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

All About Our Summer...

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Dear Supporters and Friends, June - July 2019

Thank your for your prayers for our family this summer. We were able to travel out west as a family and report to about 25 churches since May. Only a few of them were new churches, and we had 3 take us on for support in this short time. It was a blessing to see several of the churches who have supported us many of the twenty years that we have been in Kenya.

We thank the Lord for allowing us to see some of His wonderful creation as we traveled this summer, like the Grand Canyon, the Redwood Forest, Yosemite, Yellowstone, and both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. We covered over 15,000 miles from sea to shining sea this summer, and we thank each of you who prayed for our traveling safety during this time. Needless to say, everyone was ready for a break in our travels and for us to get stopped and settled in Arkansas in preparation for the school year to start.

Abigail and Breanne are getting all their supplies and classrooms ready for their second year teaching in the preschool at our home church in Jacksonville, AR. Pray for them and for the Lord to continue to lead them in the next steps of their lives in the coming years.

Caleb is enrolled at Bethel Baptist College, and he has a job lined up for him to start at the beginning of August. The Lord has blessed, and we were able to find him a car. He is excited, but a little apprehensive about life on his own. He will be moving into the dorms next week. Please pray for him and let him know you are praying for him. His college address is: Bethel Baptist College, 8809 Mills Valley Road, Jacksonville, Arkansas 72076.

All of the money for Kay-Leigh’s Mission Trip came in, and she will be in Costa Rica from July 23-30. Please pray for her and our teens as they serve during this Mission Trip. Caleb will be able to go on a Mission Trip in January, but the college is still fine tuning the details of that trip.

We will be helping in our home church’s Bible college, Bethel Baptist College, during a transition of new leadership. Tonya will be helping in the office and in the kitchen. I will be teaching a class and helping in different areas while we are still in the USA until January, at which time we will be returning to Kenya. We will be scheduling meetings at our supporting churches on the weekends between now and January. If you have any young people looking for a small college, please call our home church, Bible Baptist Church, at 501-982-8826 for more information. The Registration deadline for the Fall Semester is August 7th.

May the Lord bless, and thank you for your prayers for our family and ministries in Kenya.

For Souls in Kenya,

Luke and Tonya Shelby

April-May 2019 Prayer Letter

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Dear Supporters and Friends, April - May 2019
We want to thank all of you who faithfully pray for your missionaries, because we know that God is in control and is our Faithful Guide in all that we do for Him. The Lord has guided us in many ways, and we are thankful that we followed Him to Kenya more than 20 years ago. In April, we celebrated 20 years on the field, and it is amazing to see what the Lord has done through those years. Thank you for your prayers. (2 Thess. 5:25)
We have started our furlough, and we will be in the States until January 2020. It has been good to catch up in person with our family, especially with Breanne and Abigail who have finished college and are now teaching in our home church’s Christian Academy. God has been good to them and taken care of them. Thank you for praying for them.
We are also thankful that Tonya was able to get an oxygen machine before we left Kenya to come on furlough. She is using it to sleep at night to help with her COPD. It has really helped her to have more energy during the day. She has been able to have a few appointments already and many of her levels are improving. Thank you for your prayers for her.
Please Pray for the family of Pastor Denis Moranga, he died last week due to complications with his pancreas and small intestines. He was very faithful in Faith Baptist Church in the village of Gesabakwa, and he was planning to start a new church also. Please pray for his wife and three young boys. The funeral will be this week, and his fellow pastors will be in charge of all of the services. Please pray for people in his village to be saved.
God allowed us to start our 28th church on the opposite side of Kisii Town. Agape Baptist Church was started on February 17th after 6-9 months of Soul-winning and preaching in the area. Over 100 people have come to know Christ in the process of starting the church. Please pray for Pastor Andrew Maiko and his family. He is continuing to see people saved and has already had his first baptism. More than 32 people have been saved in our ministries in the last month.
Please pray for Caleb, he will be graduating from high school this week, and he will be starting Bible College in the fall. Kay-Leigh will be able to go on her first mission’s trip to Costa Rica at the end of July, and she is so excited about this opportunity. She needs to raise $1,000 to go on the trip. We have some set aside for her trip, but she still needs to raise around $500 for this trip. If you would like to help, it would be a great blessing to her.
God bless you for reading this letter, and praying for our family and ministry. (2 Thess. 3:1)
For souls in Kenya,
Luke and Tonya Shelby
Your Missionaries in Kenya

December 2018-January 2019 Prayer Letter

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Dear Supporters and Prayer Partners, December 2018 - January 2019

We pray that your New Year is off to a great start! We want to let you know that will be going on furlough from April 2019 to January 2020. We will only be scheduling meetings with those that have requested a meeting along with a few churches nearby them, which we have not had an opportunity to visit during our past furloughs. If you still have not contacted us, please do (mail@shelbysinkenya.org). We will be traveling west with the whole family for the month of June visiting churches along the way. Caleb will attend Camp BIMI this summer, and he and Kay-Leigh plan to go on a missions trip to Costa Rica in July. Then they will settle into school in August for the fall semester.

The main purpose of this furlough is for our son Caleb to graduate from high school and to get settled in Bible College. We will also have more testing for Tonya concerning the difficulties associated with her COPD diagnosis and the irregular heartbeat that have developed into serious conditions this term. We have already ordered an oxygen machine for her, and we are still waiting for it to arrive in Kenya. We thank you very much to those who have prayed for her and for those who have helped us raise the $3,000 needed by word of mouth to buy the portable oxygen concentrator. Over $5,000 has come in for this need, and the excess will pay off her medical bills which have accumulated over the past few months. Thank you so much, and God bless you.

South Nyanza Baptist College has begun for the new year with five new students. Four Students graduated from our 3 year Diploma course, and seven pastors graduated from our 5 year Degree Program course. We are continually blessed with the men that God has given us in the ministry here, and they are doing a great job in each of their churches.

One of these men, Andrew, my assistant pastor at Calvary Baptist Church in Kisii Town, will be starting a New church on the opposite side of Kisii Town. We have had several saved there over the last 6-9 months of soul-winning and Bible Studies in homes of those who have gotten saved. We just had an evangelistic meeting for three days at this location, and 48 souls came to know Christ as their personal Savior. We will be having a sending service for him and his family on February 10th, and Agape Baptist Church will have its first service on February 17th. Our church is excited about this step of sending one of our own out to plant a church. Please pray for him and his family.

Please continue to be in prayer for Miss Erica Bohman who praying about coming to work with us next year, and the Rose family who will be coming to work with us for a short time before starting a ministry a couple hours away. We are excited about the laborers that the Lord is sending our direction to help reach Kenya for Christ. If your church is looking to take on new missionaries for support this year, we highly recommend this young lady and family. Feel free to contact us if you would like to get in contact with them.

For Souls in Kenya,

Luke & Tonya Shelby

News from the Shelby's in Kenya! June-September 2018

Dear Friends and Prayer Supporters,                                                                                                             June - September 2018

We thank you for your prayers and support for our family.  Abigail and Breanne are now teaching full time at Jacksonville Christian Academy and attending our home church in Arkansas, after finishing Bible College.  Pray for them and the next steps in their lives to be clear as both of them want to serve the Lord on the mission field.

Tonya’s Health

We have found out that Tonya’s lupus diagnosis a year ago was possibly a false positive.  She has continued with pain and has struggled with respiratory issues for the past year, and while she saw her US doctors in May they recommended that she be seen by a lung specialist as soon as possible.  We were able to get her to a doctor in Nairobi in June; then a follow-up visit in July, where they admitted her into the hospital for extensive testing for 5 days.  They have determined that she has stage 2 COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) and severe tachycardia.  With medication and monthly check ups, she has improved a lot.  But it has been recommended that she fly to the USA for her regular medical treatment at the end of October; where she will also be seen by a lung specialist there for further testing that is not available here in Kenya at this time.  Thank you for your continued prayers.

Furlough

We are planning a short furlough for Spring 2019, since Caleb will be graduating from high school in Arkansas at Jacksonville Christian Academy in May and then starting Bible college in August.  We will only be in the USA for about six months.  Please contact us by email (mail@shelbysinkenya.org) to let us know if YES you do request a meeting, or NO you do not require a meeting.  If NO, then we will be sure to send you and your church a Ministry DVD Presentation (to show at your convenience) and Prayer Cards (to pass out as you desire) as soon as we have them ready once we return to the USA.

New Church in “God Jaoko"

Pastor Paul Omino, over 70 years old,  has pastored a couple of churches over the last 30 years, after being saved out of one of the worst African traditional religions in East Africa, “LEGIO MARIA.”  He was a priest in that religion where their leader was known as the “Christ” of Africa.  In August, he started a new Independant Baptist church on the top of a hill called “God Jaoko.”  As I preached to over 60 people from the community on the opening day, I was amazed that Pastor Paul was willing to be used of God at his age, to continue to reach the people from these traditional religions, and to turn them to the TRUTH of the GOSPEL.  There were 25 saved that week in services and during soulwinning!

Pastors Fellowship

Several churches in our region have begun a fellowship in order to assist each other, plan for the opening of new churches, and have evangelistic meetings and revivals in the different towns and villages.  The Pastors raise the money that they would use for food and transport to go to these meetings, and it has helped in seeing TWO churches start this year already!  In Masimba, we held evangelistic meetings at the market with Neema (Grace) Bible Baptist Church and had over 60 saved during soulwinning and in the services!

BIMI CLAIM TEAM

We have a group of 7 coming this month to help in a couple building projects in Kisii and Rongo.  Rongo was the first church that we started, in 2001, and it has seen a lot of ups and downs.  Pastor George Okoth moved there in 2013 and has done a good job with the church and it is growing.  We had planned on building this church last year, but the election violence in that area was very bad.  We are glad that things have calmed down, and it has allowed us to continue on with the project.  The group will be here for two weeks, and we will try to get as much done as we can.  Please pray for their trip and these projects.

For Souls in Kenya,

Luke & Tonya Shelby

We are looking for volunteers! Are YOU interested?

We are excited about having a group coming to work with us in building a church building for Bible Baptist Church in Rongo, and we were looking for volunteers to help!  Are YOU interested in using your skills or tools to serve the Lord?

This trip is being organized by a BIMI CLAIM Team headed up by Bro. Philip Smith, who has also helped us with other projects in the past.  The dates for their next trip to Kenya are October 10-24. 

The frame for the building and the roof is already in place, and we will be building the walls, pouring the floor, building the baptistry, and other things to get it ready to have the first service in the building while the Team is still here.

Other opportunities will be soul-winning, preaching, teaching in schools, visiting in homes, and other ministries.

Depending on the number of volunteers, we may also be able to build an extension onto the back of Calvary Baptist Church in Kisii town, and we will also attend there for one of the Sunday services.

Please let us know this week if you would be interested, and please contact Bro. Philip Smith (email: claim4god@gmail.com / phone 289-928-9327) BEFORE September 18th.  The cost for the trip will be approximately $1,900, but it could be cheaper based on ticket prices.

The deadline for September 18th to purchase the tickets for the trip, so that everyone can get connected to arrive at the same time.  We live 6 hours drive from Nairobi airport, and there is a need to know a number of people coming for us to book rooms and organize transportation also.

If you are not able to come, please pray for safety on the trip and that God will bless all of the arrangements and accomplishments for His honor and glory.

Serving Him in Kenya,

Luke & Tonya Shelby

We are looking for volunteers! Are YOU interested?

We are excited about having a group coming to work with us in building a church building for Bible Baptist Church in Rongo, and we were looking for volunteers to help!  Are YOU interested in using your skills or tools to serve the Lord? This trip is being organized by a BIMI CLAIM Team headed up by Bro. Philip Smith, who has also helped us with other projects in the past.  The dates for their next trip to Kenya are October 10-24.    The frame for the building and the roof is already in place, and we will be building the walls, pouring the floor, building the baptistry, and other things to get it ready to have the first service in the building while the Team is still here. Other opportunities will be soul-winning, preaching, teaching in schools, visiting in homes, and other ministries.   Depending on the number of volunteers, we may also be able to build an extension onto the back of Calvary Baptist Church in Kisii town, and we will also attend there for one of the Sunday services. Please let us know this week if you would be interested, and please contact Bro. Philip Smith (email: claim4god@gmail.com / phone 289-928-9327) BEFORE September 18th.  The cost for the trip will be approximately $1,900, but it could be cheaper based on ticket prices.   The deadline for September 18th to purchase the tickets for the trip, so that everyone can get connected to arrive at the same time.  We live 6 hours drive from Nairobi airport, and there is a need to know a number of people coming for us to book rooms and organize transportation also. If you are not able to come, please pray for safety on the trip and that God will bless all of the arrangements and accomplishments for His honor and glory.
Serving Him in Kenya,

Luke & Tonya Shelby