Furlough 2010

We want to let all of our friends, family, supporters, and prayer partners know that we will be returning to the USA in May 2010 for our regularly scheduled furlough. Our furlough will be approximately 7 months long, since we will be returning to Kenya in January 2011. Please pray for our family during this time, as we will throughout the entire time we are in the USA.

If we have already scheduled a meeting in your church, then we will contact you shortly after arriving in the USA, in order to make any final arrangements. We are looking forward to seeing each and every one of you!

If we have NOT scheduled a meeting with you or your church yet; please feel free to contact us by e-mail: mail@shelbysinkenya.org . Once you request a meeting, we will be able to tell when we are scheduled to be in your general area. We will try our best to work you into our schedule; but please keep in mind that we are only in the USA for 7 months, and we may have to schedule a visit to your church during our next furlough.

Please feel free to keep up to date with our family and ministries by watching or following the following links:

    Website: http://www.shelbysinkenya.org/

    Blog page: http://shelbysinkenya.org/WordPress/

    Youtube page: http://www.youtube.com/TheShelbysinKenya

    Twitter: http://twitter.com/Shelbysinkenya

    Facebook: Tonya Kay Shelby

Thank you for your prayers for our family and ministries,

Luke & Tonya Shelby

Missionaries in Kenya

January – March 2010 Prayer Letter

Dear Supporters and Friends,

God has been very good to us, and He has opened many doors for our ministry this year. We thank you for your prayers and support for our family, which has made all of these ministries possible. We have been able to update our ministry website to help inform you of God's work in our area. Please take a look and pray for the people, churches, and other ministries that you see pictures of, and thank God for opening these doors. (www.shelbysinkenya.org). Some of these ministries we would like to share with you now.

God enabled us to have over 60 teenagers, from seven of our churches take part in Youth Camp in December. We taught on living a holy life and being separated from the things of the world. At the end of the week, more that 40 of them stood and signed a "Vow of Purity" to keep until they get married. This is a big step for most of them, because of the lack of parental guidance. Teen pregnancy leads to many abortions every year, and to many of the diseases that we face in Kenya.

God put us in contact with a Christian named, George, from Nairobi. He moved to his home area where there were not any Baptist Churches within a 2 hour drive from his house. We met him and others from his area, and they started a Preaching Point in February 2009. They rented a room, which had once been used as a movie house; and they were averaging between 50-60 by the end of the year. Many have been saved because of the result of George's faith to have a Baptist Church in his village. We visited with them and held a meeting in December to prepare the people to start the church. Then last week on March 7, 2010, Calvary Baptist Church of Sidundo Village, had its first service as a church with 162 in attendance. We also had the first baptism of 42 precious souls, who had been saved through the course of the year, and who have continued to be grounded in the teaching of the Word of God. Because of George's influence in the community, they have now given a 5-acre plot to the church to build their church building. Praise the Lord. This is the 13th church that God has given us the opportunity to be a part of starting. To God be the glory!

We have scheduled our furlough, to begin in May of this year, and we will return to Kenya in January 2011. We are only able to take a short furlough due to many of our ministries that need close attention at this time. We have been able to schedule meetings with many churches already, but there are a few remaining churches that we have not been able to get a hold of from here. We will be raising more work support to help us meet the demands of our ministries that God has opened to us. If your church does not already support us, and would like us to stop by or send our Ministry DVD, please contact us through our email, website, or facebook page (mentioned on the website).

Thank you for your prayers for our family and ministries.

Luke and Tonya Shelby

Missionaries in Kenya

 
 

Abigail’s Blog #2

Dear Friends and Family,

    The place where I live is very special to me. Kenya, East Africa--my home--is special to me because of its rolling hills, variety of birds, and bumpy dirt roads that lull me to sleep. Kenya is both green, lush jungle and dry savanna. Most of Kenya's wildlife is protected by Game Reserves, which also stretch into her southern neighbor, Tanzania. On Kenya's coast lies the Indian Ocean, this gives Mombasa a seaport with which to trade goods. All of these facts encourage me to stay in Kenya a long, long time.

                        Sincerely yours,

                        Abigail Shelby

September – November 2009 Prayer Letter

Dear Supporters and Friends,                                                                                Sept. – Nov. 2009

We want to wish you all a Merry Christmas in the coming weeks and a good time of fellowship with family and friends. We are all doing well here in Kenya with the family, work of the ministry, and Bible College. It has been very busy for the last few months since we wrote a letter, so I will try to cover all of the highlights.

Vehicle

We were able to purchase the vehicle, that we mentioned in the last letter; and the full $6,000 was raised in the few months that we had to contact our supporting churches by phone and e-mail. Thank you very much; it is much more comfortable for making long trips as a family, and for Tonya to use when I am out visiting the other churches and having meetings. May God bless you so much. We have been on a few trips with it and it is exactly what we needed. Kay-Leigh has not gotten car sick, and she has not even had to have her motion sickness medicine. Thank you very much!

Ministry Activities

We were able to start a Bible Study in the village of Gingo, with some who were saved in the Bible Baptist Church of Rapedhi. We have supplied them with lessons, tracts, and John and Romans; and we held a meeting there and 26 souls were saved (even though a drunk man came to disrupt the meeting). Finally, the drunk man was calmed down and he listened to the end of the service. We have plans for another meeting this month in the village of Sidundo, which is 3 hours away. These Bible Studies will be formed into churches in the next six months or so.

We have finished another year of South Nyanza Baptist College, and the student's reports of personal soul-winning in their villages reached 309 salvations so far this year. We have also finished Youth camp for the year, this past week, with 8 getting saved and over 40 youth taking a vow of purity and abstinence. Please continue to pray for our youth, because they are our next generation of Pastors and teachers.

Bible Baptist Church in Rongo is continuing to grow. And we are working with them to reorganize the church after a lot of the problems that nearly destroyed our work there. Pray also for Bible Baptist Church in Ibanchore Village as they are raising funds (locally) for building a temporary structure.

We are also gearing up to open the new year at the orphanage of Alaro Village with a total of 10 orphans, so we are asking God to provide for their food, shelter and schooling. The cost of feeding the orphans is $5 per month, per child. We only have room for 10 children right now. The children also need uniforms and books to be provided. The orphanage has a school attached to it with over 80 students, and we are trying to raise support for the school as well. If you are interested in helping, in some way, please let us know. Please look at our website (www.shelbysinkenya.org), for more information and pictures, as they are updated, about our ministries and family.

Thank you for your prayers for our family and ministries.

Luke and Tonya Shelby

Missionaries in Kenya

Breanne’s Blog #1

Dear Friends,

    Hi, my name is Breanne Shelby. I am 12, and my birthday is on August 20. My favorite color is purple. I like horses, and I like dogs too. I am in 6^th grade. And my favorite kind of food is Chinese food (I like Mexican food too). Harriet, Faith, and Rita (or Sandy) are my best friends. We like to play together. We play games like Simon Says, Green Light-Red Light, Police and Robbers (a game like Freeze Tag), and many other games too. We have many pets including: 12 chickens, 2 dogs, and 8 rabbits. I like Kenya because of the rolling hills and its beauty. I also like Kenya, because I do not have as much asthma trouble here as I have in the U.S. I also like to draw. Thank you for reading this! Good Bye!

M.K. in Kenya,

Breanne Shelby

Abigail’s Blog

Dear Friends,

    Hi, my name is Abigail Shelby, and I am a missionary kid in Kenya, east Africa. I turned thirteen years old on August 11. I absolutely love my home, because of its variety of nature and wildlife. It is, I think, the most wonderful place on earth, because of its beauty and jungle like appearance. I (as well as my mom) do not like snakes, but I do like other animals even "creepy crawlies." My brother and sisters and I have many pets. Two female dogs, Lady and Sassy; a male hamster, Tiny; three female rabbits: Cocoa, Mittens, and Mustache; five male rabbits: Explorer, Mark, Chocolate-Chip-Cookie, Oreo, and Little Midnight. We also have twelve chickens which we have not named, because the look alike.

I hope you have enjoyed reading,

                    ~Abigail Shelby~

Vehicle Needed!

Dear Praying Friends,

Since this is the best way of personal communication and since our phone lines are not always dependable calling the states, I am writing this message by email for urgency.

We are trying to buy a better vehicle. We have been using a 10 passenger van for the last 5 years as our family vehicle.  It has been through some engine changes and a front end wreck last year.  The engine is running fine, but it is really a rattle trap. We will continue to use it to go out and visit our churches and for all ministry work. 

It has been too big for Tonya to drive; and it is not comfortable for the kids either, because of the diesel fumes (Kay-Leigh has the biggest problems).  We did not realize the problem that it had until the kids wanted to take baby rabbits on a two-hour trip and they all died.

We have found another vehicle that has been well taken care of, and it has been used by another missionary who is retiring from the field after 20 years.  We have seen and driven the vehicle, and Tonya is very comfortable with it.  He is asking $6,000 for it by October (by the time that they are leaving).  It is a 7-seater Pajero, and it has only been owned by 3 foreigners (that means a lot).

I know that the economy is not having a very good time; It is the same way here, but possibly worse.  That is why we have tried to find a good deal before we mentioned it to churches and friends.  If we could have 12 churches, who could give $500 to this need, then it would be taken care of.

If you can help us with this need, please let us know by e-mail (click here to send us a message) so that we can confirm the sell or tell missionary that we cannot buy it. 

Please forgive us for the urgency of this letter, but we have a deadline of October 15; we can then give them a check before they leave Kenya.

Money can be sent to our home church, BBC Jacksonville or BIMI with a note for "vehicle."

May God bless you very much,

Luke and Tonya Shelby and Family

Missionaries in Kenya