July 2001

Dear Friends in Christ,

Throughout the time of Taylor's birth and Tina's recent birthday, many of you sent cards of encouragement, and we would like to thank each of you for your time and thoughtfulness. Many have also written to us via e-mail mentioning the fact that you are praying for us. We believe that those prayers are a big help.

Each Saturday in the month of April we had Bible institute classes for our church people. One class covered the Baptist Distinctives and the other was about Bible manners and customs. There were around nine who came out each week. It is our desire to help the people of Jumapili Baptist Church become grounded in the teaching of the Bible. We will be planning for the next session of these classes in the month of August.

Definitely one of the big challenges for us in Kenya is learning Swahili. Tina and I have been in Swahili class three times a week since arriving in Kenya a year and a half ago. Since our last letter Tina has begun giving her children's Sunday school lesson in Swahili, and Michael has begun preaching in Swahili. It still seems like we are FAR from fluent, but at least we are gaining some hope of actually communicating with people in Swahili. Those of you who are pastors, imagine trying to lead people with whom you can t even really carry on a conversation!! It can be quite frustrating knowing that you are here to help people live for Christ and yet you can't even really communicate with them on how to do it nor can you really understand their questions. It makes us realize that the fact that Jumapili Baptist Church is in existence is truly a work of God answering your prayers. KEEP PRAYING; WE NEED IT!!

We thought you all might find this paragraph thought provoking, because most Americans don't really know how BLESSED they are (I'm still not sure our family really knows yet either). How many of you who are employed can remember a time when your paycheck was a week late or even a day late? If your workplace did happen to be a week late in giving out paychecks, what do you think the general reaction would be among the employees? Well, for many of the people who regularly
attend Jumapili Baptist Church, they would be so grateful if their salary were only a month late. Why? Because many of them are past a year or approaching a year without being paid, and there is no hope in sight. Maybe you are wondering what they would be getting if they were to get their salary- around one and a half dollars a day!!! In our personal opinion we have found that the overall cost of living here in Kenya is about the same as it is in the U.S., if not a little higher. If you were making a dollar and a half a day, just imagine if you hadn't been paid in a year!! We know the people of Jumapili Baptist Church would appreciate your prayers regarding this.

By the way, the above paragraph is not at all intended to be a plea for money to distribute to our church people. In an extremely poor country like Kenya, if people in our community hear that there is money being distributed at our church, our church would probably grow to a thousand or more in one week. But it would obviously be the wrong kind of growth.

We trust this first half of the year has been a good one for you. May we all continue to faithfully serve the Lord wherever we are in the second half of this year.

Sincerely,
The Michael Rains family in Kenya.

P.O. Box 38
Thika, Kenya