Dear Praying Friends,

Sitting down to write prayer/report letters is always a blessing for us
because it is a great chance to reflect on God’s goodness over the past
several weeks.  A challenging thought to us has been Acts 5:41.  In that
verse the apostles were rejoicing over the fact that they were able to
suffer shame for the name of Christ.  Any believer will face hardship and
we need to learn to rejoice even in the hard times because God has
allowed them to help mold us.

Deputation certainly is a great learning process to prepare us for our
life's work.  Every month we are able to meet and talk to dozens of other
believers.  We are grateful for the many who have taken the time to talk
with us and share things that God has taught them.  It greatly helps to
develop us for our ministry.  Over the past several weeks we have had
several people share with us things we consider vital to our ministry.
We greatly appreciate the friendships we have been able to make and the
lessons we have learned while on deputation.

God has been good to us in regards to our support.  We know that if God
wants us in Kenya He WILL make it possible for us to get there.  Since
our last letter God has increased our support level by 14%, which brings
us up to 85% of our needed support!!  Thank you for praying with us about
that matter.  Please continue to pray that in God’s timing the rest of
our support will come in.

In our last letter we asked people to pray for our home church’s
registration in Kenya to go through.  We praise the Lord that the bulk of
that process has gone through and is completed.  There are just a few
minor aspects of that registration which still need to be completed, so
your prayers in regards to that matter would be greatly appreciated.  The
Lord has worked out a number of the details for our move to Kenya.  He
has allowed us to line up the use of a car, refrigerator, stove, and
washing machine.  Each of these items are already in Kenya waiting for
our arrival.  It truly is exciting to see how God works out all the
details.

We realize that our ministry is made possible by all of you who have
hosted us, scheduled us for a meeting, prayed for us, and financially
supported us.  We trust the Lord will richly bless you for your
willingness to be used by Him.

Your servants to Kenya,
Michael, Tina, & Ashlyn Rains.