July Update

Dear praying friends, 

We greet you all in our precious Savior's name. This summer (dry season for us) has been very busy and it does not look like things will slow down any time soon. 

Encouraging the Saints

We have had a lot of trips to the villages to visit, encourage, teach and attend conferences. We also have been trying to get the young people excited about attending a big youth conference planned for the beginning of September. On Thursday (July 20) Luke will drive south about 14 hours with a team of 10 men to have an evangelistic conference that will include door to door evangelism, open air choirs and preaching and evangelistic films in the evening. They will take 2 cars and will return on Monday (July 24). Please pray for safety and for fruit that remains from all the seminars and conferences that took place this summer.

Disciples of Jesus School and Graduation

Unfortunately, at the end of April we had to close the discipleship program due to a lack of students. Although we started the year with 5 students, 2 of those were continuing from last year, and 2 more dropped out. So, when the 2 from last year finished up their remaining classes we were left with 1 student. We decided to close and reopen in January 2024. We notified all the elders in the assemblies in hopes that they will encourage the saints to prepare for next year. We recently had a small graduation ceremony for the 2 students that completed the course this year. Please pray for a good number of students, ones chosen and prepared by the Spirit, to attend next year.

The New Discipleship Property (Bushabani)

Meanwhile the construction work has continued at the Bushabani plot on the outskirts of town where we are building a discipleship school. We have built and roofed a workshop and the office block and library, but have not plastered or finished the floors. We recently stopped the work and will continue perhaps in the fall, as the Lord provides. We are excited that a team from the US will be coming for about 3 weeks to visit the Kinlaws and also help us with some electrical work (among other things) at the new plot in September. Pray for them as they prepare for that, and pray for God’s continued provision for the construction work.

Literature

At the beginning of July we were happy to receive an order of 5 boxes of good Christian books from our brethren in the Lord at KLB Publishers. These include Bible commentaries, Bible dictionaries, revised and updated songbooks and many other good Christian books, all in Kiswahili. We will sell them at a 30% discount to the saints in the churches. Pray for a greater hunger among God’s people to know the Word. 

Family and Trip to the US

In February and in June we celebrated birthdays for 2 of our boys. Now we are happy to have Esther back from RVA (boarding school in Kenya) for summer vacation. She has been home for a week. In less than 2 weeks we begin our travels to the US. It starts with a trek across the country by bus to Dar and then we fly to the US. We will be at the CMML headquarters in NJ for about 3 weeks for a family reunion of the Mattixes (celebrating Mark & Carol’s 50th wedding anniversary) and visiting a few churches in the area. We are excited for a little break, or at least a change of routine. As soon as we get back we will travel to Kenya to drop off Esther (starting 11th grade) and Emily (starting 8th grade). Please pray for our family during these transitions; for Esther and especially Emily, as she adjusts to boarding school for the first time.

As always, we depend on your prayers and can’t tell how vital they are to the ministry here.

With Christian love,

Luke, Gina, Esther, Emily, Aaron, Michael and William