Celebrating Milestones and Spreading Joy: Our Missionary Adventures in Kenya 🌍✨

Dear Prayer Supporters and Friends,                                                  January 2024

Happy New Year to all of you! We pray that God will fill this year with His goodness in your lives.

We are so thankful for all the incredible experiences that God has blessed us to be part of in 2023, especially the moments spent with our family during the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year holiday. Your support and prayers have been a source of strength for us.

Exciting updates include our son-in-law, Robert Cepec, daughter, Abigail, and our first grandson moving to the field of Guyana this week to start their ministry.  Your prayers for them mean the world to us, and we appreciate you for the adding them to your missionary families for support.  

In December, I had privilege of returning to Kenya, reconnecting with our pastors, students, and church members. We celebrated the graduation of 29 studunts during the 4 graduation ceremonies, and we are excited for what the Lord has in store for 2024.  Already, 26 new students are starting classes this month, with more expected to join by the end of January.  

Several men from our ministry are moving into new areas to begin new ministries, and recent graduates are now stepping into leadership roles.  Please join us in praying for Edward, now ministering in his home area, and Samuel, who moved to the Maasai villages to help the church and the Bible Studies that have been started recently.

Heartfelt thanks for the generous Christmas gifts that we have received. God has faithfully met every need mentioned in our letters and prayers. We are grateful for additional churches commiting to support us and our ministries in Kenya.  Your contributions remind us of Paul’s words, “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”  God is abundantly good, surpassing our expectations!  Thank you so much for everything that you do for Him!

During our time in the USA, God has continued to work in Kenya with 1,843 souls accepting Christ and 207 baptized, according to reports from our pastors and their ministries.

Please lift up prayers for the planning and setup of the new Internship Program, aiming to guide USA Bible college students and those called to preach the Gospel in Africa.  Our desire and vision is to influence the next generation of laborers for the harvest fields in Africa.

Thank you sincerely for the love you have shown to our family during this furlough, and for your Christmas offerings.

For Souls in Kenya,

Luke & Tonya Shelby

Missionaries in Kenya

 

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

Faithful Men Who are Teaching Others...

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Dear Supporters and Friends, September- November 2019

The Lord has blessed in several meetings in Louisiana, Texas, Illinois, Oklahoma and Arkansas over the past few months reporting in at least 10 churches a month mostly on weekends.

We want to thank you for being faithful supporters to our family and ministry, and we also want to thank the Lord for the faithful men that He has given us. Your faithfulness has produced faithfulness in the lives of others, like these men who are carrying on the work of the Lord in Kenya. Because of this the churches, Bible College, and orphan care in Kenya are doing well in our absence. As we remember the people that God has put in our lives during this season of Thanksgiving, we are thankful for the faithful pastors that are carrying on the work in the ministries of the 28 churches that the Lord has allowed us to start.

Please pray for my dad, Richard, who will be undergoing a brain tumor surgery on November 27th. They believe that it is benign, but it needs to be removed because of the pressure on the brain stem.

We will be returning to Kenya on January 10th, and there are some needs that we are praying for in our return to Kenya by the end of this furlough.

For Souls in Kenya,

Luke and Tonya Shelby