Urgent Prayer Needs & Exciting Updates from Kenya 🙏✨

 

Thank you for your prayers as we returned to the field. Despite mechanical delays on our flights from Little Rock, Atlanta, and New York, totaling 4 days of travel, we are grateful to be home. Please pray for Tonya's acclimation to the elevation here in Kisumu, Kenya. She has been improving a lot over the last two weeks.

Here are some specific prayer requests and updates from our ministries for 2024.

Church Planting: 

1. The Lord has opened the door for Ezekiel, a 2023 graduate, to start a Bible Study in Buyangu under a tree. I will be visiting there this weekend.
2. We have begun meeting with a group for a Bible Study in the village of Mibasi on Saturdays and some Sundays. Over 20 individuals have been saved in the last month in this village!
3. I will be visiting the new Bible Study started last year in Ilikerin Maasai village this month, staying for about a week. It's about 10 hours from home, and I'll be visiting 2 other churches along the way. Land has been donated to build a church building in Ilikerin.
4. We are discussing with the 2 other Bible Studies in Sigoti and Nyamiobo villages about when those churches will be started.

SOUTH NYANZA BAPTIST COLLEGE

We have started up our Pastoral Classes in 3 locations with 12 students who have graduated and are pastoring or looking for a place to start a church. This is a 2-year course that will ready them for any challenges they would face in the ministry.

Internship Program: We will not be able to start our internship program this year due to the prep work that needs to take place. We had two young people seriously interested in coming this year, but unfortunately, it was not possible. We are taking applications for next year. We ask those who are available to start preparing 6 months in advance. This program is geared for Bible college students who have been called to the mission field.

KENYA LEGACY FUND #501: We have received the money for the 1st phase of our College Dorm building and have started the site planning for this project. Thank you so much. Please use the account #501 for these projects. Thank you.

!!!ORPHANAGE URGENT PRAYER REQUEST!!!

During our furlough, the 5-acre property given by the village community has been taken control of by the County Government for rice processing. The church and orphanage will need to move, so we have been dismantling buildings and storing materials at church members' homes while we look for a new place. We are considering a plot that had a nursery school that is now closed. We would need at least $3,000 to buy the land and start using it. PLEASE PRAY!!

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.

November 2017 - January 2018 Update

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Thank you for your prayers for the country of Kenya and our family during these past few months.  We are writing to you today with a quick update since we have been delayed in getting a regular Prayer Letter sent out to everyone. We do apologize for being late on our normal communication with you, your family, and your church.  This is not a regular Prayer Letter, but more of a personal update until we can get our Prayer Letter completed and ready for both regular mail service and email.

For those of you who follow our family and ministry closely on social media, then you know that there have been some unstable conditions within Kenya (especially in the region where a majority of our churches are located).  Even though the political situation has been unstable, the work of the Lord has continued.  Of course when politics are unstable, then the basic services of electricity, internet, water, and food supplies are also affected; making each daily task either more difficult to accomplish or sometimes even impossible to get accomplish.  Since August (when the original elections took place), we have only had electricity for about 2 weeks per month, water 1-2 days per month, and internet only part of the 2 weeks that we have had electricity!  As far as food...sugar, maize meal (corn meal), dairy products, and many other items have either been rationed or non-exisistent in our area up until this month.  But we thank the Lord for His protection and for His provision for our family!

Since October, we have had a re-run of the Kenyan Presidential elections; with the opposition once again losing and continuing to demand to be put into positions of power.  They have boycotted various services across the country (one being the major cellular network in our area, of which they destroyed many cell towers causing communication issues), continued to hold public demonstrations whenever they feel like it (causing road closures in many areas).  Thankfully, these things are getting better now!  But it seems that they are better just in time for the opposition to cause more trouble.  The opposition party plans to swear in their own leader as President of the People's Republic of Kenya on Tuesday, the 30th of this month.  This ceremony is supposed to take place about 1 1/2 hours from us, and we are already seeing an influx of military and extra police officers in our area.  Prior to this ceremony, the opposition party plans to hold a major rally right here in Kisii Town on Sunday!  We are praying that things stay safe for us and all of our church family here.  We would appreciate your prayers as well.

During the months of October and November, our regular weeks of Bible College classes and Pastoral Classes had to continually be shifted around in order to allow all of our students traveling safety.  All of this shifting around of schedules can cause things to pile up rather quickly!

In November, Tonya was in the USA for her regular medical tests.  During this visit, she was officially diagnosed with Lupus.  Her doctors are working with her and allowing us to try natural options first.  They are giving her six months to try diet, supplementation with as many natural options as we can find for her.  If her blood work is not better at the six month mark (April), then they will insist on traditional medication and treatment plans.  Rest is very important, but the past few months have not been very conductive for the rest needed.  So, we ask for your prayers for her health.

December started off with College Days at our Calvary Baptist Church branch of our Bible College.  We had over 50 students and prospective students in attendance for a week of preaching, fellowship, and fun!  The second week of December is always a fun week here; as we had an amazing week of Youth Camp at Calvary BC in Kisii Town. Our theme was Fear Factor...Fear not, Only BELIEVE!  We had 92 teens in attendance, and 9 were saved!  We also had 10 young people commit to joining our Bible College for 2018!  Exciting things are happening among our youth, and we praise the Lord for the work He is doing here.  Then finishing up our first semester of homeschool for Caleb and Kay-Leigh right before Christmas.  We enjoyed a couple of days of rest, time with family, and church family over the holidays.  We were able to close the year with a Western Kenya Pastors' Fellowship at our church in Rongo (Bible Baptist Church of Rongo) on December 28-31st.  And a wonderful in the Lord's house at Calvary Baptist Church in Kisii Town on Sunday the 31st.  We had a wonderful day with our church family with dinner on the grounds, fellowship, games, preaching, singing, testimonies and more as we stayed all night to usher in the New Year together as a church family.  We had 75 in attendance at midnight!  And started our New Year off right with one baptized at our sunrise service on the 1st!  God is so good!

And in January...is January really almost over already?!?  My, oh, my!  How fast the time is going by.  The first week of January we were out in the village of Sidundo with our church and orphan home there.  We enjoyed our fellowship with this church family, and are excited about the goals of this ministry for 2018.   January has also been a time of sorrow for our ministry, as we have seen 3 precious people go on to be with the Lord in Heaven.  Three people from 3 different churches; but even in this, we are thankful that we will see them again one day when we meet in heaven.  One funeral is taking place today; please pray for souls to be saved.  We ask that you pray specifically for a young lady in our church in Kisii Town, who lost her husband suddenly, and now has 2 boys to raise on her own.  Please keep these three families in your prayers.  

Our Bible College got off to a wonderful start this month with almost 50 enrolled for this year!  This week Luke, Caleb, and several men from a few of our churches worked on the building site at Bible Baptist Church in Rongo.  This project has taken a long time to get off the ground, but it is exciting to see this church growing and working together!  Monday (29th) begins Pastoral Classes for the new year, and we have 16 enrolled in these classes!

We appreciate your love, prayers, encouragement, and support; we could not be here without YOU!  Thank you! 

Serving Him in Kenya,

Luke and Tonya Shelby
(Written from the perspective of a missionary wife.)

Orphan Ministry Update

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Orphan Ministry Update
Over the last year we have needed to re-evaluate our orphan ministry and upgrade some things according to the current needs of the children. We have finished most of the work on the fencing and are doing maintenance and repair on some of the buildings. We also needed to get new mattresses, blankets, and mosquito nets for all of the children. We have used $4,000 in Sidundo over the last year, and there are still several other things that we would like to do.
There are currently 17 children, and we are planning to invite other children in the community who we know need help. (Originally, we only accepted those who were in our church already). There were some issues in the community while we were gone on furlough, and we are working on resolving them. Some of the older orphans have finished school and are working now. We still have contact with several of them through their families, and we have helped a few of them get jobs. We are thankful that God is continuing to bless them. Please continue to pray for them.
We have tried in the past to help with school fees for the children once they get into high school, because education is not free at that level in Kenya. We were only able to help a couple of them at a time due to the lack of orphan ministry support. Most of the guardians are unable to support the orphans during high school; this causes the boys to look for work early, and the girls to get married early. This year we have five students who need help with school fees; depending on the grade level, it will cost between $250-$300 per year, per child. Uniforms, shoes, and books are an additional $100 per child. According to orphan ministry support that we have coming in monthly, and from special offerings, it will not be possible for us to do this. At this point, we can only help the children with some of their fees on as extra funds are available. The general cost for taking care of the children to cover their needs for food and lodging is $30 per month, per child. We have just recently reached an average of $500 per month coming in for the orphan ministry. Adding the school fees to the food and lodging, would make total cost for their needs to be $60 monthly per child. Right now in two locations (Sidundo and Kuresoi) we are helping 30 children.
If you would be willing to adopt a child for their school fees or uniforms, please contact us by email; and we will give you more information about the children and their needs. Thank you for your prayers for this ministry and your love and care for these children.
God bless you. Luke and Tonya Shelby

A great Sunday in Sidundo!

We had a great day at church last Sunday at Calvary BC in Sidundo Village. The building was FULL & we had 3 first time visitors & 1 lady accepted Christ as her Savior!

Bible College got off to a great start today as well. Keep Calvary BC in the Village of Sidundo in your prayers!

There is so much potential outreach from this 1 church, pray that we take the steps that God wants us to go in next.

Camp singing 🎤!

Camp singing 🎤!

Link to video BELOW:

Camp Singing Sidundo


Link to video BELOW:

Camp Singing Sidundo 2

Youth Camp out in the Village Update!

We had over 55 teens, and were 7 saved out in the village, despite the devil's attempts to stop things!

So we praise the Lord for HIS goodness!

Water day fun!

Water day fun at Youth Camp & a practical joke!

Link to video BELOW:

Water Fun Day

First Day of Youth Camp in Sidundo

Opening day of Youth Camp at Calvary BC in Sidundo village!

Choosing up some Teams for the week of Fun & Teaching/Preaching from God's Word.

Link to video BELOW:

1st Day of Camp in Sidundo Village

October-November 2016 Prayer Letter

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Dear Praying Friends and Faithful Supporters, October-November 2016

What an amazing God we serve!  We just want to Celebrate God’s Faithfulness! It is an exciting experience to serve the Lord on the mission field.  I would choose nothing else for mine and my family’s lives to have meaning as a Christian who wants to serve God.  There are so many doors and opportunities that God has opened for those who are willing to serve HIM.

This year there have been several milestones that we have seen and that are coming up in our ministries here in Kenya.  In September, we had the 5th Anniversary of Calvary Baptist Church and orphanage in Sidundo, Siaya.  We had 121 in attendance and 7 first time visitors. In October, we celebrated the 15th Anniversary of the first church that we started in Kenya, Bible Baptist Church in Rongo.  There were 65 in attendance, with 10 first time visitors, and 10 saved during visitation on Saturday and the service on Sunday. In December, South Nyanza Baptist College will be finishing its 15th year of training men and women to serve Him. We will have 7 graduating this year.  Next year we will be celebrating the 10th Anniversary of Calvary Baptist Church in Kisii town.  And it is so hard to believe that we will be celebrating 20 years as missionaries in Kenya in June of 2017!  In all of this, we can definitely say that God has blessed greatly, and HE HAS BEEN FAITHFUL.  It is a reminder to continually celebrate the faithfulness of God!

Not only has God been faithful in the things of the past that we look back on, but HE IS FAITHFUL now as we are continuing to see people saved, young men and women trained and called into the ministry.  There are 5 men right now that are getting ready to start churches in different villages.  We held our Annual Church Leaders’ Conference with 108 Men and women from 12+ churches for an entire week.  Pastor McConkey and two members from his church in Jacksonville, North Carolina came and preached for us during this great week.  God is Faithful!

In October, We held a Missions Conference at Calvary Baptist Church in Kisii Town and we included the pastors in our area and all of the college students that are wanting to be used of God.  We tried to open their eyes to Missions in all of Africa.  All of them committed to do something for missions in their churches.  Our church in Kisii promised to more than double the amount that was committed last year.  They promised to give nearly $1,500 to missions over this next year.  I have no doubt that God will use their faith to do so much for the glory of God.  God is FAITHFUL!

We were able to start a Bible study in the village of Kegogi shortly after returning to Kenya in June. And we have seen 50+ people saved since we started visiting the area 3 months ago.  We have had a high attendance of over 60 meeting under a tree out in the front yard of one of the member’s homes.  We meet for this Bible Study every Sunday afternoon, and there are about 15 Adults, 10 youth, and about 40 children that have been attending from the village.  We are hoping to begin the Sunday morning services in this village in the next month or so.  College students and the members of Calvary Baptist in Kisii have been helping with soul winning and holding the services in the village that is about 45 minutes away from Kisii town.  I was able to sit down and lead a family of 5 to the Lord in their home a couple of weeks ago.  There is so much potential here in this village. Please pray that God will raise up some of these new Christian men and women to be faithful to the Lord and to be pillars in this new church plant.  God will continue to be FAITHFUL!

We also had a funeral for a faithful pastor who graduated in 2015.  Pastor Habil was almost 70 years old, and he had several different health complications come up while we were in the USA for our furlough.  A missionary witnessed to him in the 60‘s, and he was saved as a young man. He had been a pastor for many years, but he came to us to get Bible training because he did not feel fully equipped.  He was mainly an “A” student, and all of the other Bible College students looked up to and respected him very much.  At his funeral, I preached on the “Cross of Christ” and over 50 raised their hands and accepted Christ as their personal Savior.  God continues to be Faithful!

Serving Him in Kenya,
Luke and Tonya Shelby

January-February 2014 Prayer Letter

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Dear Prayer Supporters,

Happy New Year from the Shelby Family. We have had a very busy ending to 2013 and the starting of 2014. God has blessed in many ways, and we are excited about His work for this New Year.

Abigail is finishing her last semester of 12th grade, and she will going back to the USA to graduate with our home church’s school graduation in May. She will be traveling with Tonya, as Tonya will be taking care of her six month doctor’s appointments for her blood levels.

In December, we held our annual youth camp in Kisii Town at our main church. We had over 100 youth and counselors that attended with the theme of “The Army of the Lord.” There were many first timers this time, and there were 22 precious young people who got saved. It was very crowded, but it was very successful!

We had a Watch-night Service at the church here in Kisii Town, to bring in the New Year. The service started at 7p.m. and was over at 7 a.m. We had a New Year's sunrise service and baptized 7 to get 2014 off to a wonderful start! This church has also reached their $3,000 mark for beginning the construction of a new 350-400 seat auditorium. We are expecting to start building in the next two weeks (mid-February). Also this year, Calvary Baptist Church (Kisii) voted to support three national missionaries to surrounding countries in East Africa: Tanzania, Burundi, and the Congo. This support is in addition to the other Kenyan projects that they already support! It is a great joy to see the way the Lord is blessing this church.

In our last letter, we made mention that one of our Graduates (Bro. George) was helping us in rebuilding the church in Rongo, after the pastor passed away in August. He is doing a very good job, and since September we have seen nearly 50 souls saved on visitation and in services. In January, we were able to baptize 6. Please pray that God will continue to bless the work in Rongo.

Since the New Year began, we have opened classes for South Nyanza Baptist College with 12 new students in Kisii, and a few more sitting in on classes in our extension branch in Sidundo. It is exciting to see these new faces mixing with the old, and to see their eagerness to learn the Word of God.

We have also started a Bible Study in the village of Gingo, where I am able to go for two days each a month. We had almost 20 adults for the two days! We have known people in this village for the last few years, but there has been a great language barrier. So as I am learning the Luo language and using lessons that have been translated into their language. I am being assisted by other Luo preachers who have the opportunity to go with me.

There are two other churches in the process of getting started in Gesabakwa and Nyamiobo, both Kisii villages about 45 minutes from Kisii town. And in Sidundo, we are starting to visit in surrounding village centers and markets to see where the Lord will open the doors for new churches to be started there as well. In Sidundo, we also had 9 adults saved, and 11 baptized the first weekend of February.

Thank you for your prayers and support for our ministry,

The Nile Monitor

This is similar to the critter that we found on our church property in Sidundo. A Nile Monitor Lizard at least 6-7 feet long. Not sure exactly because it is still there. Some of the students went after it with a machete and cut two feet of its tail off (so now I guess it would only be 4-5 feet long).



There are others that have been seen burrowing down under some of the ten or so termite mounds on our 5-acre property. They hatch their eggs in the termite mounds, and then the babies can eat the termites as soon as they hatch. And yes, our kids have already asked if they can keep one (a baby)!!

The Nile Monitor

This is similar to the critter that we found on our church property in Sidundo. A Nile Monitor Lizard at least 6-7 feet long. Not sure exactly because it is still there. Some of the students went after it with a machete and cut two feet of its tail off (so now I guess it would only be 4-5 feet long).


There are others that have been seen burrowing down under some of the ten or so termite mounds on our 5-acre property. They hatch their eggs in the termite mounds, and then the babies can eat the termites as soon as they hatch. And yes, our kids have already asked if they can keep one (a baby)!!

An Embarrassing Moment (By Breanne)

It was actually a very humiliating experience, though it probably was not the most embarrassing in my life. The "it" I am talking about is a instance that took place in Sidundo, Siaya. As you probably already know we were in Siaya to help construct an orphanage; you might guess the children were attracted to us. The crowd of young people multiplied and multiplied until we knew something absolutely had to be done. You understand with so many people someone is liable to get hurt, but everyone was busy, too busy. So our Mom drew us (which is Abigail and I) off to the side and indicated that we should try to do something about our little "situation." In the end, we rounded up some of the children (the others followed out of curiosity), and directed them to a nearby field. And there we played "Ring-Around-the-Rosie" (along with some other simple games), but our circle was not even close to being round, some of us went wilder than others and before you know it we were all flung to the ground. We must have been a sight! You might not consider this all that embarrassing, but I am not to the worst part yet. We endured an audience, I am absolutely sure the whole construction team was watching us, and to make matters even worse, they were taking our pictures. Though this might not be the most humiliating in the world, I was sure self-conscience for a while afterward.

Written by: Breanne Shelby

Orphan Ministry Update 2!

Dear Praying Family and Friends,

Thank you for your patience, we have not been able to write updates as frequently as we hoped (due to a number of reasons!).  But we do hope that you will take the time to read the following update about Orphan Ministry project.

We have been getting applications from our local Pastors for the orphans in each of their areas.  We have been given names and a total count of nearly 150 orphans.  From the applications that we have on file, we have bee able to confirm that 30 of them are total orphans (both parents are deceased).  But these children are the targets of this ministry, because they are the most needy.  These are the children that will be able to live in the local church orphanages in the different locations.

We have also confirmed that around 50 of these children are in need, but they still have one parent living.  We are encouraging our churches here locally to help in the visitation of these orphans and widows from their own benevolence funds.  We are trying to teach them that it is their responsibility to follow Bible standards in their local villages, as they have the ability.  They have just planted their fields, and they are making plans to use a portion of their harvests for this purpose, as it is mentioned in Deuteronomy 24:19-22.

The remaining children do not have any documentation; but we are visiting the churches to help them speed up the process.  We will be meeting with all of the churches in our Annual Church Growth Conference at the end of April.  At this time we will be finalizing the documentation of the orphans and set up the visitation times to begin taking food to their homes.

The process of identifying the place where we will build has also not been as easy as we thought it would be, because the need for the orphanage is not as great in some of the areas as it is in others.  And those areas where it is greater, there are still some land issues to be clarified between the church and the mission before the project can begin.

There are two locations where the need for the orphanage is coming together with the other pieces of the puzzle.

     1.  Bible Baptist Church - Thidhia Village.  The Pastor had already started caring for some orphans, and there are a total of 13 orphans.  They had built a mud building with a grass roof to house them, but they have had to abandon it for a short time; because the rains were too heavy, and it was leaking badly.  There is also a lady who has been barren all her life, and she has been willing to help in this ministry as a caretaker of the children.  I am still waiting on a meeting withe the leaders of this church, to work out the details.  We will need to expand the building, renovate it, and put on a metal roof instead of the grass one.

     2.  Calvary Baptist Church - Sidundo Village.  Here there is a 5 acre, undeveloped piece of land that we have been given by the community for a project to be started.  This land was allocated to us before going on furlough last year, and we are waiting for the finalization of the paper work for the title deed.  We will begin shortly fencing this property and bringing in fill dirt to form a road and foundation where we will build the church first and then the orphanage.  This church is a 5 1/2 hour drive from our home in Kisii, and there are 22 orphans at this location.  We will be visiting there this week to finalize all of the documentation of the children, and to meet with the leaders of the church to set the ground work for this work to begin.

During the months of March and April we have been able to visit our churches in the Villages of Thidhia, Ibanchore, Sidundo, and Kisii.  As we visited each of these churches, we gave beans, white maize, and sugar to the church to divide between the orphans while we are still in the investigation stage of this ministry.  While at the churches, we took pictures of each of the children; so we could learn to know them, and so that you have a picture to go withe the name when you pray for this ministry.

We would have been able to visit more churches, but we have also been busy with a Spring Visitation Campaign in Kisii every weekend, Bible College Classes, two funerals in our church in Rongo, and dealing with land issues in Migori.  We have also been able to make contact with government offices here in Kisii, to try to get mosquito nets for all of the children, and also to try to buy the white maize and beans in bulk from the government at cheaper rates.

Please be in prayer for this ministry as we take one step at a time towards reaching each of these precious children with the truth of God's love for even them.

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