|
Temple and Beth Knowles
Missionaries with The Master's Mission
since 1989
May 2008
Greetings to you all. We pray you are all enjoying
your Spring after a long, snowy winter. The rains arrived here in Kenya
while we were at the Women's Conference in Laisamis, bringing with them
cooler temperatures and relief from the high humidity in the air. We were
a bit concerned about our return trip to Ngurunit as there are several mud
holes to get through between Laisamis and home. Our friends, Grant and
Loki left the conference a day early hoping to be home for Sunday services.
They called Temple a couple hours later asking if he could come pull them
out of the mud. After being rescued, Grant and Loki decided to stay the
night and return with us the next afternoon. I was furtively praying that
we would not have troubles the next day as we were carrying 50 women and
several children. The mental image of all of us stuck in the mud was a bit
overwhelming. We thank the Lord that the trip went well, and we all arrived
home safely in good time.
Despite the anxiety over road conditions, the
conference was a tremendous blessing. Over 80 women attended, many of them
nonbelievers. As we studied the book of Ruth, several Samburu and Rendille
traditions were examined in light of God's word. The biggest issue was that
of widowhood. In the Samburu and Rendille culture widows are not allowed to
remarry. The reason behind this has to do with the inheritance of the late
husband. This inheritance must remain in the family, with the heir of the
deceased. If the wife remarries, she would belong to a different family as
would the children from the first marriage. We were able to discuss the
fact that as believers our inheritance is in heaven, not here on earth. Our
possessions here on this earth are a blessing from the Lord to be used for
His glory. God's plan and protection for a young widow was plainly shared,
showing the widow's freedom to remarry. Many of the widows present were all
for remarrying as they, like Ruth, were looking for someone to pro I know
you all are waiting with baited breath to hear about Sweet and her calf. ;
) On April 15th Sweet delivered a bull calf whom we have affectionately
named Uncle Sam (Sam for short). We are receiving our return in the
neighborhood of a gallon and a half of milk every day. This helps with our
grocery bill immensely as milk is now $5.80 a gallon in the stores. We are
also able to make our own butter saving us a whopping $5.70 a pound.
Needless to say, prior to Sweet calving, we weren't eating a lot of butter.
Mallory has taken over the care and upkeep of Sam. She bottle feeds him
three times a day and exercises him in the afternoon. She runs in the front
yard and he follows after her. I must say he is down right spoiled, at
least he sleeps through the night.
The weekly Bible studies have been going well. Many
of the local villagers have been attending to hear Lekuraki speak. He has
been sharing from Matthew and John, teaching about Christ and His deity.
Two women who have been faithfully attending are Shushaa and her mother. I
first met Shushaa last month when she prematurely delivered a little boy.
She had been getting water, when she slipped and fell bringing on her labor
pains. Her mother came to us asking for our help. We did all we could to
help out that evening. As it was already dark, we had to wait until morning
to call in a plane. That night, one of our church ladies, Mama Lemesiti,
stayed with Shushaa to help her out. I believe I shared about Mama Lemesiti
in one of my letters. She continues to love the Lord, love hearing His
word, and love sharing about the Lord with her neighbors. The baby survived
the night and we called a plane to come and take him to the hospital at
Gatab. The baby survived only two hours after reaching the hospital.
Temple continues to preach through Matthew. The
Word has been such a blessing to me as we've studied the beatitudes.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall
be satisfied was especially convicting to me. How many times had I chosen
not to do the right thing? Too many to count. It should always be our
desire to do the right thing as if our life depended on it. We brought this
truth down to a very practical level for the children. The children like to
take what I call short cuts. This means they do their work haphazardly,
not completely and definitely not the way Dad or I like to have it done. In
the end they end up doing twice the amount of work because they have to redo
what they have done. Of course, being the mother, I have to tell them, that
if they had done it right in the first place. The Lord says that it is
blessed and satisfying to hunger and thirst for righteousness.
Upcoming May events:
Work continues on Lekuraki's house
Weekly Bible studies continue
Trevor arrives on the 23rd
Annual Master's Mission conference, May 24-29 The
Richardson family leave for furlough on May 31
Thank you all so much for your faithful prayers and
encouraging emails. Words cannot express to you our gratefulness for your
thoughts and prayers for the Lord's work here. May you be blessed for your
faithfulness to Him. Love,
Beth
February 2008
Greetings to you all.
Summer has arrived, our thermometer is registering 102, and we are dreaming
of all of you who are still snow bound in the grip of winter. Want to trade
places? Temple has sighed more than once as he hears reports of yet another
snow storm dropping 13 inches of snow in Maine. He keeps saying we chose
the wrong year to go on furlough. I say God's timing is perfect! Never the
less, a trompse through the woods in snow shoes would feel quite refreshing
right about now.
We would like to thank
all of you for your prayers concerning Temple's recent leg infection. Last
week he went by four-wheeler to see the doctor again, who has returned to
his home in the North. Doctor Focking took some x-rays, saw something on
the bone, but was unsure whether it was a sign of infection in the bone. He
told Temple to continue with the medicine until he completed a full three
week course then return for more x-rays so the doctor can make a
comparison. Temple will probably go back to see Doctor Focking the end of
next week. We would appreciate your continued prayers.
The big, exciting news
of this month is the birth of Brian Sebastian. He is the son of our church
intern and his wife, Martin and Nalapan. Brian is their first child and
everyone in the church has been waiting for his arrival. Nalapan called me
to her house when she was in labor and I was blessed to be present when
Brian was born. What a miracle of God's goodness. Both mother and son (and
dad) are doing well. Pray for them as they bring up Brian in the discipline
and instruction of the Lord.
We are thankful that
things seem to have settled down in Nairobi and the outlying villages.
Temple and I were able to make a supply run to Meru the end of January. We
bought groceries and building supplies for Lekuraki's house. One of the
local transporters brought fuel for us so we are once more well supplied.
We thank the Lord for His faithfulness in supplying our needs and keeping us
safe through the difficult election period.
On our way home from
Meru we met up with a road survey crew. To our joy and delight they told us
that they are preparing the road for tarmac and they hope to complete the
whole project in a couple years. First they will grade the road, then begin
at either end with two crews and work towards the middle. Just having the
road graded will cut two hours off our traveling time. That means that we
could make it to Meru in only five hours! Imagine that! Only 5 hours away
from the grocery store.
Lesantan is doing well
at Terrim School of the Bible. He visited us recently with Grant Swanepoel
and shared that he had gotten a 100% on his first test. We were thrilled to
hear of his success. Grant and his wife Loki have taken Lesantan into their
home and they are loving him as we do. Please pray for Lesantan's mother.
She does not know the Lord. As with all of us with unsaved family members,
Lesantan is quite concerned and desires for her and his brother to know the
saving grace of our Lord Jesus. Lesantan has asked us to make it a special
point to visit Mama Lesantan regularly and to share with her from the word
now that he is not at home.
Temple continues to
preach through the book of Matthew on Sundays. He is now teaching on the
beatitudes. The women are studying the evidences of true faith in their
weekly meetings. The men are reading in the gospel of John during their
midweek fellowship.
Upcoming Events:
X February
26-29: bi-annual DCC (District Church Council) meeting in Kalacha
X March 17-21:
annual Shepherd's Conference in Ngurunit
Thank you so much for
your prayers, support and encouraging emails. We love hearing from you and
hearing news from home. Love, Beth
January 2008
Greetings to you all.
We want to thank you
for your concern, prayers and emails during the past month. As I'm sure
many of you realize things here have been in disarray since the December
27th elections; with looting, demonstrations and in some places needless
violence which has unfortunately taken the lives of some Kenyans. Please
continue to pray for the country that the current uncertainty would settle
down and for life to return to normal. Fortunately for us and others living
out in the bushes the political upheaval has been virtually unnoticed. Our
biggest struggle was the dwindling food supply in the village. The roads
between Nairobi and the north were closed so transporters were not able to
bring up food or fuel. Not knowing when the roads would be open for
transporters, I had to get creative with our remaining food supply to make
sure it would last as long as possible and still fill the tummies of the 12
people (the seven of us and the five school boys home for break) I was
feeding. This week, one of the traders w I apologize to you all for not
getting an update out in December. We were experiencing technical
difficulties with our email. I do want to hit a few highlights of December,
though.
VBS: over 100 children
attended, great turn out of helpers from the church body Youth camp in Korr:
230 students attended the week long camp, studying II Timothy.
Christmas Day church
service: The church was packed, the youth performed the story of Christ's
birth according to Luke 2, Temple shared from the Word.
Women's Christmas
party: great turn out of ladies from the community to enjoy games, singing,
cake, chai and a devotional from the Word.
Construction on
Lekuraki's house resumed after a couple set backs. The order of steel rebar
for reinforcing the cement floor was, as we say, taka (direct translation-
trash). When the guys started bending the steel it would snap. They tried
bending several pieces with the same result. The order was sent back to
Nairobi and another load brought up arriving prior to the roads being
closed. We poured the floor last week. The pour ended up being a family
affair, Morgan drove the tractor between the mixer and the pour. Temple and
a portion of the boy crew shoveled in the cement, ran the vibrator and
screed, and finished with the steel. Mallory helped the remaining boy crew
with mixing the cement. I was the go fer and edger and Maddie babysat
Monika's youngest so Monika could cook. Bless her heart, she made lunch for
all of us, beans and rice. Delicious!
Lesantan, one of our
boys, began Bible School yesterday. Temple took him to Korr (village 60
miles away) on Monday to begin classes on Tuesday. When they arrived, they
found out that Lesantan was the only student remaining who had NOT for one
reason or another backed out from the program. The main teacher, Grant
Swanepoel, the elders of the church at Korr, along with Temple sat down
together to discuss their options. They decided to continue on schedule
with Lesantan as the only student. What a tremendous opportunity for
Lesantan as he will enjoy exclusive attention throughout the upcoming
year. Please pray for him as well as Grant, Temple and other participants
of the school. A Bible school in the North has been a long time dream for
many of us here in the North, pray that it would be used for God's glory.
News on the family
front:
Tim has resurrected
the old dispensary ambulance and has been giving driving lessons to the
school boys and anyone else brave enough to sit under his tutelage. Morgan
celebrated her 17th birthday on January 13th. Mallory is now the proud
caretaker of a cow, 3 chickens, 3 chicks, a hen sitting on eight eggs, a dog
and a cat. We are living on a virtual farm. Madalyn is becoming more and
more fluent in Swahili. It is quite comical listening to her chatter away
with her friend, Sara. The conversations are a mixture of Swahili, Samburu
and English. Tate has been called several times to go and help the
Richardson boys plaster the walls in their new house. I'm not sure if he is
really a fundi (expert) at plastering or just the comic relief.
Thank you all so much
for your prayers, emails, and support. Your sharing in these ways has been
a tremendous encouragement and blessing to us. Love, Beth for the
tribe
September 2007
Greetings once again.
September was a whirlwind of activity. As I mentioned in August's letter,
Tyler came for a visit along with Hannah and Adam Field. Temple grew up
with Keith Field, Hannah and Adam's dad and we have watched Hannah and Adam
grow up to be godly teenagers. It was such a pleasure to have them here
visiting and helping us with the work. We enjoyed their adventurous
spirits, ready and willing to do anything. We hated to see all three of
them go, but we pray that their experiences here will help them better serve
our Lord at their homes.
I wrote a detailed
report of their time here in our last prayer letter so I won't reiterate
what has already been written but I do want to tell you the rest of the
story.
We left Ngurunit on
Friday, September 14 to take the kids back to the airport for their flight
home. We left very early Friday (2:00 a.m.) hoping to make it into town
before the bank closed so we could have some money for the weekend. We did
not arrive in time but we were sure we had enough money to buy the few
souvenirs we wanted to send home with Tyler, Hannah and Adam. Saturday
morning we went to the market where the Maasai had all of their handcraft
items displayed. I picked out some things and Temple bartered for the best
price. He has it down to an art and usually has all of the vendors smiling
by the time he is finished. By this time it was 3:30 and we were all
starved.
We stopped at a new
chicken place we wanted to try out and made our order of chicken and chips.
While we were eating, my purse was very expertly stolen, not one of us saw
it taken. There was a fair amount of money in it but we were mostly
concerned about Temple's gray bag which he had put in my purse. This bag
contained many of our important documents, Temple's passport, Kenyan and
American driver's license, ID card, checkbooks, Visa cards and debit cards
along with my Kenyan driver's license and ID card. Things that would cost a
small fortune and no little amount of time and effort to replace. We
reported the cards stolen so the companies would stop payment right away.
With heavy hearts we returned to the base. We prayed that the Lord would
somehow recover those items, but we were not very hopeful.
Monday morning we
dropped the kids at the airport and then went to the bank trying to figure
out how we were going to get the money we needed to buy supplies without a
checkbook. The Lord was good and graciously supplied through the AIM
banking service who allowed us to take some money on credit until we could
get them a check from the check book back in Ngurunit.
We were starting our
shopping when Temple received a phone call from a post office down town.
They had something of his and wanted him to come pick it up. Low and
behold, it was the gray bag. Everything was in it except the Visa card and
the debit cards. We are so thankful to the Lord for His goodness , in the
midst of our doubting, for returning these items to us.
We have a favorite
verse we have quoted untold times over our years in mission work.
Heb 10:34 For you
showed sympathy to the prisoners, and accepted joyfully the seizure of your
property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and an
abiding one.
Whatever is seizing
your property, whether termites eating your operating manuals, or thieves
stealing your purse, it is important to remember to be joyful knowing we
have a better possession. Matt 6:20-22
"But lay up for
yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and
where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there
will your heart be also.
Thank you
so much for your prayers and support. Thank you for your concerns about our
welfare and our goods. We are so grateful that you are with us!
Love, Beth for the tribe
July 2007
Greetings to you all
from Kenya. I wanted to write an update to let you know all that has
been happening since arriving in the country in May. I'm a bit late in
getting this out and I apologize. Once I get myself organized, my plan is
to send out an update each month.
We arrived safely in
the country on the 23rd of May. Our first three weeks in the country were
spent buying supplies and updating paper work. Temple made a quick trip up
to Ngurunit to check on things and to make an assessment of what we might
need to replace, i.e. leaky faucets, broken toilet flushers, etc. He also
brought back our fuel drums and gas bombs to refill.
The 9th of June, we
traveled down to Mombasa for our annual TMM mission conference. We had a
wonderfully refreshing time enjoying the sun, enjoying our families and
enjoying fellowship with the other missionaries. The highlight of the week
was the wedding of one of our missionary kids, Paul Teasdale. He married
Callie Morrison, a dear, sweet girl, whom he met at the mission in
Robbinsville, NC.
The following week we
packed the truck and headed home to Ngurunit. The trip went well, with no
problems. We convoyed together with four other missionary families. We saw
more animals than we had ever seen before in one trip: giraffe, elephant,
zebra, buffalo, taupe, gerrynook, baboon, to name a few. It rained a bit
making some of the low lying areas very interesting to drive through.
It was wonderful to
arrive home and see all of our friends again. In between unpacking trunks,
I visited several manyattas (homes) of the ladies from church. Many came to
the house to bring their greetings. We had a great time drinking chai and
catching up on all of the news. We have settled into a schedule once
again of doing school in the morning, eating lunch and accomplishing various
and a sundry tasks in the afternoon.
Temple and the boys
have been busy building, making compost for our garden, and fixing power
tools that had some water damage while in storage. The termites found their
way into our storage container and ate his service manuals as well as
several of his filters for the vehicles. The fuel filter boxes were eaten
away but thankfully the fuel filters were left unharmed. It is truly amazing
the damage those little critters can create.
The girls and I have
been busy putting away things from our storage trunks, washing clothes,
cooking food, teaching the children, visiting friends, and teaching the
ladies how to play volleyball. Our church is having a volleyball tournament
next week and the men, the women, and the youth are all to have a team ready
to play. This is easier said than done. Many of the women have never even
held a ball in their hands let alone try to hit it over a net. It is all
quite comical and we spend the majority of our practice time laughing. We
will let you know who wins.
There are several new
ladies coming to our weekly women's Bible study. The majority of them have
never been to school. They have expressed an interest in learning how to
read so this week I will be starting up a literacy class.
We will meet twice a
week for an hour. In past classes, the lessons usually end up being more
than just learning how to read. Many of the ladies do not know Swahili, so
a bit of Swahili vocabulary and grammar is thrown in, as well as a Bible
lesson. Please pray for them that they will learn quickly and stay
consistent in attending the lessons.
Last Saturday several folks from our church met together and went to one of
the local manyattas for what we call outreach. We sang some songs, Temple
gave his testimony and Lekuraki, one of the church elders, shared the Gospel
message. We saw several from the manyatta at church the next morning and
one fellow has been coming to our morning prayer and Bible reading time this
week. We are excited to see what the Lord will do in His church. Pray with
us that He would open the eyes of many to their need of salvation. Pray
that we would remain faithful stewards of His word, sharing it with all we
meet. Love, Beth
March 1, 2006
Greetings once again from the land of HEAT! We are right in the midst of
our summer and I often find myself wilting mid-day like the Swiss chard and
lettuce growing in my garden. I am really looking forward to a Maine summer.
For those of you who do not live Down East, summer in Maine is two weeks in
August, the rest of the time is spring and fall, just perfect after days of
100 + degrees. As you can see furlough is on our minds and we are
anticipating the opportunities we will have to see many of you while we are
home.
We have worked out a rather sketchy itinerary which will become more
concrete when we hit the shores of America. We are booked to fly out of
Nairobi on the 17th of May and arrive in Boston on the 17th of May. (No,
that is not a typo) We will be flying with the sun. We plan to spend the
first two months with our church in Maine and working on the cabin making it
more accommodating for the coming year. August will be spent at the Mission
in Robbinsville, NC. We will return to Maine for the fall, and then head out
to the Midwest for January and February, visiting churches in Ohio and
Illinois. We'd love to see you and as we travel about, certainly, we can try
to work something out. If you have any questions or suggestions by all means
let us know via email at: knowlestribe@uuplus.com <mailto:knowlestribe@uuplus.com>.
We haven't a phone number yet but we're working on it.
Now, back to the here and now. This month we did some traveling to visit
other mission stations. We drove to Mt Kulal home to the Gatab station after
church on Sunday the 5th. Leaving the truck with the Woodworth's we started
hiking down the mountain to Loiyengalani, 23 miles away. We enjoyed a
beautiful sunset over Lake Turkana as we headed west. The moon was bright so
we kept hiking during the night while it was cool. As 10:00 pm rolled around
and seemingly the only flat place with no rocks I declared the stop a good
place to camp. Up before the sun, we continued on down the mountain and
across the plains. The mountain at one time was an active volcano; now I'm
certainly no geologist but this is what I think, this volcano must have
spewed out hunks of bowling ball size lava for the whole area is just
covered with round, black pumice rock. I've never seen anything like it! We
arrived at a road where Luke Hinds and Warner Richardson picked up the
little girls and I and took us on to Loiy with four-w
Our main purpose in going to Loiy was to attend a medical seminar. A
husband/wife medical team came from the States to teach us. They both are
extremely accomplished in their own fields and yet just regular people who
did an extraordinary job. We learned how to assess a patient when found in
trauma. We had good practice suturing tire inner tubes (no blood, or pain).
We got into some very practical information regarding life and death. It's
honestly difficult to explain how valuable the whole time was, suffice it to
say it was excellent.
Additionally while there Temple and the boys helped Tim Hinds with some
cement work. Tim has the opportunity to assist with the construction of a
government laboratory there is Loiy which will prove to be a tremendous
blessing in the future.
Following this Temple and Morgan made a trip down to Nairobi to buy food
and fuel, and to haul building supplies for the Loiyengalani mission
station. Morgan did all the shopping for our last two months here. She
bought vegetables and blanched them for the freezer, froze strawberries and
bananas did all the cooking and laundry for her dad, what a girl!!
They returned home on Thursday. The boys went out to meet them at our
junction where they off loaded our perishables into the Chevy. Temple then
brought the Chevy home and the boys continued on with the lorry to
Loiyengalani to deliver the building supplies. Unfortunately they had some
tire troubles and ended up spending the night on the road. They were an hour
away from Loiy. Tyler hitched a ride into Loiy with a vehicle which happened
by and alerted the other missionaries of the trouble. They came out with
their trucks, unloaded the cement and the lorry was able to limp in. The
kids were thrilled that they had to stay an extra day to fix tires and go
fishing. They got home on Saturday afternoon.
This week is the DCC (District Church Council) meeting at a nearby
village. The other missionary men and the Woodworth family will be staying
with us. The men will go on to the meetings with their four-wheelers. Please
pray for the men as they meet. There are often many concerns and issues
which require prayer and wisdom so you can remember them as they attend
these meetings. There are many churches in our district without pastors, and
there are many villages without churches. Please pray with us that the Lord
would send workers to help in teaching the word of life in our Lord Jesus.
Thank you for your prayers and your support, your faithfulness is a
blessing and encouragement to us. Love, Beth
February 2, 2006
Greetings to you all. We pray this note finds you all doing well, growing
in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
There is a saying over here; maisha ni ngumu, meaning life is hard.
The idea behind the saying is that unusual, unforeseen and distressing
things happen in this life. Lekuraki, our neighbor and one of the elders at
church has just had a maisha ni ngumu experience. One night last week we
woke up to Jackson barking. I looked at the clock, it was 2:00 a.m. Lekuraki
had come to tell us that he had just gotten word from his brother's manyatta.
The evening before, his brother was closing the animals in the boma (pen)
when a bull lifted him with its horns and tossed him over the fence. His
brother fell in a heap, unconscious. One of Lekuraki's nephews left right
away to bring word to Lekuraki, arriving at 2:00. Lekuraki and Temple
decided that one of the boys would take Lekuraki along with the nurse first
thing in the morning to see how his brother was.
When they arrived, they found him lying in the hut. He could not feel his
legs or his arms. He must have broken his back. There was the possibility of
internal bleeding as well. Nothing could be done. Lekuraki returned home and
he and Temple went back to his brother's in the afternoon. His brother had
died a little before their arrival. They buried him and then came back home.
Lekuraki shared with us that his brother had come for a visit a few days
before this tragic accident. He had come to take a group of goats back to
his manyatta. Lekuraki walked with him, helping herd the goats through town
and then told his brother goodbye. Shaking his head, Lekuraki told us, I
didn't know it would be for eternity. His brother was not a believer but
was aware of the truth for Lekuraki had shared with him many times the
message of Christ.
X Pray for Lekuraki's brother's family as they are facing this death.
X Pray for Lekuraki as he comforts them and shares about Christ's gift of
eternal life.
X Pray that the Lord would use this tragedy to enlighten others that life
is but a breath and therefore prudent to deal with eternal issues now.
Maisha ni ngumu lakini Mungu ni mwamanifu. Life is hard but God is
faithful.
We want to thank you for your many prayers, your gifts to keep the work
going, your encouraging correspondence, and your faithfulness to our Lord.
We could not be here if it were not for your continued support through all
these aspects of the ministry. You are our partners and we are grateful for
your part.
Please continue to pray for the elders of the church, Marko Lekuraki,
Daniel Seyere, Paul Craig and Temple. Pray for the different ministries
within the church, weekly church services, Sunday school men's Bible study,
women's Bible study, and youth meetings. Pray for the members of the church,
that they would grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We would appreciate prayers for our family as we prepare to return to the
States for a year's furlough beginning in May. Please continue to pray that
the Lord would provide the needed funds for our airplane tickets and
transportation needs once we return to the States.
We praise the Lord for the various opportunities He grants us to involve
ourselves in the affairs of others outside the church. One such avenue is
community water development. Temple has been meeting with the local water
committee for some time, in truth ever since we've been here. Many members
are now involving themselves recognizing the importance of making personal
investment to insure future water availability. The committee is currently
formulating estimates and proposals which may gain attention by various
assistance agencies (i.e. USAid etc) to purchase pipes and assorted
materials to revitalize the current system.
It has been a long road but now after the investment of lots of shovel
work and consistent counsel encouraging our neighbors regarding water
concerns it seems bona fide advances are being made. Pray for eventual water
success and for Temple as he continues to interact with the local guys and
various government and Non Government Official (NGO) agencies.
Thank you again for all you do. We are grateful.
Love, Beth
January 1, 2006
Faithful is He who calls you, I Thessalonians 5:24a
What an encouraging promise this is to those who know and love the Lord.
He is faithful, never changing, always desiring the best for us. He knows us
and He knows how to grow us through the circumstances He orchestrates in
our lives. Knowing He is faithful enables us to rest in His sovereignty and
accept whatever He brings into our lives. Relying on His faithfulness has
been a recurrent lesson over the past year. We have seen His faithfulness to
us in so many ways throughout this year we would like to share some of them
with you.
We thank the Lord for the health and strength He has given us. The year
has been abundantly full with many activities from building an irrigation
tank to climbing mountains with the Warriors outreach group. Weekly
outreach meetings at different manyattas in the community, literacy classes,
home school schedule, daily household chores, weekly church meetings with
the men, women and youth, Christian Religious Education classes at the
primary school, trips to Nairobi for supplies, trips to other mission
stations helping with cement and roof work, serving cups of chai, fixing the
Marsabit District's road work equipment ie dump truck and road grader,
digging out of a mud hole, teaching Sunday school, preaching at Laisamis,
leading church services, one on one counseling sessions, watering the
garden, milking the cow, encouraging and discipling a new believer, fixing
the town well, cutting down trees, and just living there are a few of the
activities that have filled our life this past year. God has been faith
As we begin a new year we look forward to the many new experiences our
Lord has in store for us. We certainly appreciate your prayers on our
behalf. Some things that you can keep in mind as you pray for us:
Church considerations:
X Continued growth for believers here at Ngurunit; the leaders Daniel,
Lekuraki, Paul, Temple; Sunday school teachers, Julia, Naitalakwan, Lucy,
Mama Zawadi, Monica, Beth; Youth leaders, Macheti, Martin, Andrew, Abednego,
Unice, Philip, Trevor, Tyler; the remaining believers of our fellowship.
X Salvation of interested but yet unbelieving friends Kinani, and Nkanisa
as well as many Warrior members.
Personal considerations:
X As you all know we are planning to return to the States in May for a
year's furlough. There are two financial concerns we have namely plane
tickets (8,000) and funds for a van (6,000).
X Safety as we travel about in the coming months.
X Trevor and Tyler will be finishing their last year of high school and
therefore be considering universities and colleges for further education.
We would like to thank all of you for your faithful prayers and your
sensitivity to our needs. Ultimately of course we praise our heavenly Father
who so abundantly supplies beyond what we could possibly expect. It's all
very exciting!
Love,
Beth for the tribe
December 2005
Greetings to you all. We pray you had a blessed Christmas this year
celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. December is
usually the busiest month of the year around here and this year was no
exception. We plan a lot for the month because it is the longest school
break and busy youth are happy youth.
The first week of the month was Vacation Bible School. Our theme for the
week was Habari Njema which means Good News. The Bible lessons centered on
the gospel of salvation in Christ. Each day a new color was introduced
representing five truths about salvation. Monday was black for the darkness
of sin, Tuesday, red for Christ's shed blood, Wednesday was white for being
washed white as snow through Christ's forgiveness, Thursday was green for
growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord, and Friday was gold
reminding us of God's promise of eternal life in heaven. Over 100 children
attended enjoying Bible Stories, memorizing Bible verses, playing games,
making crafts, and eating cookies. The biggest blessing of the week was the
turn out of helpers from the church. Several mamas and young men came each
day to help with the various activities. We pray the seed of God's Word will
take root and grow in these young one's hearts.
The second week of December we filled kabisa (completely) with school
knowing it would be the only week of the month we could dedicate to school.
Trevor spent every spare moment studying for a sermon he was to preach for
Youth Sunday. He and Tyler have been taking a hermeneutics class taught by
Paul Craig. Part of their final was to prepare and preach a sermon. Trevor
preached from Ephesians 4:4-7. Tyler preached one evening during the youth
camp. More on that later.
Drama practice for the Christmas play occupied the third week of the
month. This year the youth performed three short plays depicting three of
the miracles of Jesus. The first was the turning of water to wine at the
wedding in Cana. The second was the raising of Lazarus from the dead and the
third was the healing of the paralytic. The choir sang several songs
interspersed throughout the plays, Temple narrated and Paul Craig played
background music. It was excellent, sharing a message of Christ's power,
deity and authority to forgive sins to the many who came for the Christmas
service.
This week was Youth Camp week, a day camp with seminars, games, question
and answer session, food and evening fellowships. The seminars included
topics about the Reformation, personal reformation, personal purity,
relationships, and ethics. As with all youth, relationships was a hot topic
and many questions were asked and great discussion took place. The week
ended with a camping trip to a nearby mountain, where we enjoyed a bon fire,
cooked goat stew and enjoyed a time of fellowship and singing. Saturday, a
group of 13 went hiking up the mountain, the less adventuresome returned
home to Ngurunit. It was a terrific end to a terrific camp.
Thank you all for your prayers and support. We would appreciate your
continued prayers for the work here and for our family. We are thankful to
the Lord for the strength, fortitude and health He gave us to make it
through the month.
HAPPY NEW YEAR! Love, Beth for the tribe
October 31, 2005
Habari zenu zote. (Direct translation : what is you all’s news ?) Our news
is good, let me share it with you.
The beginning of October
found us preparing for a safari to Nairobi. A lot goes into the preparation
for safari. The truck must be serviced, cleaned, fueled up, spare parts
packed and tires carefully examined to make sure there won’t be any problems
that could have been prevented. There are no service stations or NAPA
stores along the way so we need to be as prepared as possible.
The kitchen is as busy
as the workshop. Bread, cookies, popcorn, sandwiches, granola and water are
all put into the truck for snacking on during the trip. This time we
traveled down through Maralal which takes two days, so supper and breakfasts
had to be prepared as well. There are no McDonalds, unfortunately, or
grocery stores along the way.
We usually all pile in
the truck the morning of the safari, tired from all our work and happy for
the opportunity to sit for and while, and we do, sit for a while that is.
Upon arriving in Nairobi we open up our 20 x 8 foot container home and
settle in for the duration of our stay. There is a full size bunk bed in
the back. Temple and I sleep on the bottom bunk and Mallory and Maddie
sleep on the top. The rest of the children put up tents in the big
workshop. The container is complete with gas stove top, clothing shelves,
food shelves and sitting area. Home away from home.
We were only planning on
staying 10 days at the most in Nairobi, but a call came from Shayne and Tari
Russell, TMM missionaries in Sekenani in the Masai Mara. They needed some
help pouring a slab for their house and wondered if we could come and help.
So we packed up tents, cooker, gas bomb, backpacks, food and anything else
we needed for camping and went to the Mara.
Three other families
went out to help. Some of the guys started to form for the slab as soon as
we arrived. The rest of us went to set up camp. We decided to all cook and
eat together, so we set the “kitchen” up under a tarp hung between a truck
and a fence. Good thing we did cause the rains started while we were
there.
The men and boys
continued to prepare for the pour and the women and girls cooked and helped
at the work site as we were able. Friday was the big day for the pour. It
was quite a large slab and we all took bets (in a manner of speaking) at
what time the cement would be in the ground. Shayne was optimistic and said
12:30. He ended up winning. The actual pour went well. The trouble
started about 1:30 when it started to rain. The men were able to get the
cement covered with plastic before it got too wet. We were fearful that it
would ruin the slab but it turned out surprisingly well. A few of the men
were up all night finishing. Because it was so damp, it took a while for
the cement to set up. They finished with the last pass of the power trowel
around 9:00 am on Saturday, just in time to pack up and head back to
Nairobi. We were thankful for a day of rest on Sunday.
Monday was spent getting
last minute things together in town. Temple and I returned to the base to
find that the children had packed the truck and everything was in readiness
for our return trip home to Ngurunit. We got home Tuesday evening grateful
for a good trip and ready for a good nights sleep.
As I type this letter,
Temple is up in the mountains with the “Warriors”. They are trying to reach
the peak of yet another mountain behind our house. They will be camping out
tonight and returning tomorrow morning.
November 11 & 12, the
church ladies will be hosting a women’s seminar for the women in the
community. We will be studying the book of Ruth. The ladies are very
excited about this opportunity to share with their unsaved friends and
relatives. Chai and lunch will be served both days, singing and a drama
about the book of Ruth will be performed. Please pray that many ladies will
come and hear the word of God. Pray for the church women as well that they
will desire to be like Ruth.
We are planning to
return to the States in May for our furlough. This is a year earlier than
planned, but because of station coverage and school logistics it seems the
best time for us to return. Please pray with us for the purchase of
airplane tickets, and the many activities yet to do here before departure.
We look forward to seeing many of you face to face once again.
Thanks so much for all
of your prayers, emails and support given to continue the work here.
For His glory,
Beth
Greetings to you all. We pray this note
finds you doing well. We are great.
September highlights include the beginning
of the school year, a trip to Gatab and Loiyengalani, and the DCC (District
Church Council) meeting.
The school year started in earnest for us on
September 5th. Trevor and Tyler are working on their Junior year and Morgan
has started 9th grade. The rest fall between 7th grade and first. Maddie
started first grade and continues to humor us with her stories during
reading class. I find myself once again trying to convince the boys that,
yes, it is important to know the difference between subordinating,
correlative and coordinating conjunctions. But is it? We continue to plug
away to be prepared for the SAT test.
Temple, Tate, Maddie and I made a trip to
Loiyengalani and then went on to Gatab. Our friend, Tim Hinds needed some
help putting up trusses on a secondary school that is being built there. He
felt the need for another experienced builder in the project as Loiy can
have gusts of wind up to 30 knots. (I don't know what that translates to in
MPH.) When you are climbing around on the ring beam 12 feet off the ground
carrying a truss with that kind of wind, its good to be familiar with the
procedure. As it turned out, they had a beautiful, windless day and finished
setting and welding the trusses in place before lunch. We are thankful to
the Lord for their safety.
We then headed up to Gatab to help out
another fellow missionary. Jon Woodworth was in the midst of a huge cement
pour and asked for help. Tim H., his boys and another missionary, Tom
Richardson and his boys, came as well. The men were busy forming, tying
steel, hauling water and cement bags to prepare for three days of pouring.
They were very grateful to have the use of a power trowel to make finishing
easy.
I, in the meantime, was busy taking care of
Jon's household. His wife, Becky, had been struggling with sickness for
quite some time so she went to Nairobi to have some testing done. I helped
take care of their four children, ages 10 to 2. I quickly remembered what it
was like having a 2 year old. When they are quiet you better go find out
what they are doing. David had painted his face, hands and arms with blue
toothpaste. I was grateful it washed off easily. I had a fun time with them
all, they are delightful children. By the way, Becky found out her trouble
and is doing much better. Thank the Lord.
After the pour was finished, Temple and Tim
Hinds took a survey trip to a place called Lemorset. It is a few ridges over
from Gatab. It took them a day to find the place as there are many paths and
ravines. They explored many of them before finding the right one. They said
they saw lots of people and animals and water. It may be a place worth
considering for a mission station.
We were home a week before Temple had to
leave again for the DCC meeting in a village called Karungu. He and Paul
rode there on four-wheelers and met with the other elders and missionaries
of the district. The report we got back, was that they had the best food
they have ever eaten at a DCC. You must understand that the men usually eat
beans, ugali (corn meal mush), goat stew and more beans. The folks at
Karungu found a cook who had been trained in a cooking school in Nairobi and
he knew how to cook everything just right.
The meeting went well. There were no major
issues. The men had a great time of fellowship and returned home early,
which, of course, makes us wives happy.
Thank you for your prayers, they keep us
going.
Love, Beth for the tribe
|
Temple and Beth
Knowles: Unusual Challenges, Unusual Obedience in Ngurinit, Kenya
(Spring 2003)