Bwanabob

9/22/99

Dear Friends and Loved Ones,

The past week has been very busy and a little tiring. I started last week with a trip to Nairobi to pick up a crate for a missionary and also get some visitors from the airport. Well, the crate didn’t come in and we spent almost three days waiting for it. I was able to spend the time looking for a motorcycle, and buy some sound equipment, so the trip wasn’t wasted. Then when I went to pick up the visitors from the airport some Kenyans had come to get them as well. Me being new, I let one of the pastors go with the Kenyans who said they knew where the pastor was supposed to stayed. I was even told that they would follow me to the house. Sure enough they didn’t follow me and ended up taking the pastor downtown to a not very nice place. When I arrived at our lodging the pastor wasn’t there and I spent about three hours driving around Nairobi from hotel to hotel looking for the poor man of God. Thankfully the pastor remembered the name of the place he was supposed to go and made the Kenyans take him there. Thank God all were safe!

After the first trip to Nairobi we loaded up and held a crusade at Simba Chai which is very close to the Uganda boarder. In all there were over 200 professions of faith in Christ! We had a great stay with the folks there and the pastor was really encouraged by our willingness to help him in starting the new church. We were able to help rent a store front for about nine dollars a month. Praise God we were the first ones to plant a church in that area! The sound equipment was a real blessing, at night you could hear us clearly about half a mile away and during the day we had enough sound to be heard clearly throughout the market area.

After the crusade was over I had to travel back to Nairobi to get the crate that I was supposed to get the week before. While there I was able to purchase a motorcycle that should be very useful in Turkana. I am leaving it at the dealer to have it licensed and registered in Kenya. Will have to go back next week to pick it up.

On Friday I leave for Turkana to visit one of the struggling churches. I hope to begin encouraging them to grow and evangelize, pray the Lord will give me wisdom in this area. After the church visit I’ll go on to Lodwar to try and rent a house.

Please pray for all of the traveling I have to do and praise the Lord for a great harvest in Simba Chai!

God bless all of you,

In Christ, Bob Clark

9/5/99

Dear Friends,

Things are going well here, I’ve just had a birthday but don’t really feel much older. Received some phone calls from home which was very nice. Friends here gave me some really nice gifts, a great book on Turkana and a Turkana blanket. I promise not to wear the blanket in traditional style.

This last week I spent a good bit of time shopping for a motorcycle and parts for the truck. I really miss O’reily Auto parts and The Big Nickel paper. Trying to find things here can be a real challenge. I may have to make a trip to Nairobi this next week to find what I need. Pray for me, going into Nairobi is about the only thing I dread doing as a missionary here. If I had my choice of eating a chicken head or going into Nairobi, I’d take the chicken head (pass the Tabasco please).

Visited a young church today, what a blessing it was. I don’t believe the church is over a couple of years old, but their attendance was about 80. I traveled to Kitale and picked up a pastor to show me the way. He invited me in for tea and asked, ” how many people can you fit into your truck.” Watch out if your ever presented with that question in Kenya. I think we ended up with 16. Everyone that I took to the church had a part in singing or preaching, it was a blessing to know that I could help. After the service we had Cokes, drank tea, ate, drank tea, ate, drank tea, ate. It’s tough being a missionary. Before I left they gave me two banana trees and four eggs, what a love offering! I thought I might get a chicken. When I was blessing the babies of the church (15), a woman was holding a chicken along with her baby. She didn’t give me the chicken and that was ok, but I’m not sure why she had it there.

We are looking for a new church facility, home and site for a Bible Institute in Lodwar town. I have some leads so keep praying about this. The missionaries I’m following started planting churches in Turkana in 1978, seems odd that I’ll be the first one of our group to live there. The Lord has already shown that our presence is encouraging the existing churches and I also see an open door to people who are completely without knowledge of the Gospel.

Thank you for your prayers and encouragement.

In Christ Bob Clark