Bwanabob

1/28/2008
Dear Friends,

Thank you all for praying for us. The Lord has kept us safe and we are glad to say that we have been able to continue on with His work. The Country of Kenya is still experiencing tribal violence and some are worried that the government has lost the ability to maintain control. As for our area, Turkana District, there has been only a couple of incidences of tribal related violence but it has put us on edge. From listening to American news on satellite radio it seems that only the worst violence here in Kenya gets reported back to the States. We would just like to reassure everyone that our area is calm, but that we are carefully watching what is going on in the rest of the country.

We are thankful to report that Bible Institute for January was successfully planned, executed, budgeted and paid for by the local Turkana churches and pastors. The week began with a few worries on the side of the pastors who are leading the Bible Institute, they asked to meet with me to make sure I would be willing to help them if they ran into difficulties. I agreed to help if there were problems, but made it clear that if I helped it would be to identify where the problem came from and how to avoid it in the future. With that bit of encouragement the pastors forged ahead. The only minor problem that arose was that they were short on some lesson handouts for a few classes. Our solution is that we are already working to train two of the pastors to use computers and open the lesson files so they can print off what they need month to month. Most of the week I was afraid that there would be a problem with the budget, I was praying day to day that the Lord would give them courage and wisdom to give what was needed and use it in a good way. On Friday it was such a blessing to see all classes completed, things put away and school dismissed without any problem with the budget or requests for additional funding from me. The pastors and students even sat down to discuss how everything went including the budgeting, they concluded that from now on they would hold classes every other month to give them an opportunity to save up what was needed to pay for transportation and the opperating budget. Later the pastors and I visited a little and I could see the joy and pride in them that they had done everything without my help, they confided that the worst part of the week was the fear of beginning on their own without me right in there with them. I tried to encourage them with the example of Abraham that the Lord called him to a place he didn’t know on a road he had never passed before and that each of us are called spiritually to make that journey trusting only in the Lord Jesus. We all like being surronded by things familiar and having our budgets met before we set out, but the Lord sees best to take us near him and stretch our faith by saying, “The Lord will provide” and “without faith it is impossible to please Him.” Pray that the local churches and pastors will continue on and this years classes can be completed to become a pattern for the future.

On Saturday, after seeing how well everything finished with the Bible Institute classes I asked all of the students to help pour cement for the floor in the new classroom. I agreed to pay them a fair days wages in return their labor, that way I wouldn’t have to go find workers in town and we would know that the money they earned would be helping those who had already sacrificed what they had. The work was completed quickly and the students were proud to see their new classroom finally getting finished. We are trying to encourage the Pastors and students in new areas now that they have taken over the Bible Institute opperation. We hope to finish up construction at the Bible Institute compound and also plan more leadership training for church leaders who haven’t had the opportunity to come to the Bible Institute. Pray that by April or May we will be able to conduct the first seminar here in Lodwar this year.

Please pray for us that as Kenya goes through these convultions of violence we would set our hands to the work of the Lord that would bear fruit that will remain. Pray the Lord will give us wisdom, discernment and courage to make decisions day to day and if He leads us out of Kenya we not be too stubborn or prideful to leave behind what we think is “our” work.

God bless you and thank you so much for your prayers.

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

1/15/2008

Dear Friends,

We made it back to Lodwar safely and had no problems on the journey.  We were shocked to see all the burned  houses and stores as we left Eldoret, but once we were a few miles away there was only an occasional burnt building.

Lodwar is relatively normal right now, the locals who I’ve talked to think that because the district is divided between government and opposition supporters there shouldn’t be any trouble.  Before the elections there were very few Kikuyus here, but now it seems they are coming in mass because of the relative calm in Turkana District.  We heard yesterday that 20 mini-vans full of Kikuyus came into Lodwar.  We hope this will be beneficial for Turkana as most Kikuyus are educated, industrious and business minded.

The day after we got into Lodwar we received news that Pastor Areng’s wife had not given birth yet.  They thought the baby was supposed to be due well before Christmas.  So this past Sunday we asked one of our friends who has more health care experience than we do to go with us to Lorogumu to check on the Pastors wife.  We are thankful to report that by the time we arrived there she had already given birth to a healthy baby girl!  We were so happy to see them well and not have to work with an emergency situation.

The boys are back in school, Vance is home-schooling and seems to enjoy it. Ericka has plenty of material to work with and we are thankfu for those who have helped us get the school supplies and curriculum.

We have a lot to do now, next week we plan to start the Bible Institute.  It will be the first month that the pastors will be running everything.  We have heard already that one of our students from last year will not be returning because he felt it was too much of a burden on him to continue. Please pray that everyone involved will be willing to give what is needed to keep things going.  This will be difficult for me as well because everyone knows I have the resources to pay for all the needs at the Bible Institute, but that it is our goal for the Turkanans to learn that with the Lord all things are possible.

With all the turmoil that has taken place these last three weeks I am even more committed to making sure I do all I can to help the Turkana churches and pastors be prepared to continue ministry and training without us.  With as fragile as the government and nation are right now it wouldn’t take much more to send us back to the States.  I would really hate to leave things here in a state where the churches would not be willing or prepared to continue to teach faithful men.

When we left Eldoret we made plans with fellow missionaries to continue to help the displaced Kikuyu pastors and their families.  Some needed food, some blankets, others were able to save everything from their houses but didn’t feel safe living where they were and wanted to move to more secure areas.  The money that we received is going to help with all of these needs, but especially to those who have lost everything and are starting over from scratch.  God bless you for your generosity, I can assure you that the money you sent is going to those who need the help.

Thank you for praying for us and please continue to pray for Kenya.  Things may be looking up, yesterday parliment was able to get on with business without any bloodshed or rioting among the parlimentarians.  We truly believe that it is only by the Grace of God and peaceful prayers of Christians in Kenya and around the world that things haven’t fallen into complete chaos across the country.  Thank you for your prayers!

God bless you,

Bob, Ericka, Vance, Edward and Riley.

1/9/2008

Dear Friends,

We are still doing fine in Eldoret, town is calm but we hear that there are still problems in the outlying villages where there are no police.  Many people are moving back to their “tribal homelands” which gives them safety but the only answer to curing the root of the problem is the Lord Jesus and learning to walk in His way.

So far the money that has come in has gone to buy food, about 1000 pounds, blankets and cooking pots.  The real need now is to try and move families to afe areas where they can start a normal life again.  Today I met a pastor who has been sleeping in a church compound along with many others from the Kikuyu tribe, since Dec 28.  Many there including the Pastor have lost family members to the violence, their church buildings and houses were burned and livestock killed or stolen.  The things that were done to their community were horrible and very similar to what took place in Rawanda. Thankfully, the violence and killing have been isolated to the Eldoret-Kisumu areas, granted there have been problems in other parts of Kenya but not as bad as here.  We hear of many places in Kenya where there were no problems at all and those folks are shocked to hear about what has happened here around Eldoret.

For those of you who have sent money to help please receive our thanks.  I wish you could hear all of the times I have been truly thanked by pastors and their family members.  Because Eldoret has several functioning ATM’s I was able to get some supplies right away to start helping folks as soon as I heard that checks were in the mail to me.  Now we will be working with a very close missionary friend here in Eldoret to get assistance to those who he knows have lost their homes and need assistance to start over.

We feel things are safe enough now for us to travel back to Lodwar and begin a new year in the Bible Institute and the ministry the Lord has put before us.  Please pray for us as we travel, I will be calling ahead to make sure there have been no problems on the road and plan to convoy with busses that drive to Lodwar every day.

God bless you all for your prayers and assistance to Kenyans who have suffered.  I will do my best to keep you posted on how things go with moving Kikuyu pastors and their families safe areas and helping them get started again.

In Christ, Bob Clark

Dear Friends,

We are still doing fine although things are still not settled in Kenya.

The house we live in in Eldoret is owned by a elder man from the local tribe and we have a security company next door to us, so we feel safe here in Eldoret.

Every day we see people moving with everything they can carry. The Kikuyu are trying to move to Kikuyu tribal areas and the Luyuo are doing the same. Many people are still scared and are in hiding, sleeping at the police station or in churches.

One person has already offered to help buy food for folks who are suffering. I talked with another missionary this morning about us trying to get supplies for those who have been burned out of their homes and lost everything. We already know there have to be many, but until things calm down there will be no way of knowing how many will need help. The other missionary and I agreed that it would be good to try and start buying blankets, cooking pots and some basic food stuffs. Then once we start finding out who needs the stuff we can have it ready to give out.

Today I’ll start trying to see what I can buy in town. I already have a really good supply of tracts, the Gospel of Romans and about 100 Bibles in English. I plan to work with the local churches and Pastors around Eldoret who are part of our mission, that way we can be sure who really needs food or a few supplies to set up house again.

If anyone would like to help with this, just send funds to my sending church in Aurora and please designate it in some way as help for Kenyans.

My supporting church’s address is:
Fellowship Baptist Church
17818 Lawrence 2200
Aurora MO 65605

If you do send something, try to send me an e-mail and that way I can know what I have to work with, or send me a text message on my cell phone 254 735 737175. I can usually text the US witout any problem I just have to put a plus before entering the number, I’m not sure what you do to send a text outof the US, but remember that the 254 of my number is the country code.

Pray that we will have wisdom to know when to leave if things get worse, but our heart is to serve the Lord where we are and show his love.

Just this morning I waved to a lady as she walked by where I was parked with the Rover, she started laughing and said, “Look! this morning I’ve alreadybeen greeted with a little bit of goodness, things will be good today!” As we move around you can see the tension and fear on peoples faces, so I knowthat we certainly have an opportunity to share the Peace that passes understanding.

God bless you all thank you for praying for us.

In Christ, Bob Clark

Dear Friends,

We are fine this morning, we didn’t hear any gunshots last night. Our house in Eldoret isn’t too far from the center of town and it seems that this is where the police are concentrating their efforts to keep up security.

The church that was burned was in an outer part of town. We heard about it yesterday and hoped it wasn’t true, but now it seems that it really did happen and many were killed.

We are shocked that after there being so many churches and people professing to be Christians around Eldoret that this could happen. But this was clearly a result of tribalism and for us westerners to understand is just out of our comprehension. The thing I keep remembering is that even in Germany just 60 odd years ago our ancestors were guilty of far worse. We are thankful that we can move between the tribes here without being threatened.

We are staying at home most of the time, but this is where the Lord has us and we will serve Him here even though we would rather not be here right now.

Yesterday we were able to go into town and get some groceries and fuel, but it was like a ghost town. So we are doing fine on food and supplies.

Bob and Ericka Clark

PS The boys are doing great.