45 students to begin the year in classes, and we expect that number to grow.

Thank you again for your prayers and support for our family and ministry, for Tonya's health, and for our girls in the States. God bless you!

Serving Him in Kenya,

Luke and Tonya Shelby
Your missionaries to Kenya

A time of singing at Camp!

A time of singing st Camp! This was the time of singing together before closing out the week of Camp.

Link to video BELOW:

Camp singing

Last Day of Camp

Last Day of Youth Camp in Kisii. And the teens were getting up & giving testimonies about being thankful that the Lord allowed them to attend this week, and also about how the Lord had made some changes in their hearts & attitudes.

We ended up with over 90 in attendance for the week, and we have had 19 young people come to know the Lord as their Savior this week!


Link to video BELOW:

Last Day of Camp

Camp Fun!

Youth Camp fun!

Link to video BELOW:

Camp Fun

Our 1st Service Back Home in Kisii

The series of blog post that you will see over the coming weeks will show a current date, but due to the FULL schedule that we have had since arriving back in Kenya; we have not had time to post regular blog updates. We do apologize for that! We will post the date at the top of each of these new posts showing when the event(s) took place.

June 5, 2016



Our first service back at Calvary Baptist Church in Kisii was such a blessing to our hearts. To see our people still being faithful in the work of the Lord.

The first picture is of Mrs. Peris playing our church's keyboard. Abigail spent her last year in Kenya teaching Mrs. Peris how to play, and so it was an extra special blessing to hear her playing in church and using her talent for the Lord.

The second picture is Pastor Tim Whitfield, who preached from the Word of God and challenged our hearts tremendously. We enjoyed our time with him and our church people on our first Sunday back in Kenya.

Tragedy in Kisii

One week ago today, a 12-13 story building here in Kisii Town completely collapsed, covering a main road around town. There were people trapped inside for several days. The last survivor was rescued 5 days after the rescuers began going through the rubble. They called off further search & rescue efforts yesterday. We have heard some differing reports concerning the loss of life and injuries, but to the best of our knowledge 9 were killed and over 40 were injured during the collapse. Please keep the families of those involved in your prayers.

September-December 2014 Prayer Letter

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Dear Prayer Partners,

Happy New Year, 2015! We want to thank you for your prayers and support over this past year. God has enabled us to get so many things done this year. We are excited to be in our new building in Kisii. We have been using the new building since the first week in November, and we have already seen around 30 saved in services and during Youth Camp. We were able to host over 100 youth and counselors on the church compound for an entire week, because the church building is now able to be used. We also had one of our members plan a church wedding in December, and we had over 500 people attend; the building was bursting at the seams! It was great to see it full and to see the enjoyment of our members as they watched their church get filled to capacity. It shows what we will be capable of in the coming years, as we continue to build this church in Kisii.

We were helped a great deal by Bro. Phillip Smith and his CLAIM Team with BIMI, who came for just two weeks. They helped us get the building enclosed, so we could have the first service in the Church on November 2 before they left. They were a great blessing to us and to the church members here. It is amazing to see all the work that they accomplished while they were here. People were stopping by everyday, because we are on the main road, amazed at the progress; and we were able to witness to them. It was a great testimony for the church. The Team helped us finish up a lot of the work that we had started in March this year, and it was wonderful to be able to get into the building before the end of this year. It is such a great blessing. Thank you for all the help that you have been, both through prayer and finances, to make this project a possibility. It has been such a blessing to our family and the church here.

We still have more work to do, and we will resume work in January. The Calvary Baptist Church members here have raised over $5,000 that has been used in this project, and they have committed to continue to raise funds to help do the finishing work. We have been able to help with nearly $12,000 from your offerings and our regular support. The finishing work that needs to be done will be close to $3,000. Please pray for the funds to finish the baptistry, sidewalk, doors, windows, vents, flooring, lights, gutters, plastering the walls, painting, and some other things I am sure I have left out of this list.

Besides the building project, it has continued to be busy in other areas of the ministry as well. We have finished the girls dorm building at the orphanage in Sidundo, and we are ready to bring in the girls who are ready to start living there starting on January 5, 2015. We are excited about this, and we have been eager to get this stared. We will be meeting with their guardians and their caretakers to work out the details over this holiday break. Thank you for your prayers and support for this project. God is blessing the children, and they are growing both physically and spiritually.

We have planted corn in Sidundo, that will be harvested in January. This harvest will help with the expenses of the running of the orphanage during the time that we are on furlough. Pray that it will be a bountiful harvest, that it will meet the needs, and that is will even go beyond to help others as well who are not able to stay at the orphanage at this time. God has given us nearly 20 dedicated men and women at this church and orphanage in Sidundo, Siaya, who are helping to take care of the children on a rotating basis. As they are being led by Pastor Joseph and other men, they are helping these children with valuable lessons in life from the Word of God on a daily basis. Lessons that will be more beneficial than all of the material things that we can give them.

This year we have also been able to help a few of the orphans in paying for their school tuition, books, and uniforms; but there are so many more who need help in this area. We need more support for the Orphan Ministry. We have been able to help a few young men with work and with starting their first semester of university. And we are looking forward to seeing what the Lord is going to do in the lives of these young people!

A lot of times the work seems overwhelming, and it does not seem like there is an end; but if we can influence even a few with the goodness of God, it will make a huge difference in their lives. And it will go a long way in the ministry of the church, as they give their lives to the Lord to Preach the Gospel. I know that we are in the beginning stages of this ministry, but our prayer for these young people is to change Kenya through the preaching of God's Word.

God has enabled us, through the South Nyanza Baptist College, to have another 12 men and women graduate in 2014, between our two branches in Sidundo and Kisii. Please pray for these graduates, as several of them have made it known that they are called to preach; and they are looking for areas where they can start new churches out of their home churches. The majority of the students that graduated were from Sidundo (about 5 hours from Kisii), so we went with the whole student body and teachers from Kisii to hold the graduation at the Sidundo branch at the end of November. It was a great day! And it was something that had never been done in that village by any church or college. Also for many of these families there had never been anyone in their family who had graduated from college until now. It was a great testimony to the Gospel and the work of the Calvary Baptist Church in Sidundo.

Please pray for the area around Sidundo. There are three other villages and markets that are being looked at for starting preaching points and Bible Studies by our graduates in the near future.

We are finalizing our plans to begin furlough the end of April. We have already started booking meetings toward the end of May; just after the high school graduation of our second daughter, Breanne. We have several that have already contacted us about setting up meetings and some of the dates are filling up. If you have not yet contacted us by email, please do so: mail@shelbysinkenya.org. Please pray with us that the Lord will open doors to get into some new churches during this furlough, since we need to raise our support level to help with the constantly changing economy and the growth of the ministry that the Lord has entrusted to us.

Thank you so much for your support, prayer, special offerings, and love that you have shown to our family in 2014. It is greatly appreciated, and we will always be thankful for your goodness and your faithfulness to our ministry here in Kenya.

Serving Him in Kenya,



Luke and Tonya Shelby
Your Missionaries to Kenya

July 2013 Prayer Letter

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Dear Supporters, Praying Friends and Family,

Greetings from Kenya! Thank you for your faithful prayers and support for our family and ministry in Kenya. We had a good time visiting with other missionaries for the 4th of July. God bless America!!!

Orphan Ministry:

We are currently using much more money to help meet the needs of the children than we have coming in. We have received gifts and one time offering gifts for the orphan ministry, but it is not enough to take care of the feeding program that we have in two different locations for over 50 children. There are 13 boys between the ages of 8-17 that we are taking care of at our orphanage in the village of Sidundo. Currently, we are using over $500 monthly for the basic feeding program and for the running of the orphanage; and we have paid almost $300 in school fees for a few of the older children, that we have been able to help during the first half of this year. At this time, we have less than $200 coming in on a monthly basis for this ministry, and this is causing us to cut back in some of our other ministry areas. Please pray with us that the Lord will send in the needed funds for this ministry.

Visiting Some of Our Churches:

We were able to visit some of our churches in April and May. We have one church in the village of Nyarenda that has a preaching point about an hours walk from the church, and several people are coming from all that way every week. We are planning to open a new church there in a few months. The rains have caused flooding through most areas of the country and in low lying areas next to rivers as they flow into Lake Victoria. Here is a picture of our church in the village of Sidundo. They had to meet under a nearby tree for three weeks before the water subsided. But the church continued well with an average attendance between 80-90.

Faith Baptist Church in the village of Erandi is also doing well; but we are praying for the men to be faithful, and to help Pastor Livinacs in leading the church so that it can grow. We will be planning a meeting to encourage this church soon. Please continue to pray for each of the churches under our ministry.

Calvary Baptist Church in Kisii has been doing very well with their giving (this is an area where 90% of the people are making under $50 per month). Since January, the offerings have been averaging over $250 per month. They have begun raising money to build a church building of 50ft. by 35ft. It will seat 200 people, and the existing building will be divided up into Sunday school classrooms. The total cost of the project will be $12,000. We have agreed to share the costs of this project with the church; sister churches and Calvary Baptist Church will work together to raise half of it, and then we would provide the remaining half. The church has raised $1,100 already towards this project, and they are trying to raise the rest of their part through the course of this year. We need your help to raise the remaining amount of $6,000 by the end of the year. We would like to be able to begin construction in early 2014.

Serving Him in Kenya,


Luke & Tonya Shelby

My Favorite Place (By Breanne)

A hill in the outskirts of Kisii presents a wonderful view of the surrounding countryside. The name of this hill is Mount Manga. From there you would first see each house surrounded by its own field; these houses are close together and each detail is distinctly recognized. But as you gaze farther and farther out, you do not see each house with its field, but the fields all begin to blend together into a large patchwork quilt. If the haze is not too dense; from this vantage point, it is possible to see Lake Victoria! Now if you would look slightly to your left, there are two smaller hills (that are contained within the valley) can be seen. First one, then the other behind it; between these hills lie the downtown section of Kisii. This breathtaking view is my favorite place in all of Kisii!

Kisii (By Breanne)

In the highlands of Kenya lays a busy town nestled between two hills. On the slope of one hill stands a two-story, colonial, stone house like sentinel guarding the marketplace below. At a second story window peers a bystander, watching the action occurring along the heavily used paved road. This highway is always teeming with traffic, not only automobile traffic, but also pedestrians and motorbikes. The traffic here is not any kind of traffic you will be familiar with in America, this traffic is native to Kenya and Kenya only (well maybe in other African countries too!). This traffic is push and shove, accidents are common, and the people just walk across the road as if it were empty! If an accident does occur, the road has no shoulders to pull off onto. The shoulder (a narrow, steep dirt path), when there happens to be one, is used as a sidewalk and a place to sell wares. Watching from above could keep a bystander occupied for absolutely hours!!

4th Anniversary

During the months of March and April, we were evangelizing as much of the area around our church in Kisii town as possible. Kisii has a population of over 100,000 people, and we were able to get into the homes of about 3,000 people who live around the church. We passed out a total of around 10,000 John and Romans and 20,000 tracts to people all over town. It seems like just a small amount compared to the need that is so great. I have a vision for this church, that started 4 years ago, to give birth to many more churches that will one day reach all of Kisii’s population. On Easter Sunday, April 24th, we had 303 in attendance to break the record for the church’s attendance since its opening in 2007.

Bring Them in Campaign

We want to thank all of you who have been praying for our "Bring Them In" campaign. The Lord is truly blessing everyone's efforts.

Today was Children's Day. We gave out bags of popcorn to every person who came today. (We popped 5 kg. of popcorn yesterday evening!). And we had our Annual Baby Dedication Service too. We had 5 couples who came to dedicate their young children today. Please pray for these young families as they try to raise their children for the Lord.

Kay-Leigh and Caleb had 73 children in their class today. So they were both very excited to see 26 first time visitors (many of which they invited personally this week) in their class. Just 3 weeks ago this class was averaging around 20 children.

In total we had 153 in church this morning. Most of the visitors came due to the John & Romans and tracts that we passed out throughout the week. We are excited to see our people getting involved in visitation as well. We had 11 go out yesterday to knock doors. And today, you could see the excitement in their eyes when all of the visitors stood up! Thank you again for your prayers for this church and its Sunday school campaign, but we are only half way. So, please continue to be in prayer with us. Our goal is to have 300 on Easter Sunday!

Serving Him in Kenya,
Luke and Tonya Shelby Family
Missionaries in Kenya

Church Planting

We are church planting missionaries; and we strive to plant indigenous Baptist churches that are self-supporting, self-governing, and self-propagating. God has allowed us and some of our College graduates to start 18 such churches since we arrived in Kenya in 1999.

We believe that the purpose that God has given us (as Christians) in the “Great Commission” is to witness and see souls saved by the grace of God, to baptize, to edify in the faith, and to grow in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. We also believe that it is the Local Church that was given this “Great Commission” as they were sent out “into all the world” to preach the Gospel of Christ. God has the purpose of the Local Church as His instrument on this earth to fulfill the “Great Commission.” So it is the Local Church that has the authority and responsibility of sending, preaching, winning souls, baptizing, discipling, and edifying the body of Christ.

God has called us to a place where souls need to be saved, a place where Satan has had a stronghold for a long time, and a place where false religions are very strong. Kenyans need the Lord. We have preached to many, and many have been saved (over 5,000 professions); but that is not the end of the “Great Commission.” They need to be discipled. They need to grow in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. They need a shepherd, a guide, a church and pastor.

That is why God has called us to plant churches in the different villages where people have gotten saved and are willing to be taught. We began to start churches in areas where other pastors needed some encouragement and training to equip them to do the work of the ministry. Our goal is to train the national men, who are called by God; and then to duplicate ourselves in them, so more can be accomplished in the work of God. Another truth is that no one can truly reach the Kenyan people like the Kenyan people themselves. We truly want to develop church planters that will continue this work in their own areas.

We start churches with a national man that has a desire to do the work of the ministry. We then train him in the Bible College as he holds a Bible Study in the area that he wants to minister. After he has finished his training and has begun developing mature believers, then we assist him in market revival meetings, passing out tracts, soul-winning; and when he has a place to meet, then we start a new church. The church is started with the national as the pastor, and we help in overseeing the work and assisting him in teaching and with materials.

In our ministry, God has now allowed us to have churches that are starting churches; and to have a mission program to assist those churches in the beginning stages. We are also seeing those that were saved in the earlier works, finishing Bible College, and going out to start churches also. Nothing is fool-proof, we have learned some lessons the hard way; but I do believe that God is helping us. And it is a just matter of time until we will have independent Baptist Churches covering every corner of our region.

Please take the time to look at what the Lord has done, and we hope that you will be encouraged by it. If you have any questions or comments please contact us.