Bwanabob

10/16/2007
Dear Friends,

Last week we had a lengthy visit with our pastors who are involved in the Bible Institute.  I laid out as clearly and politely as I could that I didn’t see a future for the Bible Institute as it currently opperates, with me funding and administering most aspects.  As lovingly as I could I explained that I would no longer be willing to put my effort into minitstry here in Kenya that I knew would not continue without my presence.  I strongly believe that if we were to leave Turkana anytime soon all of the churches would stand and grow, but the Bible Institute would not.  I then explained to the pastors that if they wanted to have a Bible Institue here in Turkana they would need to administer and fund the opperation and even make changes to overcome challanges that they know they will face.

Thankfully they agreed that they do need to take the Bible Institute as a ministry of their churches and that they would be willing to start funding and opperating the Bible Institute starting in January 2008.  This was a huge step for the churches and pastors sending their students to the Bible Insti ute here in Turkana and I believe it is the right one.  We all agreed that if we didn’t continue to make disciples and have a well defined program for encouraging and training pastors we would not be fulfilling the great commission.  We praise God for the pastors vision and willingness to take what has always been part of my ministry.  Pray for the Pastors who have a heart to train their own young men and women to spread the Gospel here in Turkana.  Pray that they will have wisdom as they make changes at the Bible Institute to fit the budget they raise.  Pray they will have unity in the leadership of the new program and show servant hood to one another.

Another blessing is that Pastor Sammy Lokwang’s ministry to the village of Kerio is continuing to go well.  He is leavng today along with Pastor Paul Aremon to make another visit to the village for evangelism and teaching. They are both riding their bicycles from Lodwar to Kerio and back, something like 60 miles round trip.  Please pray for their strength physically and spiritually.  Please also pray for Namwaur, the very powerful witch doctor in Kerio, so far he has not caused problems for Pastor Sammy, but we all know that he is very influential in the community and also in great need of Salvation.

I have received word that a shipment of Gospel tracts and the book of Romans have arrived safely in Eldoret and has been stored in the garage of a missionary friend.  I believe there are about 250,000 tracts and something like 30,000 copies of the book of Romans!  These should be a huge blessing to our ministry and the ministry of missionary friends around Western Kenya.  I would like to thank all of the churches, missionaries and friends in the US and Kenya who helped get this shipment together and sent all the way to Eldoret.  I couldn’t have done it on my own.

Our family is doing well, we are all healthy and thankful to God for that. The other day the boys couldn’t find their shoes before leaving for church, we told them that was too bad, they would have to go to church without them.   This is just one of the little blessings we enjoy living at the end of the world.

God bless you all and thank you for praying for us,

In Christ, Bob, Ericka, Vance, Edward and Riley