The Shelby Family in Kenya

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

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

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

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

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~

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

Dear Supporters and Friends,                                                                                July/August 2009

Thank you for your prayers, cards, and notes to our family over the last two months. We celebrated our 14th Anniversary; and our two oldest daughters, Abigail and Breanne, had birthdays. Abigail is now a teenager, and she is turning into a young lady. Breanne is now 12, and we thank God for both them. They are teaching from time to time in the children’s church and Vacation Bible Schools. It is hard to believe that this year is our 10th year living in Kenya, and that the girls were only one and two years old when we arrived in Kenya.

July

We have had a busy summer break visiting with a few churches as a family, because during the school year it is difficult in the middle of the week for Tonya and the kids to see the different ministries going on. We also shared some of the time with Shauna Brockman, who is a teacher in Knoxville, TN. We did a VBS at the orphanage project in Alaro village with 100 and 160 in attendance for the two days respectively. There were over 50 who got saved, and 8 of them were parents who brought their children. We are still praying that God would open the doors to be able to start a church in this village.

We also had the opportunity to go to one of the Deaf schools in our area, and Shauna was able to teach about salvation. She taught around 200 children, and I know she was a blessing to each person she met. We also spent one afternoon at the ladies’ prison, she gave her testimony, I preached, and 23 got saved. There are now about 30 in the ladies’ prison doing Bible Study courses. In the men’s prison there were 64 saved, and several were added to the Bible Study program. Please pray for these ministries as they continue.

August

We held our 2nd Annual Ladies camp for all of our churches. It is held each year at Calvary Baptist Church in Kisii, and this is Tonya’s special outreach to all the ladies. We had 22 ladies from 4 different churches this year, and everyone is already looking forward to next year’s camp. Please continue to pray for Tonya and her various Ladies’ ministries. Pray that God will give her the wisdom needed to teach the pastor’s wives and other ladies in our churches, so that we will be able to see a generation of strong Godly women in Kenya.

Other Prayer Requests and Needs

Vehicle—$6,000 (We have been praying for over a year, for a dependable family vehicle.) Now we have found a vehicle that is available from a missionary who is leaving the field in October. He is selling his 4-wheel drive Pajero for $6,000. It has been very well taken care of, and this is a very good offer. If you can assist us in meeting this need, please note it on your check for “Vehicle” and it will be a great blessing to our family. Thank you very much for your offering.

Photocopier—$1,200

For souls in Kisii,

Luke and Tonya Shelby

Missionaries in Kenya

This is the second of the two funerals that we had, that were so close to our ministries. We had a major role to play for Calvary Baptist Church in Kisii. Tito was the man instrumental in running things on the ground for the opening of a school, which has an outreach for orphans. Tito had this vision early last year, and he came to us. After talking to him and showing him the clear plan of salvation, he was saved in August 2008, and he was baptized in September 2008.

After knowing Tito only a short time, it was evident that he had a great vision for helping the people in his village to climb out of the grips of poverty. He noticed that the children are the ones who suffer the most. He explained to me that it was the traditions of darkness of people that is one culprit of sending the next generation into further grips of poverty; and that the only way to break the cycle is to teach the young people the Word of God and the traditions of Christians in the past to break the chains of darkness for the future.

Tito had the heart for the ministry of a school/orphanage in his area, because the average life span is only 35! And it is continuing to get younger every year, because of Aids, other diseases, and simply because of the lack of general education. Tito was able to get his brother on board to assist in different ways: getting funds sent from another missionary in Germany, building school rooms, feeding the children from time to time, and donating two acres of land for the project (which includes a portion for starting a church). Through the small amount of time that we knew Tito, there was a very big seed of ministry sown that will need to be nurtured for many years to come. But what a glorious harvest it will produce!

We have had a few saved in Tito’s village, after many Bible studies, to teach them the Word of God and to show them the Bible way of salvation. But only about 5 got saved in the year that we were working with Tito while developing the school. The family is deeply set in the roots of a traditional African religion which is called the “Spirit of Israel.” They believe that they are the lost tribe of Israel, and that they are wondering around in the wilderness even today waiting for the opportunity to go the Promise land. But even with these deep roots of traditionalism, we were received by Tito’s mother in a special way (she even treated me as a son). Tito’s father was one of the elders of the village, and he was known and respected as a man of wisdom in many of the surrounding villages. Since Tito’s father died, the same respect has been given to his wife; because she is the holder of his estate. I did not realize how much the people in the area respected her until a few days before the funeral. When the Elders of the village and the church came to her to ask her permission to carry out the traditions and the prayers for the funeral, she sat them down and told them, “Tito has a Pastor, and he has the Word of God, and he will do everything.” So because of Tito’s mother, God opened the door, and the Word of God was not restricted, but it was magnified!

There are several other things in dealing with the funeral service that made it last all day long; mainly, everyone who knew him asked for an opportunity to speak, sing, or just make themselves known. We also had a few politicians who had to try to drum up a few votes of confidence from the people; but in its entirety, there was freedom from any kind of traditional wailing for the dead, or appeasing the dead as is the case sometimes.

There were around 1500 people in attendance. Our church choir came from Kisii to sing a special; and then I was able to preach on the Kingdom of this World, the Kingdom of Heaven (from John chapter 3), and about being born again to see the Kingdom of Heaven. At the invitation it was estimated that about 100 raised their hands and prayed with me in their seats to be saved. Praise the Lord! We finished the service and buried Tito’s body. Afterward, there were so many comments on the simplicity of the way that we did the service. Many were pleased that we did not have any peculiar traditions of our own, and they truly noticed that God had sent us to do that work.

Since the funeral, we had another meeting for the children of the village. We held a VBS for them, and we thank the Lord that Miss Shauna Brockman (a young lady who came to help us during the month of July)was able to go and teach them. We had students from other schools as well as several parents who attended. It was held on Monday and Tuesday of the week following the funeral. There were 100 kids and adults on Monday and 160 on Tuesday. We had an invitation for the older youth and 45 of the young people got saved and 7 of their parents got saved too. This is the fruit that Tito had a vision to see. We will continue to send updates on the Alaro school project. Please continue to pray for it.

Thank you for your prayers for this family and village,

Luke Shelby

Bro. Tom Maronga’s Funeral Service

Thank you for praying for Bro. Tom’s family. Rose and her children are doing well. And we are sorry for the delay in getting this update to you. The funeral was on June 30, 2009; and there were approximately 600 people in attendance. There was a bit of excited emotions among the family members concerning different traditions; but the Lord enabled us (as the church where Tom was a member and other Christians who had fellowshipped with Tom in Bible College to advise in the situation) and we were given the final word that helped to solve the problem that arose. Praise to the Lord who always gives us the victory.

Tom was a member of two different Independent Baptist Churches in the five years that we knew him. He was baptized by Ben dyer prior to starting the Bible Baptist Church of Bomwanda. He was a faithful member and served as the treasurer. He was an insurance salesman for 15 years, and he used some of the teachings that he received in Bible study and from Bible College to relate to the field of insurance when teaching new recruits about character and about selling the product in concordance with soul winning. He was able to apply many Bible truths to the youth of Kenya in different associations of Athletics as well as being the youth leader of Calvary Baptist Church during the last 6 months he was alive.

He was a great asset to the church at Calvary Baptist Church in which he was a member for only a year. He was involved with teaching youth and adults, and he was much respected among the members. After another year, and with some milestones reached in his life, I had considered him to be the future national pastor of the church, during the time of us going on furlough in 2010. He graduated from our Bible College in November 2008, which is a three year program that deals with Basic Bible knowledge and learning how to preach. And he had started the Pastoral classes that follow the three year program.

Also during the court case that we experienced over the last two years with the church in Rongo, Tom helped me with details and procedures because he had taken two years of Kenyan Law. The other pastor and those that were advising him made Tom their enemy because of his stand on the truth of the Word of God. But that did not bother Tom; his only desire was to help the work of the Lord to continue in Rongo.

Tom was the kind of guy who, if he had a spare minute, he would come by the house or call me to meet him somewhere just to talk and fellowship with me and our family. Many did not believe that he was dead because of his personality, his friendship, and his testimony for the Lord. We will certainly miss him here, and we thank the Lord for allowing us to have the opportunity to know and work with Tom. And we know that we will see him again someday in heaven! Praise the Lord!

Please keep the Maronga Family in your prayers.

The Word of God was Preached, and Gospel was clearly given.             Mrs. Rose Maronga                 Lowering of the Casket

FAMILY FUN DAY! What can be better than having fun? We try to reserve Friday afternoon and evening for family time. As many of you (those in fulltime ministry) know, you do not work a 9 to 5 job; you are on call 24/7. So, we “TRY” to keep Fridays for family day whenever possible; and we encourage every family to give it a try! It does not have to cost anything! But your children will thank you for giving them your full attention! Sometimes we just do popcorn and movie night, sometimes game day (water games outside & table games in the evening), and sometimes we just have a picnic (even if it is just in our own backyard!). So, on this particular day we explored the top of Manga mountain (it is located just 30 minutes outside of Kisii Town) together!

As you can see in the pictures, we felt like we were on the edge of the world! And we had a great time playing Frisbee and trying to keep the Frisbees on top of the mountain with us!

    Luke and the children.                 Miss Shauna Brockman.                    Frisbee Time.                         Exploring nature.

We hope that everyone has a wonderful day with YOUR OWN family!

Serving Him in Kenya,

The Shelby Family