Dear Friends in Christ,

Greetings to you all in this new year.  By the time you receive this letter
we will have been in Kenya for one whole year.  It has flown by.  We thank
you for your faithful support, prayers, and encouraging letters or cards.
The Lord has been so faithful to us (He always is) as we have served Him
here in Kenya. We are expecting Tina to give birth to our second child any
day now and are looking forward to the addition to our family. God has given
her a good and healthy pregnancy. We are planning to have the baby delivered
in Nairobi, Kenya (about 40 minutes from our home).

The Lord allowed the Jumapili Baptist Church to purchase a plot of land
right next to our existing plot. Now the church has a plot of land 100 feet
by 100 feet. This should give the church enough room for many years. Since
we have gotten that new plot, we have built a place for baptizing people
just next to the church building. On January 28, 2001, we are planning the
official beginning of the Jumapili Baptist Church by having a baptism and
chartering service. There have been several people who have made the
decision to be baptized and join the church. We would certainly appreciate
your prayers for our church that it might be founded in the right direction
and continue that way until the Lord returns.

Each Saturday throughout this last December we held a Bible institute at
Jumapili Baptist Church with two one hour courses being taught. Our
co-worker, Rick Simonsen, taught on Bible Manners and Customs, and Michael
taught a course on the Biblical Basis for Baptists. Each week we saw about
11 people in attendance.

It is our desire to see more people join the faithful core of people who
come to all the services and really show an active effort to serve the Lord.
Please pray that God will change the hearts of people that they will give
their whole life to serve Christ. Pray for our family and the Simonsens that
God will continue to change us that we might better lead these people on to
higher ground. We know that all our efforts will be basically fruitless
without the power of God's Spirit through prayer and submission to Him.

We would appreciate prayer for spiritual growth for several young believers:
Cicilia Njoki, Peter and Miriam Ndegwa, Lucas Ongeti, Benard Maina, Pius
Muiruri, and Esther Wambui. Several who need salvation are James and
Bibbian, Peter Kinyuwa, and James Kiarie.

A friend of ours has graciously taken his time and resources to develop a
Website for our family and ministry. If you have access to the Internet and
are interested in visiting our site, we welcome you. Our Website address is
listed below. There are several pictures of our work at Jumapili Baptist
Church.

Sincerely,
Michael, Tina, and Ashlyn Rains.

P.O. Box 38 / Thika, Kenya / Ph. # 011-254-151-21047
E-mail:  mrains@mail.baptistworldmission.org
Internet:  www.cometocalvary.org/michaelrains