The Shelby Family in Kenya

Hello to all of our family, friends, and supporters! We wanted to write everyone one more time before we leave Kenya and begin our furlough in the USA.

We are all doing very well. We made it safely to Nairobi, and we have been taking care of our last doctor and dentist appointments before heading out. We will be flying out tomorrow (Wednesday) night at around 11:30 PM (East African Time), and if all goes as scheduled; we will arrive in Little Rock, Arkansas around 7 PM (Central Standard Time) on May 6^th. We are getting excited about arriving in the USA! Kay-Leigh (our 5 year old) keeps asking, “How many more minutes?”

After a week of continual farewells with our Kenyan churches and friends, we are ready to take off for America. Please pray for our children, as they are finding it very difficult to leave home (Kenya) and all of their friends. We have dried more tears this week than in their whole lives, I think! They really are looking forward to seeing family and friends in the USA too, but the United States is not home for us; so please pray that our children will adjust to American life smoothly and enjoy their short time there. We truly praise the Lord for our children and their hearts for Kenya. We are very proud of them, and we are thankful for their desire to serve the Lord while they are young.

As all missionaries can tell you, the life of a missionary is often filled with good byes. And those good byes are probably one of the most difficult things we encounter. But our lives are also filled with many joyful reunions!! And we are looking forward to seeing so many of our family and friends soon! We will be traveling together as a family most of our furlough time. So, we will see many of you over the next 6 months.

Please keep the Shelby Family in your prayers as we begin our long safari to and through the USA.

Serving Him in Kenya,

Luke, Tonya, Abigail, Breanne, Caleb, and Kay-Leigh Shelby

(The wall around our house and our gate!)

Tuesday morning, shortly after 8 AM, we heard a mob of people shouting and making lots of noise. When we looked outside, we were VERY surprised to see riot police just a few feet from our gate! The Piki Piki (motorcycle) Taxi Association (one of the main modes of public transportation in our town) was protesting the fact that the police have cracked down on them and have started arresting them. The police have good reason, since the majority of the drivers have never even applied for a driver’s license and their motorcycles are not usually licensed or insured either! Anyway, a lot of the drivers got together and put their motorcycles across the roads all over town so that NO traffic could go through. Our house is on the main bypass into town; so where do they decide to put their largest barricade? Right outside our gate!! All of the noise that we heard was actually all of the drivers trying to get away before the police stopped their vehicle and got out. The people you can see in the background had all picked up stones and long sticks, preparing themselves for battle. The police arrested every single person who was holding anything in their hands. There was not enough room in their vehicle, so they had them marching down the road with armed policemen. The whole episode only lasted about 45 minutes, but it was a very tense time for all of us. Our children had been riding their bikes in our driveway (where the gate is!), when we first heard anything. We got everyone inside and locked the doors! I took the pictures from our bedroom window. We praise the Lord for His MIGHTY hand of protection for our family! It during times like these, that we truly know that we have God’s faithful people praying for us. Thank you for YOUR prayers! When God lays someone on your heart, please do not hesitate to pray for them; this experience is just one example of how God answers all of our prayers and yours too!

We want to let all of our friends, family, supporters, and prayer partners know that we will be returning to the USA in May 2010 for our regularly scheduled furlough. Our furlough will be approximately 7 months long, since we will be returning to Kenya in January 2011. Please pray for our family during this time, as we will throughout the entire time we are in the USA.

If we have already scheduled a meeting in your church, then we will contact you shortly after arriving in the USA, in order to make any final arrangements. We are looking forward to seeing each and every one of you!

If we have NOT scheduled a meeting with you or your church yet; please feel free to contact us by e-mail: mail@shelbysinkenya.org . Once you request a meeting, we will be able to tell when we are scheduled to be in your general area. We will try our best to work you into our schedule; but please keep in mind that we are only in the USA for 7 months, and we may have to schedule a visit to your church during our next furlough.

Please feel free to keep up to date with our family and ministries by watching or following the following links:

    Website: http://www.shelbysinkenya.org/

    Blog page: http://shelbysinkenya.org/WordPress/

    Youtube page: http://www.youtube.com/TheShelbysinKenya

    Twitter: http://twitter.com/Shelbysinkenya

    Facebook: Tonya Kay Shelby

Thank you for your prayers for our family and ministries,

Luke & 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

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