January ­ February 2001

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